While it has been established for many years that the management of Occupational Safety and Health (OHS) is carried out by means of management systems, the question of how to measure the performance and control of these systems is still current. Uncertainties related to their operation and the difficulty of gathering information about their level of performance makes control of performance vari...

December 2008, Vol. 98, No. 12 SAMJ Occupational health is vital in any industry to evaluate risks, control hazards, protect staff, and prevent occupational injuries and diseases. Occupational health and safety (OHS) needs in a health care setting are no different from those in a factory or other place of business. Even though the risks to health care personnel are different, the principles and...

BACKGROUND The study was conducted to investigate the current status of the occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) in the construction industry and the effect of OHSMS on accident rates. Differences of awareness levels on safety issues among site general managers and occupational health and safety (OHS) managers are identified through surveys. METHODS The accident rates for ...

This article focuses on individual effects of the transformation from communist to capitalist structures in the system of occupational health and safety (OHS). Despite basic similarities among the communist nations the systems of OHS differed immensely. The political changes during transformation additionally contributed to varying opportunities for the development of OHS systems. Changes affec...

The management of occupational health and safety (OHS) including safety culture interventions is comprised of complex problems that are often hard to scope and define. Due to the dynamic nature and complexity of OHS management, the concept of system dynamics (SD) is used to analyze accident prevention. In this paper, a system dynamics group model building (GMB) approach is used to create a caus...

BACKGROUND This study is the first cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of occupational health and safety (OHS) in a low-income country. It focuses on one of the largest shipbuilding companies in Bangladesh, where globally recognised Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Services (OHSAS) 18001 certification was achieved in 2012. OBJECTIVES The study examines the relative costs of implementing OHS me...

To allocate available resources as efficiently as possible, decision makers need information on the relative economic merits of occupational health and safety (OHS) interventions. Economic evaluations can provide this information by comparing the costs and consequences of alternatives. Nevertheless, only a few of the studies that consider the effectiveness of OHS interventions take the extra st...

Over the last few years the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA) has developed and implemented a number of strategies to gain professional status for the ‘generalist occupational health and safety professional’. Two of the most significant developments have been the publication of the ‘Core Body of Knowledge for the Generalist OHS Professional.’ and the accreditation of university OHS courses. D...

BACKGROUND Occupational health and safety (OHS) information is often complex, diverse and unstructured and suffers from a lack of integration which usually precludes any systemic insight of the situation. AIMS To analyse to what extent the use of geographical information systems (GISs) can help to integrate, analyse and present OHS data in a comprehensive and communicable way relevant for sur...