occupational health and safety 04 by Articles Uncovered
Published Date: 31/08/07
Occupational safety and health are tremendously important, but tremendously complex issues. They are notoriously irritating to employers. Before I worked for the occupational health and safety administration, or OSHA, I used to be an employer. I ran a large factory, you see, and we faced all of the occupational health and safety issues that there were. We had to deal with putting up the correct safety signs, having the correct placement of office furniture to avoid injuries, and having the right safety devices on the machines. You name it, and we had to do it.
I would not have gotten involved in occupational health and safety jobs except for a tragic mistake at the factory. You see, we prided ourselves on running what we thought was a safe shop, but we were mistaken. Things were not as safe as we had thought. One of our employees was seriously injured in one of the machines. He lost an arm. The tragic part was that it could've been avoided.
I took some occupational health and safety training to try to make sure that the same thing didn't happen again. The rest is history. I was so fascinated by all of the rules of occupational health and safety that I decided that I wanted to get involved in it for a career. Although I had to take a serious pay cut, it was worth it. I had never been passionate about my job before, but now I could do something that I really loved to do.
The biggest obstacle to establishing correct workplace safety is that many people are unwilling to see the issues until it is too late. They don't wash their hands enough, they keep meat at the wrong temperatures, they run the assembly line too quickly, or they don't have the right office furniture. Whatever the issue is, it seems like a small thing at the time. Unfortunately, uncorrected occupational health and safety problems tend to cost lives. Many people will lose their health, and many more will be killed outright. As an occupational health and safety professional, my job is to convince bosses that good workplace safety practices not only save their employees from getting injured, but save them money as well. In the long run, taking adequate safety precautions is much more economical than paying large legal settlements. Since that tragic accident, my motto has always been that it pays to be safe.
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