5 Common Misconceptions about Health and Safety at Workplace
Health and safety is an important element of any activity at the workplace to ensure the well-being of workers, safety of property and lastly the protection of the environment. As time passes the importance of health and safety become the highest priority of organizations and they consider it an integral part of their all activities but due many reasons few organizations do not practice health and safety. The reason behind non practicing organizations are the misconceptions of health and safety at the workplace and these misconceptions are discussed in this blog. This article is highly recommended for the safety professionals who are either teaching or working organizations where management asks for justifications of health and safety at the workplace.
1. Cost of Health and Safety is more than what its benefits
One of the most common misconceptions about health and safety at the workplace is that it cost too much and increases the cost of activity without adding any value. But, in reality, health and safety at work is the only way to control or lower the cost of any activity by keeping the workplace and workers safe and healthy respectively.
Below are some examples of expenses that can only be avoided by practicing health and safety at work.
First aid and medical expenses if workers get injured
Cost of damaged property
Cost of downtime
Cost fines due to provision of an unprotected environment
Sick leaves or wages without work
2. Accidents are unavoidable
It is a common misconception that accidents are unavoidable to understand this conceptual incorrect statement let understand the definition of accident i.e. any unplanned event which causes damage or harm to people, property, process, or environment. What we learn from the definition is it is an unplanned event not an unavoidable event where it can be avoided if one works on the principles of health and safety. For example, in a company where the health and safety principles are followed and maintain health and safety systems the accident ratio is zero. But, other companies doing the same job have multiple accidents in a single day because they don’t practice health and safety at their workplace.
This proves that an accident is avoidable or preventable if we practice health and safety at work. Some of the many specific tools to avoid workplace accidents are as under;
3. Drills are just a show-off and a waste of time
It is a famous quote that “practice makes a man perfect” and the health and safety drills are working on the same principle because the human response capacity in real accident scenarios is observed very weakly and some people even undergo accident traumatic conditions. The health and safety drill not only increases the response capacity but also increases the sense of collective response and coordination among the drill participants.
A good example of drill benefit is the response of Morgan-Stanley Company employees’ response during the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. The company security head understood the importance of health and safety drills and he used to practice evacuation drills on a regular basis.
On September 11 when the World Trade Center has attached the security head started an emergency evacuation response as it was planned and practiced and saved 2,678 employees and 250 visitors and his story became the world's most successful story of an emergency evacuation.
4. Health and Safety training is just a formality and a waste of money
No human being is perfect in every ting and there is always some need for improvement. Health and Safety training is the tool that improves that requirement by enhancing the skill of employees to work safely at the workplace.
An important objective of the training is to achieve the skill set of all employees required in a specific working environment. Because in case of any emergency everyone should take is part to respond rather than relying on the other for his own safety. To support this argument we have multiple examples where people who have any health and safety skill set get trapped in accident areas and lose their lives.
5. We cannot make workplace hazard-free
It is commonly misinterpreted and mixes the concept of hazard and risk due to which a misconception regarding hazard-free workplace places originate. According to the definition of hazard by CCOHS, it is anything or action which can cause harm or damage or have the potential to cause harm or damage. Any workplace can be hazardous–free by understanding the six types of hazards and five safety controls. The hazards can be removed from the workplace and make it hazard-free but it is not that simple and it needs the commitment of workers and management to ensure 100% contribution and ownership toward health and safety at work. Further, when we apply elimination control against any hazard the respective workplace becomes hazard-free for that specific hazard.
Conclusion
It is important to understand that nothing is achievable unless it is understood and executed in its true spirit because health and safety is not just a common-sense job it is the most tactful job which needs professionals with skills and experiences. Further, it is the responsibility of health and safety professionals to guide and make others understand the logical correction of all health and safety misconceptions.
For further information on health, safety, and environment below blogs are recommended; NFPA Hazard Identification System
Hazard Types and their Identification
Safety signs and their intrinsic features
It is a famous quote that “practice makes a man perfect” and the health and safety drills are working on the same principle because the human response capacity in real accident scenarios is observed very weakly and some people even undergo accident traumatic conditions.
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