E-Books: Introduction to International Health and Safety at Work

Introduction to International Health and Safety at Work by Phil Hughes and Ed Ferrett. The Handbook for the NEBOSH International General Certificate. This NEBOSH-endorsed textbook will introduce you to the fundamentals of health and safety in the workplace, whether studying for a course or in need of more information on the subject as part of your job. Introduction to International Health and Safety at Work is basically designed to 1. cover the syllabus of the NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety and other levels 3 OSH awards; 2. go beyond the NEBOSH syllabus in covering occupational road risks; 3. provide a good basis in OSH for students who wish to progress to the NEBOSH Diploma or a University first or second degree; 4. provide a text which more than covers the IOSH Managing Safely syllabus or other similar awards; 5. show the reader how some major OSH frameworks cover the subject including the USA, Europe, and the UK.

Table of Contents

Occupational health and safety is relevant to all branches of industry, business, and commerce including traditional industries, information technology companies, hospitals, care homes, schools, universities, leisure facilities, and offices.
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the foundations on which appropriate health and safety management systems may be built. Occupational health and safety affect all aspects of work. In a low hazard organization, health and safety may be supervised by a single competent manager. In a high hazard manufacturing plant, many different specialists, such as engineers (electrical, mechanical, and civil), lawyers, medical doctors and nurses, trainers, work planners, and supervisors may be required to assist the professional health and safety practitioner in ensuring that there are satisfactory health and safety standards within the organization.

Introduction to International Health and Safety at Work’s Cover

There are many obstacles in the way of achieving good standards. The pressure of production or performance targets, financial constraints, and the complexity of the organization are typical examples of such obstacles.
However, there are some powerful incentives for organizations to strive for high health and safety standards. These incentives are moral, legal, and economic.
Corporate responsibility, a term used extensively in the 21st-century world of work, covers a wide range of issues. It includes the effects that an organization’s business has on the environment, human rights, and Third
World poverty. Health and safety in the workplace is an important corporate responsibility issue.
Corporate responsibility has various definitions. However, broadly speaking, it covers the ways in which organizations manage their core business to add social, environmental, and economic value in order to produce a positive, sustainable impact on both society and the business itself. Terms, such as ‘corporate social responsibility’, ‘socially responsible business’, and ‘corporate citizenship’, all refer to this concept.

The UK Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) mission is to ensure that the risks to the health and safety of workers are properly controlled. In terms o corporate responsibility, it is working to encourage organizations to:

improve health and safety management systems to reduce injuries and ill-health;
demonstrate the importance of health and safety issues at the board level
report publicly on health and safety issues within their organization, including their performance against targets.

The HSE believes that effective management of health and safety:

is vital to employee well-being;
has a role to play in enhancing the reputation of businesses and helping them achieve high-performance teams;
is financially beneficial to the business.

The Contents of Introduction to International Health and Safety at Work