A presentation on the need for an occupational health unit with a case study on creating one in Maritime Administration and Regulatory Agencies

1. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND
ENVIRONMENT (THE FUNDAMENTALS)
PRESENTED BY
DR. FELICIA CHINWE MOGO (PhD)
Contact me: felichimogo@yahoo.com
Find me on Linkedin: Felicia Chinwe Mogo

2. DEFINITION OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH,
SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT
The promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical,
mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations; the
prevention amongst workers of departures from health caused by their
working conditions; the protection of workers in their employment
from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and
maintenance of the workers in an occupational environment adapted
to his physiological and psychological capabilities; and, to summarize,
“the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job".
The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health
Organization (WHO) in 1950 jointly shared and adopted a common
definition in 1950 and revised in 1995.

3. INTRODUCTION
The main focus in occupational health is on three different objectives:
 The maintenance and promotion of workers’ health and working capacity
 The improvement of working environment and work to become conducive to
safety and health
 Development of work organizations and working cultures in a direction which
supports health and safety at work and so doing also promotes a positive social
climate and smooth operation and may enhance productivity of the
undertakings.

4. HEALTH AND SAFETY
STATISTICS
Key Annual Figures For 2011/12
 1.1 million working people were suffering from a work-
related illness
 172 workers killed at work
 111 000 other injuries to employees were reported
 212 000 over-3-day absence injuries occurred
 27 million working days were lost due to work-related
illness and workplace injury
 Workplace injuries and ill health (excluding cancer) cost
society an estimated £13.4 billion in 2010/11
Source: www.hse.gov.uk/statistics

5.  Safety (moving machinery, working at heights,
slippery surfaces, mobile equipment, etc.)
2. Ergonomic (material handling, environment, work
organization, etc.)
3. Chemical Agents
4. Biological Agents
5. Physical Agents(noise, lighting, radiation, etc.)
6. Psychosocial(stress, violence, etc.)
COMMON WORKPLACE CLASSIFICATION OF
HAZARDS

7. Worker (work experience Student) killed by unsecured office shelving

8. An Office Fire Incident in Nigeria

9. FUNCTIONS OF OSHE INCLUDE BUT NOT LIMITED
TO THE FOLLOWING:
 Ensure safety, health and welfare at work of the NIMASA
employees and contractors.
 Ensures that the necessary steps are taken to guarantee the safety
and health of the public, in the vicinity of NIMASA affixes
and work sites
 The collaboration with other line Divisions with respect to
disaster preparedness and management
 To liaise with local, regional and international stakeholders
organizations to promote EHS practices in NIMASA

10. Cont…….
 The audit of projects, properties and activities of the Agency
and Environmental, Health and Safety perspective ensuring
compliance with NIMASA and other statutory requirements.
 The oversight of the formulation and implementation of training
programmes on Health, Safety and Environment for staff of
NIMASA.
 To raise awareness at OHSE issues within NIMASA and to
foster a positive OHSE culture amongst all employee in the
Agency.

11. ESSENCE OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY,
HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT TO NIMASA
 To provide the framework and tools to manage evolving OHSE
issues quickly
 To reduce the incidents of injuries to employees, stakeholders
and visitors
It is believed that each staff of NIMASA must give OHSE issues
the same amount of attention, effort and importance that is placed
on delivering our duties. This is in line with our approach to
safety, which is our number one ethic and will not be
compromised.

12. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH, SAFETY MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM
 This is a complete process of hazard identification
 Risk assessment and control
 Employee training
 Record keeping
 Program assessment
 Management involvement
 This is an organized effort and procedure for identifying workplace hazards
 Reducing accidents and exposure to harmful situations and substances
 Training of personnel in accident response
 Emergency preparedness
 Use of protective clothing and equipment (PPE) personal protective equipment

13.  Hazard is something that can cause harm if not controlled.
 The outcome is the harm that results from an uncontrolled
hazard.
 A risk a combination of the probability that a particular
outcome will occur and the severity of the harm involved.
 “Hazard”, “risk”, and “outcome” are used in other fields to
describe e.g. environmental damage, or damage to
equipment. However, in the context of OSH, “harm”
generally describes the direct or indirect degradation,
temporary or permanent, of the physical, mental, or social
well-being of workers
SOME IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS

14. BASELINE AUDIT IN OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT
This is an audit which involves of all aspects of a health and
safety program, the result of which will be used as comparison
(a baseline) when a future audit is carried out with a baseline
audit in the record.
It is possible after future audits to identify whether there have
been improvements or declines in environment, health and
safety performance

15. NIGERIAN BILL ON OCCUPATIONAL
SAFETY AND HEALTH IN 2012
The underlying principles of the Bill are:
 Make provision for protecting others against risks to safety or health in
connection with activities of persons at work
 Provide preventive mechanisms and measures for OSHE with greater emphasis
on the prevention of injury or accident and the elimination of hazards at
workplaces
 To ensure the provision of OSHE services to workers in all sectors of economic
activities
 Develop consultative arrangement between employers and employees at
workplace
 Develop and promote public awareness and enlightenment on measures to
prevent accident and injuries at workplace
 Provide a legal basis for a national policy on OSHE
 Provide a legal framework consisting of higher standards of OSHE that will take
account of changes in technology and work practices
 Provide regulatory framework for compliance with safety and health standards
by employers, their agents and employees at workplaces

16. INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL
INSTRUMENTS OF INTERVENTION FOR OSHE
 Occupational Safety and health Convention, 1981 (no. 155) and its protocol
of 2002
 Occupational Safety and Health Act 2005 (Nigeria)
 IMO-MEPC.2/circ.3:guidelines in basic elements of a shipboard
occupational health and safety programme
 Maritime Labour Convention 2006 Gibraltar Merchant Shipping (Maritime
Labour Convention) Regulations 2012.
 Reg. 30 Health and Safety Executive, Five steps to risk assessment
(INDG163); Health and Safety Executive; Understanding Health
Surveillance at work (INDG304); and Maritime and Coastguard Agency,
Code of Safe Working Practice for Merchant Seamen

17. OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH, SAFETY AND
ENVIRONMENT AUDIT
 An audit is a review to confirm that regulations, processes or rules are being followed
 A Health, Safety and Environment Audit focuses on some or all aspects of health and
safety.
 It is performed to determine whether health and safety regulations and company policies
(sometimes recognised good practices) complemented and complied to
 Some factors that can help increase safety are personal protective gear
 Emergency equipment
 Emergency training
 Health and safety awareness
 Occupational health and safety training
 Health and safety posters/signs.

18. STAFFING: NUMBER AND QUALIFICATIONS
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
OSHE
CHIEF
OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH
OCCUPATIONAL
ADVISER
HSE
ADVISER
CHIEF SAFETY
ENVIRONMENT
ASSISTANT CHIEF
OH
SNR FIRE
SAFETY OFFICER
SNR FIRST AID
OFFICER
ASSISTANT CHIEF
HSE
PMEMO OH SAFETY REP/FIRE SAFETY REP/FIRST AID PMEMO HSE
ASSISTANT SAFETY
REP. FIRE
ASSISTANT
SAFETY REP
FIRST AID
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH,
SAFETY ENVIRONMENT
REPS IN OTHER DEPTS.

19. RESOURCES REQUIRED
To run a functional unit aimed at achieving safety of the staff and environment, a lot of
resources must be put in place; which includes:
 Human Resources
 Major Office equipment and Office space
 Waste management
 Fire-fighting equipment, including fire-boats for NIMASA vessels
 Signage
 Proper Water and electricity supply and management
 Other equipment including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as safety
boots, reflective jackets, gloves, etc. with proper storage areas.

20. CONCLUSION
Healthy people in safe and productive workplace
Let’s work together, Can we? Yes we can!

21. Thank you very much for your attention,
wishing you safety all the way.