SAS#2 - Unsafe / Unhealthy Acts and Conditions

Accidents

An accident is an unexpected, unforeseen, unplanned and unwanted occurrence or event that causes damage or loss of materials or properties, injury or death.

Common types of accidents:

•fall from height and fall from the same level (slips and trips)

•struck against rigid structure, sharp or rough objects

•struck by falling objects

•caught in, on or in between objects

•electrocution

•fire

Costs of accidents

Corollary to accidents are costs that companies have to bear whether directly or indirectly. The cost of accidents can be best explained by the Iceberg Theory. Once an accident happens, money has to be spent for

medical expenses of the injured worker/workers, insurance premiums and, in some cases, for penalty and litigation expenses. Companies also spend huge amounts to replace damaged equipment and wasted raw

materials. These are what we consider as the direct costs of accidents. But these are just the tip of the iceberg. The larger and more dangerous part of the iceberg however is the part that lies beneath the water. This

represents the indirect costs of an accident which have a more damaging impact to the worker, their families, the company and the community in general. Indirect costs include:

1. Lost or lesser productivity of the injured – workers lose their efficiency and income due to work

interruption on the day of the injury.

2. Loss of productivity among other employees due to work stoppage when assisting the injured worker,

inspection or merely out of curiosity. The psychological impact of the accident reduces the workers’

productivity.

3. Loss of productivity among supervisors because instead of focusing on managing people and the work

flow, they spend their time assisting the injured, investigating the accident and preparing inspection

reports.

4. Hiring and training replacement workers

5. Downtime due to equipment damage

Accident causation

Unsafe/unhealthy Act:

Unsafe/unhealthy Condition:

Unsafe/unhealthy Act:

This is an act done by a worker that does not conform or departs from an established standard, rules or policy. These often happen when a worker has improper attitudes, physical limitations or lacks knowledge or skills.

the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

defines this as “any human action that violates a commonly accepted safe work procedure or standard operating procedure.”

Unsafe/unhealthy Condition:

ANSI defines this as the physical or chemical property of a material, machine or the environment which could possibly cause injury to people, damage to property, disrupt operations in a plant or office or other forms of losses. These conditions could be guarded or prevented.

Can accidents be prevented?

Herbert William Heinrich, an American industrial safety pioneer who worked as an Assistant Superintendent of the Engineering and Inspection Division of Travelers Insurance Company, did a study on the insurance claims. After reviewing thousands of accident reports completed by supervisors, who generally blamed workers for causing accidents without conducting detailed investigations into the root causes, Heinrich found out that 98% of workplace accidents are preventable and only 2% are non-preventable. Of the 98% preventable accidents, 88% is due to unsafe/unhealthy acts or “man failure” and 10% is due to unsafe/unhealthy conditions. This study explains the rationale for focusing interventions on changing the behaviors and attitudes of workers

and management towards safety and health.

an American industrial safety pioneer who worked as an Assistant

Superintendent of the Engineering and Inspection Division of Travelers Insurance Company, did a study on the

insurance claims.

Herbert William Heinrich

1. Any physical state which deviates from that which is acceptable, normal or correct. Any physical state which results in the degree of safety normally present. Acts as a linking event between hazard and

injury/illness.

Unsafe Condition

2. An undesired event that, under slightly different circumstances, could have resulted in personal harm or property damage. Sometimes referred to as a near miss

Near Miss (Incident)

3. An unplanned and injurious or damaging event which interrupts the normal progress of an activity and is invariably preceded by an unsafe action or unsafe condition or some combination thereof. It accident may

be seen as resulting from a failure to identify a hazard or from some inadequacy in an existing system of hazard management / controls.

Accident

4. Sometimes called unsafe behavior or placing yourself at risk (hazardous act). A behavioral departure from an accepted, normal, or correct procedure or practice. An unnecessary exposure to a hazard or conduct that reduces the degree of safety. Acts as a linking event between hazard and injury/illness.

Unsafe Act

5. The probability that a hazard will be "activated" and produce injury, illness or property damage.

Risk