Occupational Health & Safety

Occupational Health & Safety ICAITU004B

The Occupational Health & Safety Act  Clearly spells out duties for all workplace parties  Must be followed by employers and employee

Regulation  Rules that deal with certain issues in greater detail than are contained in the act e.g. first aid

Codes of Practice  Standards set by the industry for the industry  Minimum standards for workplace practices of OH&S

What should a OH&S policy do?  Indicate a company’s health and safety policy objectives  Arrangements to achieve these objective Issues include o Senior management commitment o Commitment to set down functions and duties of all people in the organization for maintaining workplace heath and safety o Accountability of all levels of management o Training in communication in health and safety practices o Regular monitoring/review effectiveness

Implementation of policy  Involves consultation and cooperation between management and employees  Policy document should be displayed in prominent place for employee to view

Hazard Management Approach (HMA)  Leads to reduced costs, increased productivity, higher morale and better industrial relations Responsibility of Health & Safety Employers o Must take all reasonable practicable steps to protect the health & safety at work of employees o Managers/Supervisors-responsible/accountable o Ensures Manager/Supervisors aware of responsibility o Ensure employee knows responsibility Employee

Health & Safety Representatives  Representatives of employees to represent them on health & Safety issues  To promote/ensure H&S they may: FreeAsAir [email protected]

o inspect workplace o consult managers/supervisors o issue provisional notices

Aim HMA  eliminate/reduce risk of injuries and illnesses associated with work. Through 1) Hazard identification Identify all situations/events that could give rise to potential injury/illness 2) Risk assessment Determining whether there are any risks associated with the identification hazards 3) Risk control Determining & implementing appropriate measures to control risk. Practicable means: o Severity of hazard o State knowledge of ways of removing it o Cost of removing 4) Evaluation of control measures Checking to see whether the introduced changes reduce the risk previously assessed e.g. repeat step 1,2, 3

Hazard: Potential to cause injury/illness Risk: Likelihood of injury/illness arising from exposure to any hazards

Identify Hazards in the office  Mechanical o Tripping, hot components of photocopiers  Physical o Reflections from VDU, poorly designed chairs, prolonged work in fixed posture  Chemical o Vapours e.g. paint

What to consider when assessing risk  Likelihood of exposure leading to injury/disease  Frequency/duration of exposure  Who it may effect?

What to consider when controlling risks  Elimination (most effective)  Substitution  Engineering e.g. barriers  Administration e.g. est. policies  Personal protective equipment e.g. gloves Evaluation of control measures

OH&S Committees FreeAsAir [email protected]

 Forum where health and safety problems can be identified and resolved and where safety systems/procedures can be developed and monitored  Meet at least every 3 months  Minutes must be recorded and meetings displayed prominently  Number of employer must not exceed employee  NOT ‘responsible’ for workplace health and safety o Employer ensures health, safety, welfare of employees o Only document and inform employer Functions:  Review measures to make workplace healthy & safe  Help develop safe working environment and system of work  Help develop a system to record accidents & hazards

Ergonomics Study of the physical relationship between people and their working environment Results in:  Increased work efficiency  Errors due to fatigue decreased  Health & injury problems reduced  Work satisfaction increased Work related problems  Eyestrain  headache/bloodshot eyes  Rapid fatigue due to prolonged static body position  Backache  Shoulder/neck stiffness  Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) – caused when using body in unnatural position/carry out repeated actions

Considerations:  Design of furniture  Placement of equipment  Work Routine  Work environment  Incorporations of exercise and breaks into routines

Signs:  Red circle with a line through it: Some thing must be done (urgent)  Green Triangle: Indicates where emergency equipment is kept  Yellow Triangle: Danger, warning  Blue Circle: Need for safety equipment

Carpel Tunnel Syndrome FreeAsAir [email protected]

Electrical Hazards associated with computer and other office equipment

Accident/Incident reporting procedures

Opportunities to use Command Line and Graphical User Interface Operating Systems

Antiglare screen Elbow angle 80 -120ْ

Centre screen below your 20ْ vision Back is straight Adjustable Adjustable brightness and backrest contrast

Wrists flat, Height of chair fingers slightly adjustable curved

Keyboard should be approx. elbow Legs bent 90ْ height Or more

Foot flat on floor or foot rest Adequate knee Access the Internetroom Access the Internet

What is the Internet? FreeAsAir [email protected]

 Worldwide groups of connected networks that allows the public to access information, send messages, obtain products/services  Networks use the same ‘language’ o Use the same protocols (rules)  ‘plat form- independent’ o Protocols devised so that can be understood by all main computer platforms

Connecting to the Internet ISP  Has a server which is permanently online and has a permanent internet address  Server connected through high-speed telephone lines, fiber optic links or satellite o Providing high speed data transfer  Connected to bank of modems  User modem dials up ISP’s modem and make a connection DIAL UP CONNECTION

IDSN Lines  Permanent phone line connection to an ISP o Transfer data faster o Come in a variety of bandwidths (data carrying capacity)

Web Server??? Own ISP  Larger organizations  Large network of computers and require high internet access

Choosing an ISP  Cost: prepaid/rate/joining fee  Speed: speed of modem supports/support lines for IDSN/cable modems  Lines: Line per customer  Start up Help: software provided- min. email program/borwser  Ongoing support  Experience  Platform: IBM Vs Macintosh Vs Windows version  Accounts: cheque?  Newsgroups: Limit to number can join?  Additional Mail Boxes e.g. AOL  Web Page: Space on server? Size? What is WWW?  World Wide Web  Portion of internet containing websites o Information can be accessed electronically o Collection of hyperlinked documents accessible on the internet o Hyperlinks allow you to move quickly from one document to another

 Web contains millions of documents known as Web Pages FreeAsAir [email protected]

o Held on various computer networks around the world

How a modem works

Packets

Firewall  Both hardware and software used to restrict access to data on a network  Used to deny access to outsiders and restrict employee’s access to sensitive data

Implementation  Place a computer “proxy server” between two separate networks o Programmed to allow access to/from only specific network locations

File Compression  Reduce download time  Internet is used to transfer files o File Transfer Protocol (FTP) – standard “language” used by computers o Allowing one program to transfer data to another e.g. Archie, Fetch, Most Web Browsers  Decompression program needed for ‘expansion’

Search Engine (search tool)  Software program searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of documents where the keywords o Matches 1+ keywords answered  Searches an index of Internet sites, which is always updated

Function  Send out automated ‘spiders’ ‘crawlers’ ‘robots’ to scour internet  Search engine sends out ‘spider’ to fetch as many documents as possible  Program: ‘indexer’ reads documents and creates an index based on words 1) User types in word/phrase 2) Matched against database 3) Search engine displays URL matching

Newsgroup  Collection of news and discussion groups accessed via the internet to a central location o Allows anyone to read/post messages on particular topic o Divided into groups and subgroups  Participation requires program called “newsreader”

Mailing List  List of email addresses identified by a single name FreeAsAir [email protected]

 Messages are distributed to a large number of people via email  Join = subscribe  Get off mailing List = unsubscribe  Lurking: on mailing list without posting messages  explore  Flaming: email of personal nature resulting in disagreements among members – don’t reply/inflame  Emotions

Search Engine Vs FTP Vs Archie Server  Search engine: Generally used to locate information  Archie: program that enables you to search for files anywhere on the internet by filename o FTP sites are searchable with Archie

Plug-in  Mini applications that add extra functions to web browsers o E.g. allows recognition/play audio/video files

Browser  Software file that allows you to view HTML files  Interprets and displays Web pages and enables you to link to other Web pages  Basic Function: interpret Hyper Text Markup Language  Modern browsers e.g. MS Windows Explorer/Netscape o Display/deal with Graphics o Play sounds & video o Transfer files

Header of Email:  Electronic exchange of messages to and from other computer users 1) Date 2) Subject: useful for recipient 3) To: (recipient) must be typed correctly 4) From 5) Reply 6) Reply all 7) Cc - “carbon copy” (duplication) 8) Bcc – “blind carbon copy” recipient not aware of who else received copy

Requirements of email  Computer linked to internet via LAN/modem  Account – ISP  Email address (provided by ISP) FreeAsAir [email protected]

 Email Software

Email Software 1) Stand alone email programs  E.g. MS Outlook 2) Mail ‘modules’ of larger Web Browser Packages  MS Internet Mail components of Web Browsers

 Perform similar programs: send/receive/manage email  Usually for different platforms

Bookmark  Title and URL of a Web page, recorded in the browser so user can return to the Web Page, recorded in a future session  Adding:  Managing:

HTML  Hyper Text Mark Up language  Set of special instructions used to create web pages

Privacy/Security: Internet

IP  Internet protocol  Addressing system for the Internet  Consist of four part numeric addresses, identifying the geographic region, company, computer group, and the specific computer location

Netiquette  Guidelines developed for posting articles to newsgroups/email  Don’t type in capitals  Treat people as if in real life  Proofread offline  Identify subject ie. Posting  Make sure message appropriate to list / no personal/ unsubscribe in public domain

TCP/IP  Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol  Communications protocol used for packet switching on the Internet

URL  Uniform Resource Locator FreeAsAir [email protected]

 Address that points to a specific resource on the Internet

Creating a Web Page  Analyze o Purpose/Achieve/Audience o Important info legible? o Too many pictures/animations o Which web browsers does page support o Contacts/Feedback?  Design o Layout o Appropriate user interface with simple navigation tools o Home Page interesting to grab user’s attention  Implement Software o Web Editor/Web Authoring package: enables you to create Web Pages o Technically any software letting you save HTML format e.g. Word processing can be used – compatibility of MS Word Vs Macintosh upon upload Types 1)Text Based editors: help you create HTML files by inserting HTML codes that help you manage links o Requires some knowledge of HTML

2) WYSIWYG editors: work with visual representation of web page o Hides HTML code unless you want to see it o Import Clips like desktop publishing e.g. MS FrontPage

Text  Written in word processing package for proofread/spell-check  Fonts used will be stored on viewers computer  use common font

Graphics  KISS – slows time  Ensure people who choose to turn off “auto load” can still navigate  No discrimination for e.g. visually impaired

Icons/Symbols  Navigation aids

Sound/Video  Limits on modem i.e. bandwidths (data capacity)  Employ streaming : Delivered in small packets at regular intervals  sufficient  poor quality  Obtain permission FreeAsAir [email protected]

 Don’t make essential (i.e. those lacking hardware)

Upload

Maintain

Advertise  Join major search engine ‘add a page’

Evaluate  Independently  Efficiency  Effectiveness  Navigation/cost/download/ISP size allowance

Integrate Commercial Computing Packages/ Design organizational documents using commercial computing packages MS WORD

File Operations in Word  Manage files  Save document  Print  Open File  Send to..e.g. fax

Why a ‘bulleted’ paragraph called a hanging indent  Hanging indents paragraphs formatting in which the second and subsequent lines of a paragraph are indented more than the first line How do you select a particular type of ‘tab stop’ Tab Stop: a position you set for placing and aligning text on a page  Difference between soft/hard page breaks Soft: starts a new page (automatic) Hard: force page break at a specific location (manual)

Difference between ‘cut and paste’ ‘copy and paste’ Cut…: removes texts from the place and pastes it in another location Copy…: exact replica made and still can be pasted elsewhere

MS EXCEL FreeAsAir [email protected]

Difference between Workbook and Worksheet Workbook: file in which you work and store data, each workbook can contain many worksheets Worksheet: used to list and analyse data, primary document – also called ‘spreadsheet’, in columns, rows and always stored in workbook

Excel recognition of ‘formula’  “=”  or paste function “f(x)”

When should you use ‘absolute addressing’ Absolute References: cell reference that always refers to a cell in a specific location.  If “dollar” sign before letter/number e.g. $A$1 the column/row is absolute  Used when don’t want excel to adjust references when copying formula to different cell

Difference between ‘searching’ and ‘filtering’ Filtering:  Quick/easy way to find work with a subset of data in a list  Displays only the rows that meet criteria as specified Search:  Returns the number of the character at which a specific character/text setting is first found

The ‘IF’ Function  Enables decision making to be implemented in a worksheet  Three arguments: o A condition that is evaluated as either true or false o A true condition: value returned if condition true o False action: value returned if condition false  Must use relational operators to perform logical test  = < > <> <= >=

Lookup Functions  Used to ‘look up’ tables  In a lookup table, you use a formula to locate an item of data that is associated with another item of data in the same list  Data in table must be ‘sorted’ as: o Search starts from the left-most value in the table/list and o Works its way from lowest to highest value  2 commonly used functions o VLOOKUP(cell, Range i.e. table, value, column) o HLOOKUP()

DATABASES FreeAsAir [email protected]

Attribute: Field in relational database Field: Item of info in a record Record: Collection of related fields

Primary Key  Unique field  Identifies each record in a table  Must have a unique value, used to relate a table to foreign keys in other tables

Data ‘Form’  Clearer  Full field labels seen  Easily search/review data  Reduction in possibility of mistakes

Control  Graphic User Interface object e.g. text box  Allows user to control program/data choices

When would you use a query rather than find filter commands  Query can bring together data from multiple tables to serve as the source of data for a form, report or data access page 

What advantages do reports have over printed forms  You have control over the size and appearance of everything on a report  You can display the information the way you want to see it  Prints information and organized according to your specifications