Health and Safety Basics

Accidents may happen anytime. It just happens when all of us are unprepared  and busy doing things. It can be anywhere at anytime.

I, as a person, have witnessed some accidents that should have been prevented. Kakalungkot lang at di naiwasan.

1) Electric Shock ng Isang Pintor Habang nasa Hagdan:

Isang araw sa trabaho, para maabot ang pinipinturahan ng aming isang pintor, hinawakan nya ang threaded bar kung saan nakasabit ang fluroresent lamp. Ang hindi nya alam, grounded ito. Mula sa ilaw ay dumaloy ang kuryente sa threaded bar na kinapitan nya at sya ay nakuryente't nahulog pa sa hagdanan.

Cause of Accident:      Walang suporta o tagahawak ng hagdan kahit mataas ang pinipinturahan nya
                                       Exposed / Uninsulated wiring na nagcause ng grounding
                                       Walang PPE like safety helmet at gloves

     Consequence       :    Dahil sa pagkahulog, naospital sya nang tatlong linggo.


2) Heat Stroke ng Isang Driver - Isa sa mga napasukan kong projects ay supply and installation ng mga runways sa airport. Ang aming masipag na driver noon ay hatid sundo ng mga materyales sa gitna ng init ng araw. Ilang oras na walang hinto sa trabaho kahit sobrang init. Minsan napagod sya, dumiretso sya sa barracks at natulog kaagad, nang hindi manlang umiinom g tubig. Heat stroke ang inabot nya.

     Cause of Accident:  Prolonged exposure sa mataas na sikat ng araw
     Consequence        :  Heat Stroke



1) Common terms used in Health and Safety

•   Hazard - anything that has potential to cause harm
•   Likelihood - chance that a hazardous event may occur
•   Consequence -outcome of the hazardous event
•   Risk level - Likelihood x consequence. This is used to identify if some control measure should be done or not.
•  Risk control - taking suitable measures to eliminate and control risks
• Accident - undesired injury or property damage
• Near-miss  - Any accident avoided or accident that almost happened

2)  Three Key Reasons To Manage Safety

• Moral / humanitarian reason - We all have this moral obligation to everyone not to cause harm to others. 
• Legal - As per law, a person or company can be penalized if found guilty of negligence,  work ethics and offensive assaults to employees directly or indirectly. 
• Financials - All accidents and illnesses costs money.

3) Identifying Hazard -  Hazards are in different form. Some of the conditions / hazards listed below are those we even consider common and not harmful, but actually display risks also.

• Aggression and violence - Verbal and physical abuse, threats, assaults
• Bullying - Power tripping or anything that makes a person feel singled out for unfair treatment by a boss or a colleague. Intimidating others, insults or causing injury to other persons.
• Chemical and harmful substances - Examples are adhesives, cleaning agents, fumes from welding, dusts and bacterias,
• Electrical hazards - Anything that can cause electrical faults and shocks, such as bare wires of old appliances and octopus wiring
• Fire
• Entrance and Exit
• Heights 
• Poor Lighting
• Prolonged work with computers
• Slips and Trips
• Temperature - too much cold or too hot. As we all know our body can only adjust to a certain level of temperature. For instance, in the event of a heat stroke, the body heats up continuously, until it suddenly lose the ability to perspire. A good analogy is that in a car engine. If the car runs for long hours, it overheats until its exhaust system cannot cope up. It could be saved if the car pauses and rests after a long drive. However, if the car becomes too much hot to handle, the engine just suddenly disintegrates and stops.
• Noise
• Stress - Yes, this maybe categorized by many of us as a common and simple issue but for a health and safety practitioner, this is one of the most neglected work hazards
• And the long list goes on and on..

4) Risk Assessment Form

Anyone can make a simple risk assessment checklist. It does not have to be complicated and overtechnical. I have a sample risk assessment form below:

          

Work Activity / Hazard          People Affected      Likelihood x Consequence       Risk Level

1)  Supply of chemical to               AC technician               2        x      2                            4

     chillers / chemical hazard

2)  Changing of lights from a        Electrician                     2        x      3                            6

     20-feet ceiling / heights

3) Rooftop works / prolonged         AC technicians            3        x      3                            9

     exposure to the sun

The risk level results will be evaluated with the Risk Matrix (can be in 3x3 matrix or 5x5 matrix). Sa example sa taas, ang ginamit ay 1 - 3 scale kung saan 1 ang minimum at 3 ang maximum. Mas mataas na risk level, mas dapat gawan ng control measures. Di na kailangan pang magkaroon ng mga near-miss incidents or accidents.

Be your own health and safety practitioner. 

6 Golden Rules For a Healthy Heart

Let's do some Math!


I researched before and found out that an average heart is only about 5 inches in length and 3.5 inches in width. That is only a 1 handful equivalent. However, I am truly amazed of how it strongly functions.


At rest, a heart beats 50-99 times a minute and even faster than that when a person is at work. There is 1,440 minutes per day so that means a heartbeat is around 100,500 plus per day and going around 1 million heartbeats in 1 week.


By personal experience, I have come to hear the first heartbeat 💓 of a baby 👶 at 6 weeks old. So just thinking how many times our heart beats from the day we existed until now is a Huge Blessing.


Ever since it is started pumping blood for oxygen circulation in our body, it works non-stop 24/7 - such a big responsibility for a small but powerful heart.


Thus, we should take care of it as much as we can. I have some of the golden rules I take personally to keep a healthy heart.


1)  Be a morning person!

     This statement is something I myself is still on the maintaining process since I am used to sleeping late at nights during the past 10 years. However, come to think of it. Getting up in the morning early, getting the bed neatly fixed early, and getting all other activities started early makes it sound more refreshing especially, when you have a great - tasting and a balanced diet Breakfast.  After all, energy and nutrients we need during the day can be found in a nutritious morning meal.

Take it from our grandparents as an example. It is good to wake up early and get a full breakfast. It's even more delicious while sipping hot coffee drinking milk, and oftentimes done while reading newspaper. A good way of feeding the tummy early as well as feeding the mind.



2) Keep Monitoring

    Part of a healthy lifestyle is keeping the blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol in check. We may not have time and money to go the the hospital or Private clinic, but hey, there are public medical centers (barangay health centers in the Philippines) to go to. With regular check ups, we can learn if you have to adjust something with respect to gender and age group and take advice from health practitioners on what steps to take to reach or maintain those numbers.


3)  Putting Vices Out

     Smoking is one of the leading causes of heart diseases and even increases stress level. Quitting is the best thing you can do for a healthier heart. Our risk of a heart attack is reduced by half, just a year after giving up. This is just one of the many vices to be mentioned. We know what the others are.

4)  Sleep, More Time to Dream

Sleep is an essential part of keeping the heart healthy also. not having enough sleep can increase risk on cardiovascular disease regardless of age or health habits.

5) Do Warm Ups, Sit Ups and Regular Walks.

In short, Exercise. Research shows that excess fats, especially belly fats are linked to higher blood pressure ad unhealthy blood lipid level. A healthy balance diet is much better is partnered with regular body exercises.  As for me, I only do what fits me, no need to overdo these type of things.  Just making sure our calories are reduces and our body weight our trimmed down if required.

It's actually easy to get the heart rate up during common days - taking stairs instead of escalators in the malls, walking through colleague's desks at work instead of just texting or calling him up. doing physical things adds up to a healthier heart. ad it can also be fun too!

6) Be happy

Laughing can lower stress homones, and even decrease inflammation of the arteries. It even raise level of "good cholestherol" in our body. Sharing a hug and a smile whenever we can has always a good effect to our body. Also, good jokes in stressful days are also effective. After all, laughter is the best medicine, as they say.