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FILE NAME: National Safety Council (NSC) DATE: 0000 DOC#: NSC139 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Article/Chapter - What the Safety Engineer Should Know About Industrial Health Hazards ND .Z <? ,** 1 M l 1 I P-N SC-3 7 56 Top Management in Safety .vorkhig conditions, machinery, equipment uui personal safety protective devices ami ippare! where necessary. Recommendations from the National Safety Council, presidential conferences, or other groups, that refer to education arc of iki real value unless there is instituted ef fective training programs for supervisors and employees. The working force of American industry represents a highly skilled and impressive background of experience to he tapped for ideas, and we must do a better job in the future of encouraging employees (o offer suggestions, advice and recommendations for the improvement of safety. If safety is primarily the obligation of (tie employer, let's have no confusion and uncertainty insofar as management having the complete authority necessary to carry out its responsibility. Cooperation for safety n a moral obligation of every individual employee, and, m unionized plants, the wel fare of the employee places upon the labor union a moral obligation to cooperate in accident prevention within the framework of its agreed-upon participation. i Mr. John Q. Public is a very patient in dividual, and a very important one. And.I believe he is getting a little fed up on the never-ending brawls between management and labor--and both of these groups can regain a great deal of prestige, which has Iecu lost, by honestly and conscientiously grtling together in the held of indiisfrial safety which, it far too innuv rn*cs, has only bad lip service fini Iwitli sides. We cannot afford to lake as much time as we have in the past making a radical improve ment in our national safety record, and 1 can say to you tills morning, as Marcus Aurelius once warned himself, "don't act as if you had a thousand years to live." The development of a safety program can loo easily be one of the matters that a busy executive can continually put ahead in his follow-up file, which gets it out of sight until it comes out again. ! suggest that ihe rcsjKmsihlc executive ask for the previous day's accident record as he now asks for the previous day's sales, production and em ployment data, and, in cases where the accident record falls short of the desired goal, take the necessary steps, as he would in eases of disappointing sales and produc tion, to remedy the situation. Hut again I say, remember, it is later than you think I Safety is a job for every one. I don't care whether you make bricks, lay them, or throw them. It is a purely practical mailer. We arc beginning to slowly realize that it docs not pay to get hurt Forgetting the human relations angle en tirely--lost wages, medical expenses, work men's compensation, do a job on the effi ciency of our industrial management that we slioulil' keep in mind when we arc in clined to boast how efficient we are. The record of industrial safety In the future^ and the relationship that it bears to the present appalling toll of life and limb will he governed by the ability of management and laltor and the working force to coop* crate f Therefore, if no one wins and everyIxMly loses, let's get on the ball and d o , something about it f 1 ) $7 W hat the Safety Engineer Should Know About Industrial Health H azards Broadening the Accident Prevention Program Through a Progressive Industrial Health Program By H. K. SESSIONS (M.C.), USN Deputy H ead, Preventive Medicine Div., Bureau of Medicine & Surgery. U. S. Navy, Waahington, D. C. For many years the Navy has had an accident prevention program with a stall in the Executive offices of the Secretary in Washington. Close liaison has been main tained with the Bureau of Medicine and ijurgery to that the Navy followed the slow evolution of industrial health services as they developed in industry, in 1940, when expansion of Naval activities started at an accelerated pace it was recognized that the accident prevention program should be broadened by the institution of an in dustrial health program. In 1941 an In dustrial Health Section was formed under the Preventive Medicine Division of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Through the cooperation of this Section with the Safety Branch o f the .Office of Industrial Relations an industrial health program de veloped and is presently outlined in Navy Civilian Personnel Instructions No. 88. This step broadened considerably the accident prevention program during the war and post-war periods. Considerable progress has been made toward reducing accident frequency and severity rates, and much of the credit for this fine achievement is tlue the accident prevention program, and the safety people directing it. More can and undoubtedly wilt be done in order to hold to this fine record and even to improve it. We are sure that all present realize full well the large measure of help tin t can be given to the success of an accident prevention pro- Tbt *r siitrtfon t ttn U h ttd btrtl* Sri l i f / *** w rU tt mud m t 0*1 10 h i (im trm td * t 0 ^ U ! 0 f ttfitelim g iliw t i f tk l Nti; D^drmiRl *r tbi ***i ttnlci.) gram l>y (be medical department through an enlightened and progressive itiduMrhil health program. Our attack should begin the very firM moment the prospective employ** >|h*iis (In door in search ut :%job. tiooit job analysis and proper job placement is of firs! irnpot tance in prevention of the accidents in which these prospective employees will surely become involved if they are not properly placed. One trend of the past few years has leeii to place considerable emphasis on psycho logical and social factors, in addition to physical factors, in maintaining the health o f employees. For example, many o f our larger, forward-looking industrial organi zations require, in addition to an interview and physical examination, some form of a test to . determine the individual's aptitude. (Experience lias shown the wisdom ami economy of applying the results of the various prc-cntployiiicnl examination Jala in the placement of individuals in jobs commensurate with their abilities and apti tude. Greater output, greater contentment, less labor turnover, less sick absenteeism, and the like, have demonstrated the im portance of such a procedure. Many persons seeking employment are trained or skilled in a specialized field, and they have become so because they liked the particular work. In all probability they will make good, stable, contented employees Many others have been attracted to certain skills and have become trained in them for various other reasons, for example, easy money, good pay, prestige, health reasons, ) ) ) 88 The Sdjety Engineer and Industrial Health Hatards Broadening Accident Prevention Through an Industrial Health Program 89 etc. Many of these people have been able to put aside known disagreeable factors as being inconsequential, when compared to the ultimate objective, and have made eon* tented efficient workers. Others have received training in certain skills without ever having been completely satisfied in their own minds as to vvliat they really want. It is among this group of gropers, so to speak, and in the large group of unskilled employees, that the re sults of pre-placemen! aptitude and physical examinations can be most profitably ap plied. It lakes doctors who are familiar with the plant set-up and operations to derive thu Ijcst results from a program involving job analysis and job placement from the point of view of physical compatibility o f an individual with thu requirements of the job. ll is obvious that a weak person, or one with definite physical defects, should not he placed in a job which would require cx|jcnding great quantities of physical energy. In other words, Mdon't send a Ixiy to a loan's job" Jobs requiring great physical effort should be reserved for (hose )vho possess the capacity to cope with lliciii. It is just as obvious that it would be unwise to place someone with little or no patience on a tedious job which requires great precision and allciilion to mimilc details, nr to place a psycho-neurotic in a noisy place such as a boilermaker shop. Malptacement of an employee frequently starts him off with the idea that his wel fare is of no concern to the employer. Such ideas can, and frequently do, grow in his mind and come to fill a large part of his thoughts. This may result in re sentment against management and may fig ure in had labor-management relationships with af! that this entails. So much of the employee*) lime may lie consumed in think ing of ways to protect Ins welfare that he Imotucs physically and mentally im-lltcitul. No physical labor that is required today will fatigue one as quickly as a bad mental attitude. The least the pre-employment examina tion should do is give the personnel mana ger sufficient knowledge of the individual as a whole to he able to start him oiT in (he right job. We all know the importance of the pc- riodic examination of all person, and es- pccially of those engaged in hazardous occupations in the prevention of accidents as well as occupational diseases. At times J periodic examinations have revealed cases I| of pathology which have necessarily re- _ [J suited in taking an individual away from a ,,|fc*| jolt because its hazardous nature, and his physical condition together, might easily result in injury to himself or a fellow cm- ploycc. ; Cases have been cited of cranemen who r,, have been taken off cranes who complained ,. bitterly about it at first because they felt ' ' that an injustice had been done to them. After licing away from this type of work, and experiencing a relaxation they bad never before had these men have stated that it was the best thing that could have happened lo them and were deeply grateful 1 fur the interest of management in their j personal welfare. f If on periodic examination of a painter,'J for example, we found that he had high I blood pressure or was a diabetic, or had 1 a history of epilepsy, and forced him toJ|, do work that required him to tie on a liigli Ji scatfold we would be inviting disaster. If ^ it is ascertained that a person is subject to frequent respiratory ailments, it would hardly be fair to allow him to continue on a job we know has associated with it a lii|;h rale of pulmonary diseases such a l one in which he may be subject to frequent and sharp changes in temperature. The surveying of all employees periodi cally, as in Ilia chest x-ray survey, can hardly he overlooked as a means of broad ening the accident prevention program, ' h i addition to its other many benefits to cm-.V ploycc and industry. Our experience in the! Navy to dale has shown that not only dot we pick out cases of tuberculosis, but suchl oilier diseases as heart disease of >' typeal which may show up as an enlarged heart,X8 or aortic disease, and the like. These p c r.f sous may not be working at liazardousM occupations, and therefore, if not for th e f chest x-ray, would not have been recently! examined. Such individuals can be .advised! to see their family physician regarding! their condition. It is not hard to imagines an individual with an aortic aneurysm la r |f | enough to show up on the chest x-rayl suffering a sudden fainting spell that wouldx cause a serious accident resulting in injury1) lo not only himself but to others as well.'"8 Special examinations could also serve to ` pick out an individual who is potentially a bad accident risk because of a physical ( defect or pathological state of which lie is not aware. These special examinations may | be to ascertain an employee's physical abil ity to perform the work assigned; it may be to determine the nature of an illness when an employee becomes sick at work; it may be to determine fitness of an em ployee for continuing an assignment because of alcoholism, acute emotional imbalance, psychopathic personality, contagious disease, e tc ; it may be to determine the need for change o f duty; to determine the degree of progress occurring in cases requiring rchabilitaiion; or it may l>e to determine the i. physical condition upon return to work I l{ after personal illness. Accurate and good health records on each employee can be utilized as a basis 'f o r medical counseling. By accurate main- . lenance of the health records each visit to - the dispensary and each examination will he ..recorded in the individual's health record. !, Some progressive illnesses undoubtedly . could be detected by the physician reading 1 the individual's complete records, and such .counsel as necessary given to the individual ,^to avoid or remedy conditions which he - has never suspected. keep employees informed h i such mailer- as (he fluoride (realmcui of children's teeth to reduce decay, ami to provide them with literature oil cancer, heart disease, group hospitalization, etc. Things of a general nature that could aiTcct the health and welfare of his family have great ap peal for the employee's interest. In following a trend we should be careful not to go overboard on one aspect of health control or improvement lo the neglect of another. We should certainly satisfy our selves that all is well as regards such com mon toxic hazards as we ordinarily en counter n industry, before expending too nnicli energy on the psycltologieal approach. HlWglarba fm--j;jM! jim flftii Ifca. bcilM, M H u ^ r i t hi the form of vautis fath chlorinated hydroctfioua^ odid th c iik c ; metal fumes of many varieties; gases such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen sulfide, methane, oxides of nitrogen; alkalies ami acids; or other numerous materials whirl, in contact with the skin, cause dermatitis. It is ohviou that the presence of these tonic substance may of themselves he responsible for some accidents. As an illustration--in one plant of the Navy, it was found, during a survey, that 't.i Not the least important of the functions ail employee was chiming cavities of metal '.generally considered in a good industrial ordnance equipment hy spraying Stoddard ((health program is a well planned industrial Solvent. The great danger here would ^hygiene service, which in addition to study- seem to be the hazard of explosion in view niog environmental health problems from a f *be low order of toxicity ojf this par ^toxicological and physical point of view, Rjtncludes a psychological approach to keep l$ttp the morale o f employees. More ami ^more It Is becoming dear that poor morale and psychological health is a prime factor in. the causation of accidents. Mental hy[rtfieae counsel has been shown to be benetyfidal in such a program. When the patient [Ifviaits the dispensary an opportunity is pro- `jvlded for the physician to give hint counsel [of this nature. ticular sub--st--an--ce. "However, all fat solvents can, when inhaled in sufficient quantity, cause Intoxication. The man in question, since doing this wotk, had lcm getting quite dizzy and groggy, and on many oc casions while driving home hi liis car had to turn the driving over to another occu pant for fear of an accident. This was a condition that existed not only at the end of a work lay, hot was present a good part of the lime while actually engaged at T^A health education program contributes 'greatly to the health of employees, and Deludes such topics as nutrition, environ- work. It is easy to understand that a great variety of situations could very easily de velop in si machine shop where a man In ntat hygiene, and communicable disease this condition would present a definite risk. itro) such as the control of syphilis, jgqberculoslt, poliomyelitis, . the common Id, and others. The inclusion in the [program of the latest developments in pre1-- itlve medicine practices is desirable, to We might consider the case of persons working with chlorinated hydrocarbons such as carbon tetrachloride or trichlor oethylene. It is common knowledge that inhalation of these vapors will give a per- 90 The Safety Engineer and Industrial Health. Hatards son a "jag" in quick order. Many persons like tlic sweet odor of these solvents and addiction, for tlic purpose of getting a "jag,'* is seen at limes especially among persons using trichloroethylene. Almost every operator of a degreasing lank, if asked whether lie is ever affected by the vapors, will answer that it has made him feel drunk on occasion. This happens at times in places which arc very carefully routi oiled. Such a situation arising only very infrequently may not he considered a serious health hazard, however, during the time when it docs arise, the individual be comes an extraordinary risk as regards an accident. The answer to the situation, of course, is to rectify the process by eliminat ing the chances of vapor exceeding the maximum permissible limit. Almost un limited examples might he quoted of Itow toxic materials could affect accident rales. However, sitfiicc it to say. that any material of a toxic nature which upsets one physio logically because of |Ktio or has an t-lfccl on the central nervous system will place the individual in the situation of being a candidate for an accident, liven a case of food poisoning, or a painful hunioii, may cause one to center his attention on himself and away from his work--a condition itol conducive to the best interest of accident prevention. Other environments besides the chemical, such as the physical, should not he omitted from the present discussion. Such condi tions as excessive noise, especially in the higher pitch ranges, can become quite mo notonous and cause undue fatigue. llluminalioii may Ire placed in a like category. Ahscucc of sufficient light is a factor of considerable inqiortancc in many accidents, and on the other hand, too much light without regard for what it docs in the way of glare and after-images, which ap|iear after exposure to too intense illnminalion, take their share of responsibility in accident causation. Improper ventilation, as in warehouses, where gasoline-operated trucks are in use may result in fouling the atmosphere witli carbon monoxide. Such exposures can and do give rise to intense headaches with nausea and blurring of vision which can he distracting to employees from the work at hand. Actinic rays which arc emitted from certain operations cause burning of the eyes with blurring of vision. Excess! timidity to the point of fogging and structing vision during work occurs III times. These are a few of the physlt conditions usually considered as industrial health problems which no doubt figure many accidents, and the correction of thi conditions should aid in reducing the nuajj ber of accidents which are often occurrini An advancement in the prevention of at eiilems to which defective vision is con tributory and which has received consider*!! able attention within the past two years'lai the Navy, is the Eye-Protection Eye-Cor-j reclioii Program. This program was started- after available statistics showed that many accidents were being caused by persons'] who were found to have defective vision ami who were not corrected. The mere fact that approximately 40 per cent of alii] those person* screened in this program re-1 quire eye refractions and prescription lenses is indicative of the general need for si " a program. -'f*j There are many things that could in persons with uncorrcctcd poor vision that could figure in the causation of adpl; dents, for example, headaches traceable, it eye strain, blurring of vision, watering;o; eyes, etc. This is not meant to exclude possibility of these conditions occurringii persons with good vision, but merely ,!- suggest that these conditions may be mi more prevalent in persons with faull vision, and this may be cleared up b] correction, ft Is important, too, that corrective device be of the proper type After an automobile accident it was fount that tlir operator was wearing a lens tha corrected his vision, but it contained cylinder, which means that the lens has li be held In the frame at a given angle. Thii was a round lens in a round frame whief hail become loose enough for the lens ti* rotate in the frame. As a result tl driver's vision was worse Ilian it he ha^ no glasses, and this was presumed to- be the cause of tne accident. O f course, corj rective lenses are not now put In-this of frame. In prescribing lenses it is necessary that] the job be analyzed to determine the work ing distance and the proper correction fori each individual for use in his job. In job placement, it is also important to determine if the employee has faulty depth perception. ) I - Flammabilily, Toxicity, and Allowable Limits of Some Industrial Gases 91 _ Some jobs, inch as crane and vehicle op^d a tio n , require good depth perception, if .AH of the above factors play their individual roles in a good overall industrial (health program. At the same time as the ^health of employees is improved, we are moving in the direction of reducing accitdents as well, because we know that those accidents in which the human factor is most /important are caused in the main by per_ tons who are either physically or emo tionally disturbed, at least temporarily. Pe rcent work on the accident-prone individual f hat shown that this individual is subject jto becoming emotionally upset easily and .may be upset because of a wide variety j ^of reasons. irj Some of you probably heard the lectures Doctor Rosenslcin itt Chicago a year ago in which he stressed, among other things, the desirability of putting safety campaigns on a more personal basis rather than on a general plane. Supervisors should -be thoroughly coached and trained in safety ^pdf'.through tirent safety education conhl M . thread to employees in a very personal way,' The supervisor in the course o f the 'day, while talking to his employees in'jtividually, could spread a few pearls of ryrisdom regarding safety, and put it in such fway as to impress the man. *'Show him how laxity in carrying out fe practices could influence the remainder jpflms life as well as the lives of those 'bom he holds dear. When the campaign is put on in general terms by posters, signs, etc., giving statistics on how many thousands lost their lives liecause of avoid able accidents last year, the average person is not too thoroughly impressed. When, however, we pick an example of someone we both know and show how such an acci dent to "John Doe" would affect him, the impression becomes much deeper. Along the same line of spreading safely through the supervisor, tlic supervisor can lie of great service to his met liy being very patient and sympathetic listener Main of the worries and anxieties to which man falls heir are without basis and cannot stand up tinder cross examination. They have developed and liccomc exaggerated in the Individual's mind by constant repetition of the tliought to himself, and in mam cases they just won't stand the logical telliog of a story just as a dream in many cases shows no logic when we try to re construct it. When an individual airs bis troubles to someone, many times lie comes to realise that there is no basis Inr his fears o r anxieties. A progressive industrial health program without doubt will broaden the accident prevention program. To operate effectively, it requires the ultimate cooperation of all concerned -- doctors, industrial hygienists, safety personnel, nurses, management, ami employees. A real employees' health prugram takes teamwork, with the aforemen tioned making up the team. W- ------------- Ig,,, The Flammability. Toxicity, and Allowable Limits of Some Industrial Gases (Summary of a Talk) By G. M. K IN T Z Supervising Engineer, U. S. Bureau of Mines. Dallas, Tex. I* easy to visualize (lie injury that may i&'caused by an unguarded machine, but it fipot' (0 easy to visualize Hie injury that naybe caused by unclean or abnormal air. r.undcrttand fully the effect that n noxious Vgaa'may have upon the respiratory system, lone' must know the conqiosltion ol normal be composition of normal air and the diffusion of gnscs are demonstrated by al lowing a 1-quart jar of oxygen to diffuse into a 4-quart jair of nitrogen. The specific gravity of gases is demonstrated by filling balloons with different gases aiul dropping them simultaneously from the same height and watching their rate of descent. The hazards of gasoline vapors and hydro gen sulfide can be seen by observing the