Work Impacts on Health: Their Implications and Management Techniques

Abstract

Adverse conditions in workplaces that impact negatively on the health of workers are legion.  They include Biological, Chemical, Electrical and Mechanical Hazards; as well as Physical Hazards like noise; particulate emissions; thermal stress; poor illumination; pressure and vibration, among others.  These have a couple of fundamental implications. Several exposed workers suffer accidental injuries, occupational diseases, deformity or death.  Management suffers lost-work-time occasioned by absence of incapacitated workers; as well as avoidable financial losses through medical expenses, occasional litigations instituted by families of industrial accident victims, and through the payment of required compensations.  Further implications are that the above conditions make it mandatory that management must protect their employees from the consequences of these Occupational Health Hazards (OHH) by running a comprehensive Occupational Health Services (OHS) programme in their establishments.  The degree of effectiveness of such services rests principally on the flawless adherence of both employers and employees to all industrial legislations that deal with the protection of the health, safety and welfare of workers.

Keywords

Ergonomic-Stress-Vectors (ESV)   -              Monitoring

Threshold-Limit-Values (TLVs)      -              Fixed Guards