Hello my friends, it’s Steven Mill and today I am going to tell you about Industrial Electrical Safety. I will discuss the basic idea and give you an introduction of Industrial Safety and will also tell you about its importance.
Generally safety means protection from risks and dangerous situations physically, mentally, socially or financially. So, Industrial Safety is related to safety concerns in industrial environment. First, let’s define Industrial Safety before going into the details.
Industrial Electrical Safety Definition
Industrial Electrical Safety is defined as all protective measures and plans that ensure safety at workplaces, plants and factories from injure causing hazards. It involves all management operations within plant for protection.
It is not limited to safety of humans but also includes safety of the plant, industrial assets and environment. It includes management activities concerned with
- Reduction
- Control
- Elimination of Hazards
First, I will tell you about some terms related to industrial safety and their meaning and relationship. These terms include Hazard, Risk, Harm, Accident and Injury/ Damage.
a. Hazard: The meaning of hazard is any source of danger.
b. Risk: The possibility or likelihood of something unpleasant to happen due to hazard.
c. Harm: The word harm means any type of damage that can be short term or long term.
d. Incident: Incident refers to an event that can cause serious accidents or near miss.
e. Accident: Any bad event that is sudden and not intended to happen.
f. Injury / Damage: Injury means an event that causes bad health conditions, and damage refers to an event that causes something to be in bad condition.
Industrial Electrical Safety Importance
I hope now you have got an idea and introduction. In this part, I will tell you about the importance of industrial safety.
- Industrial Safety is very significant as it protects human life. It becomes more important in industrial areas that are more prone to risks and dangers such as oil and gas plants, chemical industries, manufacturing and machining industries, nuclear plants, mining industries, aircraft industries etc.
- If not practiced, it can cause great losses for the company and also for the workers. For company:
- It can become a cause of time wastage
- It can increase the cost of medical aid
- It can also cost compensation and extra wages
- It can cause hiring and training of new employees
- It can increase inspection costs
- It can also cause wastage of both raw and finished materials and damage of assets and machines of plant
- For employee, risking industrial safety can become a cause of:
- Loss of morale
- Disability and health problems
- In worse cases it can also cause loss of life
- Industrial Safety also promotes healthy workplace for workers that increases their morale which in turn increases efficiency and productivity of employees and quality of work
- It is also significant as safety policies can prevent injuries and illness that can reduce absentees and turnover
Industrial Electrical Safety Objectives
I have already discussed importance of safety in last topic. Now, let’s discuss objectives of Industrial Safety
- The first objective of safety is the prevention of accidents that can cause any type of loss in industries and plants by minimizing and eliminating hazards
- The second objective is the elimination of accidents that can stop work and cause production losses
- Another objective is reduction of insurance rates and cost of accidents
- An important objective of industrial safety is to avoid life loss and disabilities that in turn prevent from losing source of income
- To elevate morale of employees by providing them safe workplace and promotion of healthy and safe practices
- Another objective is to organize supervision and inspection activities to maintain a safe environment
- An important objective is to create better relations within the industry
- And last but not the least one objective is to create awareness about well-being and safety. This can be done by promoting education among all members working at different levels of an organization
Measurement
In this part of my article, I am going to tell you about ratios used for measurement of accidents. For keeping a check on accidents or events causing accidents, we need to measure their number or frequency. For this purpose, two type of measurements are used that in turn tell us about the state of safety in any industry or plant. These two ratios are as given below:
- Accident Frequency Rate
- Accident Severity Rate
Accident Frequency Rate
Now, let us define first one that is Accident Frequency Rate which is abbreviated as AFC. This is measured on the basis of those accidents which are reportable to Health and Safety Team. The formula for its calculation is as under:
Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) = No. of Accidents * 100,000 / Total No. of Worked Hours
This ratio tells us the chances of getting injured while working at some industry. So, every industry wants to move towards a position where the workers can believe on the safety systems. Zero Harm is a condition where AFR is zero, which is the target of every company.
Accident Severity Rate
I am sure now you have got an idea of the first one so let’s talk about the second ratio that is Accident Severity Rate which is abbreviated as ASR. It actually measures the time lost due to injuries or accidents. The formula for calculating accident severity rate is given below:
Accident Severity Rate (ASR) = No. of man days lost * 100,000 / Total No. of Worked Hours
By measurement of lost time, this ratio tells us about safety conditions by showing how critical or severe the injuries or accidents are. It shows the performance of an organization regarding safety.
Before concluding this article I must say that Industrial Safety is a very wide area that involves study and analysis of industrial hazards, severity of accidents that may occur and safety measures taken to avoid accidents. A proper safety system and plan should be practiced at a workplace according to the nature and requirements of that industry.
Thanks for reading me,
Steven Mill.
Please leave your impressions on this article below and feel free to add more information if you have.
These ideas should be implemented in order to make smart and green cities in India.