Occupation Health And Safety Activities Assessment Answer

Part 6 - Proposed control measures
Part 7 - Bibliography
Part 8 - Appendices

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Executive Summary

In this paper brief introduction of Power Links, Qatar and its various accident control measures and its effectiveness and assessment risk analysis have been discussed. Power Links Qatar LCC is dealing in the Caballing and electrical contracting. So working in the industry like Electrical and caballing is very dangerous, so in a way to reduce the number of accident and happening industry and legislation provide certain control measure for the worker and employee working on those areas. Cost and benefits analysis is also mentioned at the end of this paper. Various control measure and its effect on employee have also covered. Potential health issue from ionization and radiation has also mentioned and various disease caused while working in the industry which deal in caballing and electrical are also detailed in this paper. Various health hazards such as physical and biological and so on are detailed but only physical health hazards is been detailed in an articulated form in this paper.

Introduction

Power Links Qatar LLC initially was established as a subsidiary named as M/s Mubarak Enterprises in the way back to 2005 and it has since re-organized as a limited liability company in the location of Doha, one of the states of Qatar. This company is specializing in the field of providing infrastructure support services in the Electrical High Voltage power transmission sector.   Power links Qatar LLC specifically addresses the services provision in all Energy related sectors and the associated infrastructure in relation to power, water, and Transportation, and it primarily serves the needs of such an infrastructure growth in the power generation, transmission and distribution sector, and Power Links Qatar LLC undertake specialist Electrical and communication system works. Basically, Power Links Qatar LCC is dealing with cabling and Electrical contracting project. Designing, installation, and testing of the projects and cable are the major work which is undertaken by this Power Links Qatar LCC Company (Al et al., 2016). This company is working and providing its services in major parts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia region, especially like in the state of Qatar and nearby GCC countries. It is providing its services in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman. At present, it employs more than 100 qualified engineering and some of the technical personnel and majority are in full-time employment with the Power Links Qatar LCC.
Since its incorporation as a registered company in the state of Doha in the way back in 2005, it has grown to be recognized in the field of high voltage that is an extra high voltage underground cable services sector which is including designing, engineering and basic installation and testing services of the cable or the project.
This company is especially recognized and identified as providing the  fault location in the cable on the long routes, apart from this, this company is also known in the area of providing services which are reliable and having specialist manpower (Abu et al., 2014)
Power Links Qatar LCC undertake a various range of services and activities especially in the Power transmission and distribution segments. Some of its activities are as follows.

Activities

1.    Designing, doing engineering, procurement, installation and testing of high voltage cable system.
2.    Providing assistance to various project and construction management.
3.    Providing assistance and guidance to in designing and doing engineering works mainly to support or help in designing the electrical equipment’s
4.    Providing help in a way to source and supply the most suitable materials to various projects.
5.    Providing emergency assistance in case of breakdowns.
Power Qatar Links LCC have highly experienced resources which help in deployment and made the company to get success in the field of engineering (Abdel et al., 2018). As it has highly qualified engineers and technical person which is very good for the Power Links Qatar LCC, as it leads it to be successful and build the brand and reliable image in the market.

Occupational health hazards in the Power Links Qatar LCC

The health hazards which are experienced in the workplace are called as occupational health hazards. Occupational hazards are also called as occupational diseases (Zhao et al., 2015). Such diseases are caused by the contact with a particular hazard at the workplace. Such hazards are characterized by the following,
•    These hazards occur at the workplace mainly
•    The workforce can be affected by such hazards only when he or she is exposed to workplace
•    Occupational health hazards are notifiable and compensable
The degree of impact of such hazards varies and sometimes it may cost the life of the workforce (Reese et al., 2015). These hazards may be very destructive and the whole organization may be affected by such hazards. The occupational health hazards are of different types such as;
1) Physical Hazards: the major agents of physical health hazards are light, vibration, heat and cold, noise, ionizing radiation, and ultraviolet radiation. Due to the heat, the following are the disease or effects on workforce; Burns, Heatstroke, Heat exhaustion, Heat cramps. These are the direct effects of heat on the workforce. If the organization is not providing enough safety measures to its employees or workforce, they may experience all these effects of heat. There is some indirect effect of heat at the workplace such as the decrease in efficiency, increase in fatigue, an increase in the rate of accidents (stave et al., 2016). The other effects of the physical agents on the workforce are the following; chilblains, frostbite, eye strain, eye pain, headache, annoyance, visual fatigue, temporary or permanent hearing loss, nervousness, injuries to joints, elbow shoulder, keratitis, intense conjunctivitis, cancer, ulceration, malformation, leukemia, and ultimately death.
2) Biological hazards: biological risk prevalent mainly in the third world countries or developing countries resulting in higher risk to the workforce. In biological hazards, the workforces are exposed to parasitic and infective agents at the workplace. For examples, in a healthcare organization, people are at high risk of encephalitis, tuberculosis, hepatitis, HIV, etc. In the same way, people working in an organization dealing in cabling and electrical field are in high risk of communicable disease such as Influenza, HIV, Malaria, hepatitis, tuberculosis, etc (Stave et al., 2016).  
3) Chemical Hazards: chemical hazards are one of the most serious occupational hazards because the effect of chemical hazards remains for a longer period of time and it also affects maximum workforce in the organization as well as people outside the organization. Chemical hazards occur due to the chemical reaction in the organization (Hutzler et al 2014). The major agents are dust and gases. Metals and its compounds are also the agents of chemical hazards. Due to the chemical hazards mainly skin diseases occur.
4) Mechanical Hazards: mechanical hazards are caused by the movement of the parts of machinery (Krzeminska et al., 2016). Mechanical hazards take place mainly due to the carelessness and sometimes due to the wear and tear of the components of machinery.
5) Psychological Hazards: psychosocial hazards occur due to the complexity of work and bad working environment. Unhealthy organizational culture also leads to the psychosocial hazards. The main effects of psychosocial hazards are frustration, poor relationship with the employees, lack of job satisfaction, tension, etc. Although psychosocial hazards seem not very effective sometimes it leads to death.
Depending upon the nature of work and workforce these hazards are exercised in the organization. In Power Links Qatar LLC physical hazards, biological hazard, chemical hazard, mechanical hazards and psychosocial occupational health hazards are found.
For this paper, physical hazards have been selected to study because the physical hazard is one of the most important occupational health hazards found in Power Links Qatar LLC. As we have discussed that Power Links Qatar deals in the field of services such as providing infrastructure support in the electrical high voltage power transmission sector. The company also deals in the field of construction. So, the most important occupation hazards found in the organization is physical hazards (Orford et al., 2014). The main agents of physical hazards are heat and cold, noise, ionizing radiation, ultraviolet radiation, light, and vibration. All the agents are found in Power Links Qatar LLC and hence creating life-threatening hazards for the workforce. The major portion of the work is done by heavy machinery which produces huge noise and heat.  As the company is dealing with the transmission of high voltage, the intensity of light also would be very high. The risks associated with physical hazards are quite considerable and applying safety measures to reduce the intensity of the effect as well as the risk associated with the physical hazards are very important. If the effects of physical hazards are controlled it would produce quite a satisfactory result and the workforce would feel secure. The potential benefits of controlling the physical hazards are the following; the rate of injuries would decrease significantly, eye problem in the workforce would decrease, the rate of risk associated with ultraviolet and ionizing radiation would also decrease significantly. A physical occupational hazard also leads to psychosocial hazards in which employees feel distressed, tension, frustration, dissatisfaction, etc. By controlling or by applying safety measures to provide safety to the employees from physical hazards such hazards can be eliminated from the organization and employees would be satisfied and motivated towards work. The performance, as well as the productivity of the employees and organization, would increase significantly. So, the major occupational hazard in the organization Power Links Qatar LLC is the physical hazard.

Assessment of Risk

Physical occupational hazard is one of the most serious and common occupational hazard found in the organization dealing with cabling and electrical field. Due to physical occupational hazards, hundreds and thousands of employees have been suffered injuries and many of them have died. The risks associated with physical hazard vary in intensity or degree. Some of the risks are low in intensity or effects of such risks are less while some of the risks are life-threatening which cost the life of the employees. The major agents of physical occupational hazards are the following;
•    Heat
•    Cold
•    Noise
•    Light
•    Ionizing radiation
•    Ultraviolet radiation
All of the agents of physical occupation hazards carry some disease or risk along with it. The risk or disease of each agent varies in degree or intensity. Let’s have a look at disease or effect associated with the physical agents.
There are some direct effects of heat such as burns, heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, etc. the indirect effects of heat are the following; head reduces the efficiency of the workforce, fatigue increase due to the heat, heat also increase the rate of accidents in the organization. Due to the cold following diseases occur such as general hypothermia, erythrocyanosis, chilblains, and frostbite. However the effect of cold is very low in Power Links Qatar LLC. Noise is also one of the major agents of physical occupational hazard. The effect of noise in the organization can be measured in two categories. The first category is auditory effects while the second category is non-auditory effects. The first category which is auditory effects includes temporary as well as permanent hearing loss while the second category that is non-auditory effect includes fatigue, nervousness, decrease in efficiency, annoyance, as well as increase interference in verbal communication. However the effect of noise on health is not much serious regarding life of the employees but it affects the health of the employees. The intensity of injuries associated with noise depends upon several factors such as frequency and intensity, susceptibility of the individuals, duration of exposure to the noise, etc. Light is also one of the major agents of physical occupational hazards. There are two types of effects of light. One occurs due to the poor illumination and second one occurs due to the excessive brightness. The acute effects of poor illumination are eye strain, pain in eyes, headache, eye fatigue, congestion around cornea, and lacrimation. These effects are minor and not life-threatening. These effects can be avoided with little care. The chronic effect of poor light illumination is miner’s nystagmus. Due to the excessive brightness the following diseases can occur; annoyance, discomfort, blurring of vision, and visual fatigue. One of the most serious agents of physical occupational health hazard is ionizing radiation. The degree of effects of ionizing radiation is very intensive which is life-threatening. Ionizing radiation causes death of the employees who come under the effect of such radiation. The major diseases which occur due to ionizing radiation are cancer, ulceration, leukemia, genetic changes, malformation, sterility, and ultimately death. Therefore, the organization needs to take measures to avoid ionizing radiation. The cost of ionizing radiation is the life of the workforce. So, it is very important for the organization to provide safety measures to the employees to be safe from such radiation. As it will leads the morale of the employee and build the industry image in positive manner. Apart from ionizing radiation, ultraviolet radiation is also a serious issue for the organization. The ultraviolet radiations mainly occur in electric welding process and arc. The major effects of ultraviolet radiation are keratitis and intense conjunctivitis which may cause death also in some cases or loss of sight permanently. These are serious issues therefore, the organization should provide safety measures to the employees to avoid such radiation and be safe in the organization. If the organization is providing safety measures to the employees, the employees will be safe and their level of motivation and morale would also be high due to which the performance and productivity of the employees as well as the organization would increase significantly.

Regulatory Requirements

There are some serious issues associated with physical occupational health hazards. Every organization needs to deal with such hazards to safeguard the employees and provide a sense of safety to the employees to boost up their level of motivation and morale. It is also necessary to provide safety measures to the employees to avoid the extra cost of the organization in the form of compensation to the injured employees. The government also makes some regulatory framework to direct the organization to provide safety measures to employees. The regulatory frameworks to avoid such hazards of Qatar are the following;
The government has directed the employers to inform the employees regarding the hazards available to work as well as the possible hazard that may occur in future. The organization should also inform the employees about the safety measures that can be taken to avoid such hazards. The organization should also provide detailed instruction about how to use safety measures to avoid such hazards or to reduce the intensity of the hazards. The organization should also observe the vocational safety and health to protect the workforce from the hazards. The government has also directed the employers to take all precautionary measures to protect the employees during the work from the hazards and resulting effects and disease. There should not be a burden on the part of employees as well as the employer should not cut or deduct the wage and salary of the employees for providing precautionary measures to the employees. Regular monitoring of machinery should be done to check the defect and breakdown in equipment and machinery. The government has directed that if any of the employers are not taking precautionary measures for avoiding life-threatening hazards he or she will be the questionable and such case will be reported to the minister. The Minister shall issue a decision for partial or full closure of the organization. During the close of the organization (partial or total) the employer shall pay the wages of the employees. Apart from this, the employer should provide training to the employees to use heavy machinery effectively. The employer should provide up to date equipment and machinery which are reliable to use. The regular training program should be provided by the employer to the employees to make them trained to use new and up to date technology. The employer should hire a full-time trainer in the organization to meet the requirement of training at any time. There should be an indicator or signboard for every danger site and machine to make employees aware of the danger site and machines.

Physical health hazard.

History and Background

Physical health hazards are not new topic rather it has been for a long time at workplace especially at the workplace where electrical cable contracting is carried out. So here at this place of work, the concept of ionization radiation comes to a debatable topic which organization and legislation should be address in the way to avoid the harmful effect on the employee or the worker (Fthenakis et al., 2017).
The understanding of ionization radiation got started way back in 1895 and the effect of radiation was propounded by the Wilhelm Rontgen. He discovered that working on the electric wire and on radiation aplastic anemia which may lead to death in some cases.
The first incident happens with Radium Girls as she was performing her job as painting the watch dials with radium. As the body treats radium as calcium so it got deposited into the bones and led radiation sickness. So it is very harmful if proper guidance and safety measure is not adopted while performing the task on such crucial and sensitive area. As it may lead to death also in some cases.
As ionization of radiation cause the various sickness to the employee working on that area and many are reported to death also has gained the attention of the industry and legislation to formulate proper physical health hazards safety measure in a way to minimize the accidents.

Physical hazards

A physical health hazard is classified as the occupational or environmental hazard also. Basically, physical hazards include efficiency in the working or comfort in the working environment that is ergonomic hazards such as heat, radiation, cold street, vibration and noise hazards (Stave et al., 2016).
Physical health hazard became recognized as the occupational health hazards especially in an industry where installation and testing of high voltage cable are to be carried out and construction work are also to be addressed. So same is the case with the Power Links Qatar LCC as it is dealing in the area of testing, installation, and construction of high voltage cable (Shatkin et al., 2017). So physical health hazards or the occupational health hazards are associated with Power Links Qatar LCC also, as it is also considered a physical health hazard because in this company also work on radiation and ultraviolet radiation, ionizing radiation and use of chemical which is scientifically proved that it is hazardous and combustible and so explosive, flammable in nature are been used in a way to provide the services (Abdel et al., 2018).
It became recognized as the physical hazards when it a negative impact on the human body while working on heat and cold, ultraviolet radiation and ionizing radiation materials while performing the task as an occupation. So Power Links Qatar LCC also found that it is also associated with physical health hazards and it is been recognized as this company uses the explosive chemical, ultraviolet radiation and reactive and unstable materials in working.

Potential health effect

Exposure to various explosive chemical and working on high voltage and ultraviolet radiation, vibration in the workplace can cause many acute and long-term detrimental health effects
Effects on health while working at a workplace which is associated with heat and cold can cause burns and chilblains, heat cramps and general hypothermia.
Effects on health while working on light may cause health issues such as eye strain in case of working on poor illumination and blurring of vision while working on excessive brightness. Potential health effect while working on ultraviolet radiation may cause huge intense conjunctivitis and keratitis. Radiation may also cause cancer and ulceration which is not curable after certain stage (Bakkiyi et al., 2014). Working in in cabling and electrical contracting industry there are various health effect such Hypothermia, frostbite due to cold and deafness due to heavy noise, sensitive to spasm due to vibration.

Measure to Minimize

Physical health hazards are the common way of injuries in any organization or industries. And they are in some case unavoidable or can't be avoided in various industries like welding, testing of high voltage cables etc. (Reason et al., 2016).
So over the period of time, the need to have safety measure is been recognized in regards to address and solve the problem arising out of the physical health hazards over occupation or at the workplace.
Organization and government legislative have developed the safety measure and procedures or methods to avoid the risk of physical danger in the workplace. Legislation put the rule of not employing the children to work (King et al., 2016).
An engineering workplace who specializes in testing of high voltage cables and working with ultraviolet radiation and ionization should use personal protective equipment at work it is also mentioned under the PPF regulation act 1992. The government also introduce the platform in the state of Qatar for all the employee to report any health hazards issues if faced during their employment.  
Work practices - One measure to minimize the physical health hazard is to provide work practices that the way in which the worker is supposed to do or perform certain task appreciably affect exposure, do for this it is better to train the worker in sound work practices. Showing them video recording of the particular task can also help them to minimize the risk of accident and physical health hazard up to some extent (Khan et al., 2017).
Electrical - Operating wire is very harmful to many people, whether people touch it indirectly, or directly with some sort of conducting object or material. Over 50 volts AC (120 volts DC) is found very dangerous and it is recognized as the hazardous so this should be taken very seriously. Unfortunately, some of the electrical accidents that usually happen at workplace every year are found fatal (Brauer et al., 2016). As shocks cause severe and permanent injuries in-person life. These accidents are mainly caused by faulty equipment and lack of preventive measure.
Some basic measure to minimize the accident and physical health hazards include:
•    Installation of the electrical equipment should be maintained properly and timely
•    Selecting the best right and best equipment for performing the job
•    Making worker to wear electrical free footwear.
•    Timely and on spot replace the damaged cable’s
Some other measures to minimize the physical health hazards are as follows.
1.    Proper training should be given in a way to avoid the happening
2.    All the equipment and materials are to be timely checked in a way to make all the employee safe during the work performance
3.    Replacing the obsolete equipment and bringing the new and less hazardous equipment for the sake of ensuring the safety of the worker or the operator
4.     Substitute the dangerous equipment with less dangerous
Beside this government made the various legislative rule in a way to minimize the physical hazards from workplace such as personal protective equipment act 1992, and government also put a limitation on age so the organization is bound to follow the legislation in a regard to minimizing the hazards. In the state of Qatar, SAR government has made and implemented a great platform where any worker can go and report on the status of the health hazards safety measure and control. Government is timely investigating the industry in regards to ensure the health safety of the worker.

Proposed Control Measures

Additional control measures.

There is some additional control measure which should help in eliminating or reducing the accident while performing a certain task at caballing and electrical contracting industries. Some of them are proper on the job and on the job training should be provided in a way to overcome the issues of physical health hazards, providing proper and timely, regular health checkups or health investigation, providing fine working environment and also providing necessary tool and equipment which is safe to use and are less hazardous in nature, ensuring to provide safety dress and gloves and shoes to wear while working on the cables or working on electricity wire. As it is very life-threatening and dangerous work to perform the task in industry like caballing and electrical contracting as its leads to cause some severe and acute diseases to person and some time may cause death in some of the cases, take the example of Radium Girl who is performing her duty as painting the watch dials with radium as it produces the ionizing radiation which is so harmful if exposed for a long time and same happen to her also as it the quality of body that it takes radium as a calcium, but if exposed to longer period to radium it will lead to cause sensation problem and if not addressed on time may cause death also (Cislo et al., 2015). So in a way to play safe and secure and to make all the worker satisfied and fear free form the physical hazards they implemented various physical health hazards measures to address this situation and to make worker comfortable. Many government rules regarding regulating the industries in the safest manner have been incorporated but its need to be addressed and implemented in all the industrial zone and working in a way to ensure the safety measure and reduces the number of the accident up to the maximum extent (Abdmouleh et al., 2018). Now and then after every incident legislation, a rule regarding controls measure to eliminate the accident caused during the course of employment.
The existing control measure in Power Links Qatar LCC is found very effective as the only minimum or no accident is found in this company. The advantage of various control measures adopted by the Power Links Qatar LCC is that the control measure is very effective and due to this measure only it has created the good industry image among the variously qualified engineer and technical staff one more advantage is that it created the safest environment to work which has increased the morale and motivation of the workers and engineer as a result employee turnover is reduced (World Health organization 2015). The disadvantages of control measure adopted by the Power Links Qatar LCC is that providing the proper training is very costly and providing all the timely investigation of the equipment is also time is taken and costly. As training on new and less hazardous equipment is very time consuming and require a lot of the budget.

To bo continued..