Safety Plan

Investigations related to incidents that occur at a certain worksite, help both workers and employers recognize the dangers and health risks along with limitations of their health and safety programs. In most cases, the necessary preventive measures are identified and implemented to ensure that those incidents don't occur in the future. Investigating incidents with the aim of identifying their causes and finding preventive solutions increases productivity and the morale of the employees.

This is because it shows that the employer is committed to ensure a healthy and risk free workplace. Supervisors are mostly responsible for conducting investigations on these incidents. For the investigation to be successful, the employees and managers should cooperate and work together considering that they all have different perspectives, knowledge and understanding of the incident. The team conducting the investigation should try to see beyond the incident's immediate cause.

Most of the time there is the misleading notion that the sole cause of the incident was failure to follow instructions and procedures or even carelessness (OSHA, n.d.). Creating a plan action will be necessary to ensure that our case's investigation is successful. The investigation exercise will follow the steps below: 1. Call all the employees before starting the investigation 2. Secure the workspace that the employees have been occupying 3. Take the 4 employees who claim to feel dizzy and lightheaded and take them to a separate place 4.

Ask and record how the 4 employees are feeling 5. Interview the other employees to find out whether they are suffering from similar cases and symptoms 6. Take photos and record a short video footage of the area the affected employees have been working. 7. Write an investigation report detailed with the determined cause of the incident as well as preventive measures to prevent future recurrences 8. Improve the program for preventing injuries and illnesses using the results to improve the identification and prevention of hazards before incidents occur. 9.

After completing the corrective measures, do a follow-up on the case.

The following details should be taken into consideration while documenting the investigation procedure: • The people responsible in conducting the investigation as well as the participants • The incidents under investigation • The information that will be collected • identifying the factors causing the incident (commonly known as root causes) • Determining the corrective measures • Ensuring the corrective measures are implemented Identification of The Source of The Problem Collecting information is necessary to get an idea of the cause of the dizziness.

The steps below will be of help in identifying the cause of the problem: Employer Interview This is necessary to find answers for the following questions: • What is the extent of the complaints and illnesses from the workers and how are they distributed? • How is the HVAC system (heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning) designed and what are its operational parameters? • Do the HVAC systems undergo maintenance and if so how frequently? • Are people allowed to smoke within the warehouse, in the areas nearby or areas that share a ventilation system with the warehouse facility? • Are there any previous maintenance or renovation activities that could be responsible for introducing contaminants? • Are there any previous maintenance or renovation activities that could have altered the buildings air flow? 1.

Employee Interviews a. What are the reported complaints and the symptoms connected to them, is there a particular event that could have triggered them, what is the cause of symptoms in a particular area; have the affected accessed medical attention? b. What are the habits of the area's workers; are they smokers? B. Walkaround Inspection 52% of walkaround investigations from most warehouses in companies have revealed poor ventilation as the main problem. Surveys on ventilations should therefore be conducted first (OSHA, n.d.).

Determination of the characteristics of the building, discussing HVAC system operations with experts, verification of information given by the employer and the workers, testing the ventilation system, and collection of screening samples that could be of help identifying the likely causes where necessary are all required when carrying out the walkaround inspection (Burge and Hodgson, 1988).

Potential Problem Areas -- they provide answers to the questions below: • Are the complaints from the employees caused by contaminants whose sources are within the building (these include contaminants originating from renovation or construction, gas appliances that are not vented properly, pesticides and even air fresheners)? • Are complaints caused by contaminants whose source is outside the building (dust, cooling towers, atmospheric pollutants and biological contaminants)? • Are the HVAC systems operating as they should and undergoing regular maintenance? Sample collection Professional judgement is critical during the walkaround inspections in order to establish whether samples should be collected in evaluation of potential sources and contaminants which include vapour, gases and particulates.

• Initial sampling usually comprises the use of grab to collect data from the environment or screening samples through direct reading equipment.

• Sample collection may also be used in monitoring possible contaminant increases on a workday • In order to get a good evaluation, sample collection ought to be conducted at the inlets of fresh air, around return-air ducts, beside the sources of both indoor and outdoor air and in the areas of work of both affected and non-affected workers Environmental Evaluation It might be necessary to conduct more investigations depending on the initial sampling: 1.

Microbiological Evaluation Normally, 5% of all environmental investigations on the quality of indoor air contain various forms of microbiological contamination. • Medical or clinical reports indicating any form of workplace-related illnesses should initiate air sampling. • Equipment that is specialized for sampling bio aerosol, which requires a lot of expertise, is used (OSHA, n.d.). The possible cause of the problem Air contamination in their different places of work is likely to be the main cause of the problems health workers experience.

Poor ventilation can be linked to this problem as well as HVAC Systems that don't function properly. The major cause of workers' health problems experienced may be due to air contamination in their respective working area. The problem can be caused by poor ventilation of the working area and inefficient heating, ventilation or air conditioning systems. These can hinder conducive air flow. This could result to circulation problems where fresh air does not find its way into the building while contaminated air is not let out.

It can be argued that poor ventilation causes air contamination which negatively affects the employees when they inhale it. This condition could be the cause of dizziness and lightheadedness that the employees suffer during working hours. These problems are caused by low amounts of oxygen in the blood of the employees.

Standards Applicable to the Sources of Air Contamination In order to have better circulation, the following steps should be followed: • Determination of humidity, temperature, airflow and air balance (differences in pressure) in the specific parts in the warehouse • Avoiding the use of chemical formulations and when they are necessary, properly functioning ventilation should be ensured.

Some of the chemicals could cause health problems after contacting human skin • Avoiding putting tape on air supply diffusers to ensure that air is properly distributed and mixed • Cutting on the usage of air fresheners, cosmetics that contain scents and fragrances to a minimum. The.