Unit 1: Foundations in Health & Safety Part 2

Unit 1: Foundations in Health & Safety Part 2

1. Common Words:

   • Duty of care - a duty towards others to protect them from harm from your acts or omissions that is reasonably foreseeable.
   • Mandatory Duty - non-negotiable duty imposed by the organisation
   • Absolute Duty- non-negotiable duty imposed by legislation through the terms of shall or must
   • Practicable Duty- duty to comply that is limited by what is achievable when considering current knowledge irrespective of time, effort or cost
   • Reasonably Practicable- cost/ benefit analysis or risk benfit trade off. Considering the time, effort and cost to implement measures to reduce risk.
   • Prescribed Disease- specified ill-health contracted as a result of exposure to work related hazards
   • Chronic- effect due to multiple exposures to small quanties over a long period of time
   • Acute- Immediate effect due to single exposure over a short period of more pronouced substances
   • Unsafe Condition - any hazard not involving the acts of an individual
   • Unsafe Act- Hazards involving the actions of people
   • Risk- the likelihood of harm occuring from a hazard
   • Risk Rating- The degree of risk
   • Risk Management - identify hazard and manage the risk by elimination or reduction
   • Negligence- failure to exercise duty of care considered reasonable

2. Moral, Leagl and Financial Reasons for H&S

   • Key Words:
     • Moral - accidents resulting in injuries cause pain and suffering for those affected
     • Legal - it is a legal requirment to safeguard H&S of workers and others that are affected by your activities.

3. Reasons for preventing accidents:

   • Poor business conduct
   • Damage reputation
   • Long term future of organisation
   • Direct Costs - measurable costs arising from acciddent. e.g. insurance costs, claim from court, fines, loss of production, damage to equipment or products
     • Claims from civil court or criminal, sick pay, repairs or replacement of damaged equipment or goods.
   • Indirect Costs- these may arise as a consequence of an accident. e.g. lost time of employees, lost time of management, lost orders, corporate image damaged
     • Indirect Costs- largly unknown. Loss of production, downtime machinery, difficulities in recruitment, increased overheads