Common Health and Safety Hazards At Workplace

Common Health and Safety Hazards

Aug 17^th 2024

Workplace health and safety is a top priority for both employers and employees. Global statistics indicate that around 2.78 million workers lose their lives from occupational accidents and job-related diseases. This alarms us to have the essential knowledge and awareness of the most common occupational health and safety hazards.

Slips, Trips and Falls

Slips, trips and falls are regarded as the most common causes of workplace accidents and injuries. These incidents may lead to major injuries, broken bones, bruising, and strained ligaments.

Scenarios that pose the risk of falling, slipping and tripping include:

Wet floor
Uneven floors
Height of equipment
Poor lighting
Cluttered areas

Slip Trips and Falls Training

Noise

Excessive noise in the workplace is also a common health and safety hazard. Workers who are involved in noisy work environments such as construction, aviation, manufacturing and entertainment are at the risk of induced hearing loss.

The higher the noise a worker receives, the more the level of risks to the hearing capability of the workers. So how do you know your workplace has hazardous noise? A simple test can help; answer the below questions:

Is the noise frustrating?
Do you feel like shouting at a person just standing a meter away?
Do you have a feeling of ringing in the ears?

The above questions can give information on whether your workplace is exposed to noise hazards.

Noise Protection Training

Manual Handling

Manual handling is a common health and safety hazard in most industries, especially in the construction sector. Injuries can happen when workers are involved in lifting heavy objects without adequate protection or improper methods.

Tasks such as pushing, carrying, or pulling objects can become the cause of intense back pain, musculoskeletal disorders, hernias, and prolapsed discs.

Did you know? Manual handling contributes to over 30% of injuries at work. This emphasizes the need for utmost care and attention towards manual handling activities to avoid accidents.

Safety Manual Handling Training

Hazardous substances

Employees in workplaces that contain hazardous substances are at risk if they come into contact without any safety measures or protective equipment. Exposure to hazardous substances such as chemicals, cleaning agents, pesticides, radiation, asbestos in old buildings and more can cause chronic health impacts like irritation to the skin, vomiting and nausea, eye injuries and more.

Other than the above, physical hazards like extreme weather conditions are also a harmful environment for workers. Irrespective of its type or size, every workplace has some kind of health and safety risks. The best approach to reduce such risks is to equip the workforce with appropriate health and safety training.

Hazardous Materials Identification Training

Improve your organization’s Health and Safety at Work with Green World Group

Green World Group is dedicated to delivering you with the essential skills and tools to effectively manage workplace risks. Our HSE experts can collaborate with you, and offer pragmatic guidance, practical solutions and training that exactly meets your unique business needs.

Whether it is a risk assessment, workplace safety training to workers, HSE auditing services or process safety, Green World Group can support you all the way to a workplace elevated in health and safety.