What safety means to me is the discipline framed in the prevention of occupational risks whose objective is the application of measures and the development of the necessary activities for the prevention of risks derived from work hazards. Safety to me means the ability to live my life without fear of harm. It means having peace of mind knowing that I am protected from danger. I believe that everyone deserves to feel safe and that we all have a role to play in creating a safer world for ourselves and for others.
The company must maintain certain rules and have optimal conditions so that employees can carry out their work activity in the best possible way and with the greatest safety.
How important is job safety? According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay are the Latin American countries with the most nonfatal occupational injuries per 100,000 workers. These alarming data prove the need to promote a culture of occupational health and safety in companies of any segment. For the scenario to change, it is necessary to implement good practices, aimed at the protection and health of workers.
Occupational safety is an area that analyzes a set of actions to understand the risk factors and causes of accidents during the worker’s exercise. It is also responsible for defining prevention measures in the work environment through norms and rules. The ILO defines job safety as: “Occupational accidents have a significant human, social and economic cost, which we must try to eliminate, guaranteeing that all workplaces are safe.”
Occupational safety serves to promote health and safety conditions at work. Likewise, both employees and companies are benefited, since the risk of accidents is reduced. Getting the employees of an organization to have the best occupational safety conditions is the responsibility of the employer, who can directly assume this mission by entrusting this task to people from his company or by hiring a company specialized in occupational risk prevention to provide external advice.
Manufacturers and suppliers of machinery, equipment, products and work tools to be used in the production process are also obliged to comply with occupational safety standards.
At the international level, the main body that regulates the standards and provisions to monitor safety at work is the ILO (International Labor Organization), which is the entity that is responsible for the permanent improvement of working conditions. It is an organization belonging to the United Nations that establishes agreements and standards to constantly improve working conditions.
What safety means to me at work
The priority of Safety at Work is to avoid serious and fatal accidents. If we look at the statistics of the last decades, we see that workers die at work mainly due to traffic accidents, cardiovascular diseases falls from heights, electrical contacts, exposure to toxic gas, working in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere, fire, dropped objects etc.
Except for cardiovascular diseases that are prevented from Areas more related to Health, the rest are dealt with by the Occupational Safety speciality. To combat these accidents at work we have to take into account the main cause that causes them; “the human factor”, therefore the main tools to prevent them are information, instruction and training to avoid accidents.”
Occupational safety implies that there are no risks that harm the health of workers. For this, the technicians or specialists in occupational risk prevention must identify, evaluate and control the dangers or risks associated with the work activity and promote training activities and measures objective to prevent and avoid these risks.
What is occupational health and safety?
It is defined as a discipline that deals with the prevention of injuries and illnesses caused by working conditions, and the protection and promotion of workers’ health. Its purpose is to improve the working conditions and environment, as well as occupational health, which entails the promotion and maintenance of the physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations.
The term occupational health changed into safety and health at work in 2012, which is why from now on, all workers must adopt this new terminology. Previously, the term occupational health emphasized the health of the worker, with the new denomination two important factors are taken into account: the health and safety of the worker in his workplace.
In 2011 UK passed an act HSWA 1974 that defines the health safety and well-being of people at work. This law also prevents the use of dangerous substances without proper precautions and the control of certain emissions to protect the environment. The Law defines general duties for employers, employees, contractors, suppliers of goods and substances for use at work, people who control workplaces and those who manage and maintain them, and people in general.
The Law enables a broad regulatory regime by government ministers through a Statutory Instrument that, since 1974, has generated a broad system of specific provisions for various industries, disciplines, and risks.
Health: The protection of the body and mind of people against diseases resulting from the materials, processes or procedures used in the workplace.
Safety: The protection of people against serious physical injury.
Environment: The protection of air, water, fauna and flora.
Environmental safety means
We are trying to protect ourselves from the insecurity created by the threats facing the environment and, of course, also us as a species that depends on its environment for survival. Therefore, environmental safety can be considered a global problem that is addressed both at the institutional level following national policies and from an international approach.
The relationship between the environment and safety has been analyzed in different ways in the specialized literature. With the approval of the new Global Agenda for Development (the so-called 2030 Agenda) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations Organization (UN) in 2015, the current global narrative of development and its implications for the sustainability of the planet has begun to permeate many sectors of the work of the international community.
Among them is the issue of security in its different facets, which includes exploring the deepest links between the environment and, for example, the fight against drug trafficking, and the problem of climate change as a threat to national security.
The interaction between the environment and safety
Environmental safety aims to provide instruments to assess, control and reverse the level of threats to ecosystems in terms of goods and services on multiple scales for the planet’s populations. The loss and depletion of nature, through anthropic processes of erosion, exploitation and other extractive processes that are extremely dangerous for the planet, pose multidimensional environmental safety consequences.
In the previous definition, environmental safety has to do, therefore, with the risks and vulnerability of losing goods and services that the planet provides to its inhabitants and species, with all the catastrophic consequences that this entails.
The general conception of environmental safety is based on a fundamental postulate that is the general interaction between man and his natural environment. A first point of departure is that natural ecosystems are essential for survival.
Psychological safety means
Taking into account data that suggests that 1 in 4 adults go through some psychological affectation in their lives, today maintaining good mental health is one of the priorities of all people. In the business context, for example, more and more people are looking for a good balance between their professional life and their work life, as well as workspaces that promote their development in a healthy way and in the midst of a good work environment.
The lack of productivity derived from conditions such as depression costs companies more than 1 billion dollars a year. Thus, companies must pay attention to promoting the mental health of their workers.
For a few years, in the field of human resources, a concept has been sounding with more force every day, the psychological safety of the employee. “It is that environment where the worker feels free to share their ideas, concerns and questions. And also free to be wrong, to make a mistake and that your manager does not recriminate you for it, that, on the contrary, turn the situation around and become a learning experience”.
Psychological safety is getting the employee to perceive that they have the opportunity to be themselves in their workplace, without the idea that they are constantly judging their mistake and that they have spaces to develop their talent and increase creativity.
Precisely for the retention and attraction of talent, one of the biggest headaches for human resources areas in recent times, it is important that the psychological safety of the employee is taken care of in the company.
What does occupational safety personnel do?
The occupational safety personnel is responsible for all practices involving accident prevention and employee protection. He analyzes the state of the company, examining the environment, infrastructure and risks. Next, the safety personnel needs to develop plans that improve the routine of the workers. The safety personnel must organize and structure the training of the entire team. He is the reference in terms of preventive measures in the organization.
Another very important point is to be within the regulatory norms, protecting the team and, at the same time, maintaining the organization by the sanitary inspection norms. Do you want to know how safety officers can start implementing preventive measures in the company?
Conclusion
Safety means to me that I can live my life to the fullest without having to worry about getting hurt or harmed. It means that I can be confident that my environment is safe and that I am protected from harm. Safety also means that I can have peace of mind knowing that the people I care about are safe as well.
These threats can come from our environment, from other people, or even from ourselves. Some of these things include:
- Being aware of surroundings and potential hazards
- Following safety rules and regulations
- Using personal protective equipment (PPE) when necessary
- Using proper tools and tackle
- Taking care of physical and mental health
- Building relationships with others who can support us and keep us safe
By taking steps to stay safe, we can reduce our risk of injury and harm and live our lives to the fullest.
