Safety and Health Movement

Then and Now

Major Topics
Developments before the Industrial Revolution.
Milestones in the safety movement.
Tragedies that have changed the safety

movement.
Role of organized labor.
Development of accident prevention programs.
Development of Safety Organizations.
Safety and Health Movement Today.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

Safety Versus Health

Safety is concerned with injury causing

situations. Safety is concerned with hazards

to humans that result from sudden severe
conditions.
Health is concerned with disease causing
conditions. Health deals with adverse
reactions to prolonged exposure to
dangerous but less intense hazards.
An overly stressed worker may be prone to
unintentionally forget safety precautions and
thus may cause an accident.
07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

Causes of Improvement in
Workplace Safety
Improvements in safety have been the result

of pressure for legislation to promote safety

and health, the steadily increasing cost
associated with accidents and injuries, and
the professionalization of safety as an
occupation.
Improvements in the future are likely to come
as a result of greater awareness of the cost
effectiveness and resultant competitiveness
gained from a safe and healthy workforce.
07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

Code of Hammurabi
The Code of Hamurabi (Babylonian king in

2000 B.C.) contained clauses dealing with

injuries, allowable fees for physicians, and
monetary damages assessed against those
who injured others.
If a man had caused the loss of a
gentlemans eye, his own eye shall be caused
to be lost.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

Development of the First

Organized Safety Program
When the industrial sector began to grow in

the United States hazardous working

conditions were commonplace.
Factory inspection was introduced in
Massachusetts in 1897.
In 1869 the Pennsylvania legislature passed
a mine safety law that required two exits
from all mines.
In 1892, the first recorded safety program
was established in a Joliet, Illinois steel plant.
07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

Federick Taylors Connection to

the Safety Movement
Around 1900 Federick Taylor began studying

efficiency in manufacturing.
His purpose was to identify the impact of
various factors on efficiency, productivity, and
profitability.
He drew the connection between lost
personnel time and management policies and
procedures.
This connection between safety and
management represented a major step
towards broad-based safety consciousness.
07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

Development of the National

Safety Council
The Association of Iron and Steel Electrical Engineers

(AISEE) formed in the early 1900s, pressed for a

national conference on safety.
As a result the first meeting of the Cooperative Safety
Congress (CSC) took place in Milwaukee in 1912.
A year after the meeting of the CSC, the National
Council of Industrial Safety was established in
Chicago.
In 1915, this organization changed its name to
National Safety Council (NSC).
NSC is now the premier safety organization in the
United States.
07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

Impact of Labor Shortages in

World War II on the Safety
From the end of World War I (1918) through the 1950s
Movement
safety awareness grew steadily.
During this period industry in the United States arrived at

two critical conclusions:

(1) There is a definite connection between Quality and
Safety.
(2) Off-the-job accidents have a negative impact on
productivity.
This became clear to manufacturers during World War II
when call-up and deployment of troops had employers
struggling to meet their labor needs.
For these employers, loss of a skilled worker due to injury or
for any other reason created an excessive hardship.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

Primary Reason behind the

passage of the OSH
The 1960s saw the passage
of a flurry of&
legislation
(Occupational
Safety
Health)
promoting workplace safety. These laws applied to a limited
audience of workers.
Act
According to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME)

more significant legislation was needed because the state

legislated safety requirements only in specific industries had
inadequate safety and health standards, and had
inadequate budgets for enforcement.
In the late 1960s more than 14,000 employees were killed
annually in connection with their jobs, and work injury rates
were rising.
These were the primary reasons for the passage of the
federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) of
1970. It represents the most significant legislation to date in
the history of the safety movement.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

10

How workplace tragedies have

affected the Safety Movement
Safety and health tragedies in the workplace have greatly

accelerated the pace of the safety movement in the United

States.

Hawks Nest Tragedy: Workers spent as many as 10

hours per day breathing the dust created by drilling and

blasting a passageway through a mountain located in the
Hawks Nest region of West Virginia that had an unusually
high silica content. Silicosis is a disease that normally takes
10 to 30 years to show up in exposed workers. At Hawks
Nest workers began dying in as little time as a year.
Approximately one million workers in the United States are
still exposed to silica every year, and 250 people die
annually from silicosis. Today administrative controls,
engineering controls, and personal protective equipment
are used to protect workers in a dusty environment.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

11

How workplace tragedies have

affected the Safety Movement
Asbestos Menace: In 1964 Dr. Selikoff linked

asbestos to lung cancer and respiratory diseases.

It was found in homes, schools , offices, factories,
ships and filter of cigarettes. In the 1970s and
1980s asbestos became a controlled material.
Bhopal Tragedy: In 1984 over 40 tons of Methyl
isocyanate (MIC) and other lethal gases,
including hydrogen cyanide leaked into the
northern end of Bhopal killing over 3000 people.
Union Carbide had to pay $470 million in
compensatory damage. In the US it led to the
Emergency Planning and Community Right to
Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986.
07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

12

Role of Organized Labor in

Advancement of Safety
Organized labor has played a crucial role in
Movement

the development of the safety movement in

the United States.
From the Industrial Revolution time,
organized labor has fought for safer working
conditions and appropriate compensation
for workers injured on the job.
Many of the earliest developments in the
safety movement were the result of long
and hard-fought battles by organized labor.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

13

Fellow Servant Rule,

Contributory Negligence, and
The Fellow Servant
Assumption
ofRule
Risk
held that employers

were not liable for workplace injuries that

resulted from the negligence of other
employees.
Contributory Negligence: If the actions of
employees contributed to their own injuries,
the employer was not held liable.
Assumption of Risk: People who accept a job
assume the risks that go with it.
These employer biased laws were overturned
in all states except in New Hampshire where
the fellow servant rule still applies.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Mr. Alexis John M. Rubio

14

The three Es of Safety

Engineering, Education, and
The Engineering aspects of a safety program
Enforcement

involve making design improvements to both

product and process to decrease potential hazards.
The Education aspect of a safety program ensures
that employees know how to work safely, why it is
important to do so, and that safety is expected by
management.
The Enforcement aspect of a safety program
involves making sure that employees abide by
safety policies, rules, regulations, practices and
procedures. Supervisors and fellow employees play a
key role in the enforcement aspect of modern safety
programs.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Mr. Alexis John M. Rubio

15

Integrated Approach to Safety

and Health
Learn more through sharing knowledge about health problems in

the workplace, particularly those caused by toxic substances.

Provide a greater level of expertise in evaluating health and safety
problems.
Provide a broad database that can be used to compare health and
safety problems experienced by different companies in the same
industry.
Encourage accident prevention.
Make employee health and safety a high priority.
OSHA reinforces the integrated approach by requiring companies
to have a plan for doing at least the following:
1. Providing appropriate medical treatment for injured or ill
workers.
2. Regularly examining workers who are exposed to toxic
substances.
3. Having a qualified first-aid person available during all working
hours.
07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

16

Modern Industrial Companies

may include the following
Industrial Hygiene Chemist and/or Engineer:
positions:

Companies that use toxic substances periodically

test the work environment. Dust levels, ventilation
and noise levels are also monitored. Unsafe
conditions or hazardous levels of exposure can be
identified and corrected or preventive measures can
be taken.
Radiation Control Specialist: Companies that use
or produce radioactive material employ specialists to
monitor radiation levels to which workers may be
exposed, test workers for level of exposure, respond
to radiation accidents, develop plans for handling
radiation accidents, and implement decontamination
procedures when necessary.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

17

Modern Industrial Companies

may include the following
Industrial Safety Engineer or
positions:

Manager: They are responsible for

developing and carrying out the companys
overall health and safety program
including accident prevention, accident
investigation, and education and training.
(Jobs with this one course)
The complexities of the modern workplace
have made safety and health a growing
profession.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

18

Summary
A milestone in safety is the passage of OSHA in 1970.
Labor unions have worked to overturn anti labor laws

inhibiting safety.
Health problems in the workplace include lung disease
in miners, and lung cancer tied to asbestos.
The asbestos menace, and Bhopal disaster have
changed the face of the safety movement.
Accident prevention techniques include fail safe
designs, lockout, PPE, redundancy and timed
replacements.
A leading safety organization is the American Society
of Safety Engineers.
A safety team may include a safety engineer, nurse,
and dietician.
07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

19

Homework
1.
2.
3.

4.

To be submitted next meeting hand written

only.
To what causes can improvement in
workplace safety made to date be attributed?
Explain the primary reasons behind the
passage of the OSH Act.
Define the following terms: fellow servant
rule, contributory negligence, and
assumption of risk.
Explain the three Es of Safety.

07/04/16

Prepared By: Engr. Edie Boy M. Dela Cruz

20