Question

(Occupational Health & Safety Subject) Brief explanations

a. The Human Factor Theory of accidents attributes accident to a chain of events ultimately caused by human error. Briefly discuss about the theory.

b. The hierarchy of risk controls techniques is important in order to provide the difference effects of control measures. Besides personal protective equipment (PPE) controls, explain the hierarchy from the most to the least effective prevention.

c. The Loss Causation Model explains two main categories causes of accidents. Briefly explain basic and immediate causes of accidents.

d. Discuss risk and types of risks from Safety and Health Management perspectives.

e. The Petersen Accident/Incident Theory is an extension of human factor theory. Discuss new THREE (3) elements introduced in Petersen theory.

f. Explain the hierarchy of risk control with respective diagram excluding administrative and personal protective equipment (PPE) controls.

Answer 1

Answer a:- The human factors theory of accident causation attributes accidents to a chain of events ultimately caused by human error. It consists of three broad factors that lead to human error: overload, inappropriate response, and inappropriate activities.

Answer b:- With regards to the order of hierarchy, the best possible scenario for controlling risk is to eliminate the hazard. If there is no hazard, there won't be a risk. The least preferred is personal protective equipment. It is the least preferred because it protects the person but doesn't remove the hazard

Answer e:- Systems failure is normally caused by several acts or approaches which do not fulfill the requirements of occupational safety and health such as the following.

(a)Management does not establish a comprehensive safety policy.

(b)Responsibility and authority with regard to safety are not clearly defined.

(c)Safety procedures such as measurement, inspection, correction, and investigation are ignored or given insufficient attention

(d)Employees do not receive proper orientation.

(e) Employees are not given sufficient safety training.

The incident theory is an extension of the human factors theory. It was developed by Dan Petersen and is sometimes referred to as the Petersen accident/incident theory. Petersen introduced such new elements as ergonomic traps, the decision to err, and systems failures