SHO ebook

After a long lost years of blogging, I am finally feels like to continue writing on this blog. A new concept to be introduced, a new approach to create awareness of safety and health in workplaces and as well as to public.

Recently, I’ve discovered a SHO ebook which is a very useful and handy one for those who want to sit for SHO exam and take it as a reference. It is good to know that this particular ebook demonstrates a concept that are easy to understand.

This ebook offers a variety set of questions and answers for paper 1 and paper 2 and, an example for paper 3 and paper 4. It is quite helpful and useful to use as a reference. If you are about to develop OSH management system, this ebook can definitely tell you how to do it. On the other hand, it shows you how to comply, yet but not all, to Section 15 of Occupational Safety and Health Act.
If you go through the said ebook, you’ll find a sound idea of how to get a practicable compliance to the act. 
As such Section 15 is as below.

‘Section 15. General duties of employers and self-employed persons to their employees.’

Section 15 (1) It shall be the duty of every employer and every self-employed person to ensure, so far as is practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of all his employees.

In order to comply to Section 15 (1), this act introduce Section 15 (2), as shown below.

Section 15 (2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the matters to which the duty extends include in particular:   

(a)  the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are, so far as is practicable, safe and without risks to health;  

(b)  the making of arrangements for ensuring, so far as is practicable, safety and absence of risks to health in connection with the use or operation, handling, storage and transport of plant and substances;  

(c)  the provision of such information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is practicable, the safety and health at work of his employees;  

(d)  so far as is practicable, as regards any place of work under the control of the employer or self-employed person, the maintenance of it in a condition that is safe and without risks to health and the provision and maintenance of the means of access to and egress from it that are safe and without such risks;  

(e)  the provision and maintenance of a working environment for his employees  that is, so far as is practicable, safe, without risks to health, and adequate as regards facilities for their welfare at work.

In order to comply to Section 15 (2), you shall have a good OSH management system which can be found in this ebook.

Do visit the website at www.sho-ebook.com.

Why Safety and Health Officer is Important

First of all, our nations is growing towards developed country in year 2020. In order to this, a lot of factors to be considered. One of it is that, to developed skilled workers and 1st class workers and yet the citizens itself have the 1st class mentality. To increase income per capita, to be recognized as the high income country. To be a competitive nation in the world.

To do this, accidents occurrence should be avoided and should be minimized. It is because the accidents itself is very costly, not only to the citizen but also to the country. So, to help to achieve the vision of 2020, safety and health officer is part of the bargain.
The duties of the safety and health officer itself can assists the nation to grow and move forward without any disability. A strong nation will be born to pursue the vision which already laid.

Besides that, it is prescribed that an occupier of a place of work to which this section applies shall employ a competent person to act as a safety and health officer at the place of work. 
[Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (OSHA 1994)]

The industries that shall employ safety and health officer are:

1. any building operation where the total contract price of the project exceeds twenty million ringgit
2. any work of engineering construction where the total contract price of the project exceeds twenty million ringgit
3. any ship building employing at the peak of the work more than a hundred employees
4. any gas processing activity or petrochemical industries employing more than a hundred employees
5. any chemical and allied industry employing more than a hundred employees
6. any boiler and pressure vessel manufacturing activity employing more than a hundred employees
7. any metal industry where there is canning or stamping or blanking or shearing or bending operations and employing more than a hundred employees
8. any wood working industry where there is cutting or sawing or planning or moulding or sanding or peeling or any combination of the above, and employing more than a hundred employees
9. any cement manufacturing activity employing more than a hundred employees
10. any other manufacturing activity other than the manufacturing activity stated above, employing more than five hundred employees.

These industries is known to be the most dangerous workplaces because it is an accident prone workplace. Safety and health officer is assigned to formulate and lay out plans to upgrade the safety and health in the workplace as well as to maintain it. Of course, the employer should support the work of the safety and health officer to sustain the safety and health in workplace so that it is in good order.

Nowadays, safety and health officers is a very demanding job in Malaysia because of the demand in the safety industries and for the high paid salary. Although the job itself seems to be simple, but, truly, the job offers a lot of commitments and high responsibilities. Responsible to make a safe and healthy workplace.

That's all for the time being.
Thanks

Driving

A lot of people won't mind the speed sign at the road side. 

Think twice if you are over speed limit, as the consequences would be distinctively great and not a good one.

The speed limit is 60 km/h.....

But your speedometer is at 169 ++ km/h...and you're busy messaging your friends....

It is hard to break on time and to maneuver on time..

you are not looking out for the road.....

THEN...

These might happens and 

shit do happens

You might HIT a motorcycle..... or

You might HIT pedestrian.....or

Lost control of your so called SAFE vehicle... or

Targeted on the SPEED TRAP....or

Being CHASE by the law enforcer.... or

Still don't mind who chasing you, then the whole squadron is line up to pursue your EGO.. or

you might end up in the hospital if you're LUCKY... or

just get a TICKET and get away from it... or

Just plan your journey WISELY, follow the RULES,  don't RUSH... 

You might safe other people'S lives and yours.

and lastly

Don't ever park your car like this... it's hard to do so....

USE iT

Residents Mentality Towards Lifts

Nowadays at this very frigging millennia, people need to use lift to go up and down, not only in apartments but also in shopping complexes and offices.
People are so depending on this machines so much that, if the machines malfunctions, people would have to face the difficulty to use the stairs. It's ok for you if your home is at 2nd floor, what about a resident who stayed at 30th floor? It would be troublesome isn't it? What about for those people that are aged, impaired, and pregnant?
The most common defects that leading to this situation is the landing door at the hallway. Every time the lift or elevator is too slow to arrive, people would get mad easily. Maybe the person is in rush, time attack or just frigging out of their mind. For them waiting is a waste. Well, TIME IS GOLD!!! What about safety, what about your life, other people's life? Is the life of human being is as cheap as the landing door? Rushing and vandalizing won't be the answer.
These type of peoples would easily raised their foot and make a side kick to get out of their system. This actions would definitely make the so called landing door dented which subsequently uplift the landing lock which is connected the electrical switches in series system. Then the lift would tripped. Just imagine that, if there are passengers in that very lift, the passengers would be in shock knowing that the lift had stop halfway from the floor. They would be panicked, and truly they would find a way to get out of the car lift. This ultimate blind action is leading them to accident which far most can be fatal.
Living in an apartments, condos is like a community that concerns for each other, taking care of each other. We living in a community for god's sake!
Than after the lift is tripped, the maintenance company would definitely quoted the damaged. Furthermore, the respected joint management body have to pay for the fault of their residents done. The money can go for the upgrading facilities rather spending the money repairing the lift defects every month which is largely comes from the residents itself. The other thing is that residents refuse to pay the maintenance fees. Refusing to pay would create greater problem. Think for yourself, for who ever reading this post. What are the consequences?
For me, local authorities should get involved in this problem to find a way to overcome it. It's just like a time bomb, waiting for an accidents to occur. If an accidents happens, who to be blamed and who to blame for?
Therefore, with this brief thought, the people's attitude and mentality must change in order to live in a harmony and prosperous environment.
Patience is virtue.

Joint Management Body.

After all these years, I've been wondering, why is it lifts in a low cost apartment is so not well maintained if compared to medium and high cost apartment and condominium.
I've been searching for the answer for a while now. Dont have the answer, but I've developed a theory for this neverending problem.
For me there are four things that contributed to this factor.
Hmmm... why is it low cost apartment is lacking in lift maintenance?...
First of all, maybe the attitude and mentality of a residents, secondly, commitment towards maintenance fees, thirdly, the lifts is outdated and lastly the management body itself.
If you noticed, medium and high cost apartment dont have much problem towards any lift breakdown, which is minimal. As far as I'm concerned, the attitude of one's behaviour can make a huge differences in lift breakdown.
For example, you have pressed  the call button and waited for the lift to arrive. But, still the lift didn't arrive after sometime. Your patience have grown dull, you are waiting no longer, with all the temper you kick and punch the call button at the hallway until the button is torn out. This is what happened at the low cost apartment. Apart from that, vandalisme is much higher, dont know why this nonsense happening, maybe some junkie had enough, or maybe stressfull person letting out the fury, or maybe just for fun. Dont know which is which, which is the answer for this wrong doing.
Another thing is that maintenance fees. All residents, I assure you, want a first class facility but dont want to pay for the fees. How could a car can have free maintenance for life?? I've seen a debt that reaches five figures, how that could be?
Futhermore, the lift itself. There are some lifts have been installed in the 80's. The control panel, the electrical parts, the mechanical parts  is outdated. The lifts is now a breakdown-prone. The spareparts is hard to get.
Just imagine that, the lift is just like a car. Would the spareparts for the 80's car still available in the market nowadays?.
Then, the management body, a full commitment and well organized management would have eliminate all of these nonsenses. The collected fees can be put in the good use.
I've seen a low cost management body manage to overcome vandalisme and fees problem. It's been a well organized management body. Firstly, they installed a bunch of CCTV camera to prevent any vandalisme, crimes and other things. This method seems to be a successful one. Then the residents feels that the money they put in have show the benefits. Not only that, the money they've collected is used for the swimming pool and spa facility. They have done it just with a proper management and CCTV camera.
Then I start to wonder again, is this method can be applied to all apartments and condominiums?

Person In Charge

Today I'm gonna share something that might be useful for some people. The person in charge according to boiler heating surface. Heating surface will be referred as HS.

1. HS <= 500                                1st or 2nd grade Boilerman
2. 500 < HS <= 2000                   1st grade Boilerman
3. 2000 < HS < 5000                   1st grade Boilerman + Visiting Engineer
4. 5000 < HS < 10000                 1st or 2nd grade Engineer + 1st grade Boilerman
5. 10000 < HS < 25000               1st grade Engineer + 1st grade or 2nd grade Engineer  +  1st or 2nd grade Boilerman/shift
6. 25000 < HS < 50000               1st grade Engineer + two 1st grade or 2nd grade Engineer  +  1st or 2nd grade Boilerman/shift
7. HS > 50000                             1st grade Engineer + 1st grade or 2nd grade Engineer/shift  +  1st or 2nd grade Boilerman/shift

These are required person incharge for an industries including hotels for those who have boilers.

New employees more prone to workplace accidents

PUTRAJAYA: New employees are more likely to get involved in accidents at their workplaces as compared to their senior colleagues.

Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Noraini Ahmad said this was because many of these employees are eager to please their bosses. In addition, they are usually also excited about their new jobs.

"We have found that many of those involved in workplace accidents in Malaysia have been working for less than six months after finishing school or graduating.

"Maybe they are excited about getting their first salaries and are eager to follow their bosses' orders, including doing dangerous tasks without any thought to their safety.

"That's why it is important for us to start promoting awareness about occupational safety and health issues in schools," she told reporters Friday after a press conference on OSH Week here.

Noraini however said that the scenario was reversed in developed nations where many of those involved in workplace accidents were those about to retire.

"In Japan and in Scandinavian countries, where there are fewer young people, employees have to work until their 60s so they face dangers from failing eyesight and less mobility," she said, adding that as a rapidly developing country, Malaysia was heading towards that trend.

Noraini said Malaysia also hoped to halve its rate of workplace accidents at six cases for every 1,000 workers by the year 2020.

"At present, the manufacturing sector records the highest number of workplace accidents, which is where we have most of our workers. However, the construction sector sees the highest number of fatalities," she said.

Noraini said OSH Week, which runs from Monday until Friday at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, also aimed to promote awareness of occupational safety among women workers.

"Most women work in service and electronic sectors, where they are required to handle detergents and chemical solutions that may pose a risk to their reproductive system. Similarly, they come into potential harm using pesticides in farms," she pointed out.

Below is the fatal accidents graph involving workers in year 2009. Death toll illustrated mostly came from building construction sector.

Funny Safety Pics

I first started giving out talks in safety about a year ago,.. mostly about regulations and sometimes I would add funny pictures to avoid boredom of my fellow audience.
It seem that, well,... in their faces when they saw the pictures that safety culture is still far away to grab, but hey it's a challenge.
In order to make this country a developed country, safety culture is part of it. So, what is the relations between developed country and safety? Let me put it this way... imagine that, in a big companies which always have an accident occurs involving its employee, would, at least lost its profit due to,....
Firstly, the injured employee would take a medical leave which recorded as lost time injury, secondly, if the employee is not fit enough to do the same routine job, the company would bare the cost to train a new employee. Doesn't it cost more rather than invest for safety for the sake of the employees and company profit?
Know this, that accidents is like an iceberg, you can only see certain part of it, you'll never know what the hidden cost is. That' why accidents are costly.
On top of that, who's gonna support his family if the employee is dead? What about income per ca-pita which our government urge it's citizen to increase their revenue? Think about it.

This welder do not wear an appropriate personal protective equipment. Just imagine the spark from the welding rod jump off and hit his face. What would happen?


This picture was taken a long time ago. Do not know when is the exact date. These were the construction workers of World Trade Center in New York. There were no safety harness put on by these fellows.


Can a brick act as your safety helmet?


Take safety for granted aye?


What a superhuman strength...gosh..

First Restaurant Convicted

This article was extracted out from WSH Bulletin. Do read the article, negligence of safety will cost you more.
Don't think that investments in safety would give out loss of profit. Do think that, this is an investment for not making a bigger losses. It's like a preventive measures.
Risks assessment, standard operation procedure, safe working procedure and safety induction can be done easily. Do take safety seriously, you'll not know when and where accidents would strike. Contribution and commitment from top management would ensure the safe workplace for workers. On top of that, losses can be avoided. Just a simple procedures and awareness needed.


Raffles Marina Ltd was fined $80,000 today for its failure to take reasonably practicable measures to ensure workplace safety and health, thereby contributing to the death of a worker on 29 May 2009. Raffles Marina Ltd is the first restaurant to be convicted under the WSH Act since it was extended to cover restaurants from 1 March 2008.

About the case

The incident happened on 29 May 2009 at Marina Bistro Coffee House located at 10 Tuas West Drive. The worker was a senior steward employed by Raffles Marina Ltd. The worker was likely to have either slipped due to the slippery floor or fallen when he stepped on one of the articles strewn on the kitchen floor of the dish washing area. He was carrying at least one plastic rack containing 25 glass wine goblets. The wine goblets shattered and cut the worker in the neck area. The worker was sent to the hospital where he died from excessive loss of blood as a result of a deep cut on the neck.



Investigations by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) showed that the employer had failed to take reasonably practicable measures to ensure that the workplace was safe and without risks. The employer failed to conduct risk assessment to identify and manage the hazards for the dishwashing activities. The employer also failed to ensure the kitchen was free from slipping and tripping hazards. Although the employer had issued a pair of safety boots to the worker for his use during the course of his work, it was insufficient to prevent the worker from falling.



Mr Heng Chiang Gnee, Deputy Chairman, Workplace Safety and Health Council said, “The death of a worker in the course of carrying out simple kitchen work shows that we must never take the safety at workplaces lightly. Employers must plan safe work procedures for all types of work, ensure that their workers are well briefed and implement safety measures effectively. Often, near misses during work, such as a slip at work, are not noted and no suitable immediate actions are taken to reduce risks and improve situations . To improve our safety management, there is a need to change mindset to seek out near misses and drive improvements even though near misses may not result in injuries. We should therefore all be mindful of the possible risks that our employees face everyday at work. If there are incidents or near-miss cases, measures must immediately be taken to prevent them from happening again. The Council urges all parties to pay serious attention to near-miss cases, or seemingly minor incidents, so that necessary steps can be taken to improve. With this mindset, we can then aim for safer workplaces for all our employees."

Commissioner for Workplace Safety and Health, MOM added that the conviction of Raffles Marina Ltd serves as a stern warning to all workplaces to make safety and health a priority. He reminded all employers, individuals and stakeholders of the importance of ensuring and adhering to proper safety measures.

What Is Safety Culture?

The beginning of the safety culture period of accident investigation and analysis can be traced back to the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 in which a 'poor safety culture' was identified as a factor contributing to the accident by both International Atomic Agency and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developement Nuclear Agency (Cox and Flin 1998; Mearns and Flin 1999; Pidgeon 1998).

Since then safety culture has been discussed in other major accident inquiries and analyses of system failures, such as King's Cross underground fire in London and the Piper Alpha oil platform explosion in the North Sea (Cox and Flin 1998; Pidgeon 1998), as well as the crash of Continental Express Flight 2574 (Meshkati 1997), The Columbia Space Shuttle accident (CAIB 2003), and the explosion at the British Petroleum Refinery in Texas City (CSB 2005.

So, what is Safety Culture?

'the product of multiple interactions between people (psychological), jobs (behavioural) and the organization (situational) in the field of occupational safety and health'