Safety and health in the workplace cannot be overemphasized. In a work environment two things take precedent over any issue. Number one is the occupational well-being of employees. The second most important issue is environmental safety and health. It is no surprise that when environmental safety and health guidelines are followed, threat to humans health is lessened, not to mention the threat to the environment. Codes, laws and regulations often go hand in hand to achieve both. The list of environmental concerns is lengthly. As a Health and Safety professional, your obligation is to follow and address environmental safety and health issues.

Four of the major environmental safety and health in the workplace areas are; indoor air quality (IAQ) issues, chemical disposal, petroleum storage / fuel tanks and pest management.

Indoor Air Pollutants

I have learned that indoor air complaints range from uncomfortable temperature ranges, fear of dirt on a ceiling tile, actual mold growing on walls and unexplained illness in an entire wing of a building. One thing to make clear is this: The complaint is real to one or more persons and needs to be taken seriously. The culprit most often to blame in an IAQ investigation is inadequate ventilation. People need to breath fresh air that is brought in from outside. Often the second most common complaint is mold. Keeping roof leaks (or any water intrusion) under control is the best practice at reducing mold growth on indoor environments.

Chemicals and Chemical Disposal

Other indoor contaminates are chemicals in the air that we breathe. Chemicals that are “green” approved are considered safe for the environment, and the people who occupy the rooms. Green chemicals are safe when considering prolonged exposure for the staff who use them day after day.

State and Federal laws mandate the proper disposal of chemical, electronic, universal and hazardous waste. It is not ok to throw items into the dumpster unless the owner is certain that the items do not posses characteristics that would classify it as hazardous. Electronic items for example contain metals like cadmium, lead, and mercury. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) knows that the disposal cost for hazardous waste is high, therefore they classify items like computers and fluorescent bulbs that contain these metals as being a universal waste. This means these items can be managed by recycling. Other chemicals must be disposed of as hazardous waste. It’s the employers duty to determine the classification of the waste and how material is to be disposed of. They must be very careful to do so correctly to avoid serious and costly penalties and harm to the environment.

Petroleum Storage and Fuel Tanks

Another major responsibility that employers have is on keeping in compliance with state and federal regulations concerning above and below ground petroleum fuel tanks. There are many laws regulating that entities report and register existing tanks at their facility. There are daily, weekly, monthly and yearly record keeping and reporting that goes into being a petroleum tank owner.

Pest Management

Integrated Pest Management or IPM is the least toxic approach to pest management. IPM is important because no one wants to work with or around toxic or dangerous pesticides, herbicides or any other chemical that is designed to “kill”. And we certainly don’t want to harm the environment either. It is the business owners responsibility to assist and teach all employees how to comply with laws pertaining to IPM so that no one is exposed to dangerous pest elimination chemicals at work.

Environmental safety and health in the workplace is everyone’s business. Most people aren’t aware of the issues concerning indoor air, chemical disposal, petroleum storage tanks or integrated pest management. But for the safety person, these environmental issues are a major part of the job. We will continue to strive to keep human safety as our main priority and the safety of our environment a very close second.

The importance of health and safety at work cannot be overstated. The employer has both a moral and a legal obligation to ensure that his employees work in both a safe and healthy environment.

Morally no worker should be forced to work in an environment where his welfare is at risk. It also makes good business sense to ensure that workers are both safe and healthy during working hours. Sick or injured workers lead to a drop in production and a subsequent loss of profits.

Moral issues aside, there are strict laws and regulations governing health and safety at work, and should an employer transgress these requirements he could find himself being prosecuted and having to pay out large sums in compensation.

Good work practices effectively pay for themselves as production remains free from disruption,insurance costs are minimised, the workforce remains contented and customers are delighted with a regular and prompt supply of fulfilled orders.

In the United Kingdom the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) are in change of health and safety regulations in the workplace. The HSE not only enforce these regulations, but will also prosecute employers when they are contravened. While this is very necessary, it puts an enormous strain on employers whose first concern, quite naturally, is to run their businesses as efficiently as possible.

While the HSE produces plenty of information on the regulations, which are often updated, the typical busy employer or manager often has little time to read through them, let alone fully understand them. It is because of this that agencies have emerged that advise employers, managers and key employees just what the law demands and how to comply by keeping your work premises and practices as safe as possible. These agencies also run courses on various aspects of health and safety, many of which are certificated.

One of these courses is the IOSH Working Safely Certificate. This course meets the HSE’s requirements as a safety certificate. It defines and identities risks and hazards and looks at ways of improving safety performance. The course also looks at safe systems of working, and considers personal responsibility for safety in the workplace, as well as the protection of staff in the working environment.

The fact that such courses exist emphasises the importance of health and safety at work in the modern world.

Every time work is contemplated, attached to it is a plan to secure the workers, crew and the public’s health and safety. This plan should have sufficient detail so that every aspect of the work plan has a corresponding health and safety plan.

A health and safety plan template is a plan that focuses on the safety of all the people engaged in a project. This is a template of what is going to take place, the people who will be in charge, the possible safety problems, precautionary methods to avoid any safety issues, plan of what to do if these safety measures fail, a contingency plan when the aforesaid plan also fails, safety rules in the place of work, what protection equipment to use, how to manage any safety risk and plans and schedules of inspection.

It would also be great to show tables of management reviews showing schedules of planned review dates, the scope of such reviews and who will conduct the review.

Just like a normal template for a plan, the health and safety plan template should also have a table of contents, an overview, a body with all the details necessary, a section where the names of the people who will be legally accountable to the whole operation will be mentioned to name a few. Further to this the team who will run the entire operation, a part where the name of the project will be indicated, and whatever else is deemed necessary. The plan should be clear and thorough so that it doesn’t leave room for interpretation.

The Two Columns in a Health and Safety Case Template

Health and safety is important for a business because, among many other reasons, life is more important than anything else in the world. To protect employees is an employer’s moral and legal obligation. Another reason is that neglect of the same would only cause an employer to lose money in hospitalization and litigation. The phrase “prevention is better than cure” is thus applicable.

It would be prudent to create a plan to address any possible issue of health and safety. A health and safety case template is one of the ways on how to showcase such plan. This template is in a form of a table of two columns. The first column is a description or a title representing the second column. This table could include the name of the plan, the description of such plan and the people who are the key players in the plan.

Also included could be the steps to be taken in all types of predicaments, contingency plans, the pertinent laws to be complied with and the requirements the employer must accomplish.

A health and safety case template must be shown as a proposal to the authorities concerned subject to their approval before anything else is started. This is preliminary to any work because in any type of work, risky or not, health and safety must be secured with no compromises.