OHS Clarity of Thought on Requirements

somashekar

Staff member
Super Moderator
#1
I found during an internal audit certain areas which requires more clear understanding and practical application.
1. Incident vs Emergency (Distinguishing and recording)
2. Awareness training vs Mock drill (Method and records)
I seek inputs from experience of people here to share with my team so that they are clear about them and addressed better in the future.
 
Last edited:
Elsmar Forum Sponsor
K

kgott

#2
I found during an internal audit certain areas which requires more clear understanding and practical application.
1. Incident vs Emergency (Distinguishing and recording)
2. Awareness training vs Mock drill (Method and records)
I seek inputs from experience of people here to share with my team so that they are clear about them and addressed better in the future.
1. An incident is safety term for an unplanned and unwanted event resulting in some form of loss to the company and harm to a person, if that happens.

2 Awareness training is "this is where the first aid kit is if you get hurt.' or 'in the case of a fire we will evacuate through the front door and assemble on the street corner. 'You report to the person wearing the white safety helmet.' We will wait there until its safe to return or the emergency services tell us to go somewhere else."

A mock drill is a planned walk through exercise to practice what people do in the event the premises need to be evacuated in a real situation.

I would strongly suggest you forget the word 'incident' and use either unwanted event or undesired event as this prevents the silo approach of seeing safety, quality, environmental unwanted events as seperate and distinct from each other.

Unwanted or undesired event encourages people to see things in a holistic or global approach and not just restricted to small segment of business management. Unwanted events are things that go wrong and are not wanted (if that makes sense)
 
K

kgott

#3
I found during an internal audit certain areas which requires more clear understanding and practical application.
1. Incident vs Emergency (Distinguishing and recording)
2. Awareness training vs Mock drill (Method and records)
I seek inputs from experience of people here to share with my team so that they are clear about them and addressed better in the future.
Sorry; I forgot to add - An emergency is an unwanted event that occurs that poses an immediate threat to life, limb and property or an unwanted event where someone is injured or otherwise harmed and requires immediate urgent treatment.

An incident can be an emergency that has past and is generic term to refer to the emergency event. An emergency lasts for a short time where an incident can be term applied to all unwanted safety events.

In terms of recording, incidents are the number of events that have occurred in the last xyz and an emergency is a type of event. A mock drill is not an emergency.
 
F

Frankie11

#4
For 2.
Awareness training is explaining key concepts (Where the spill kit is, what equipment is in it, how you use it and when) and ensuring they have been understood. I use a checklist made up of these key concepts to ensure the trainer covers everything they need to.

The mock drill is a simulated emergency event - e.g. pretending a chemical has spilled (using a non-hazardous analogue) and seeing how well your employees react to mitigate, contain and clean up.

For a mock drill, create a checklist that covers critical aspects. For most emergency events time is a critical aspect. Chemical spills (for example) - did they prevent the 'chemical' from reaching the drains, did they use the correct PPE, did they prevent others from walking through the area etc.

Also, following a mock drill we always have a meeting (minuted) with key personnel to discuss how it went and where we need to improve.

Awareness training is 'show and tell', mock drill is 'do'.
 

Richard Regalado

Trusted Information Resource
#5
An emergency is an incident. An incident may become an emergency.

A mock drill could be part of awareness training if it involves first-time participants.

Add: Did I offered any help or just muddied the water some more?
 
Last edited:

Henria

OSH Officer
#6
Hello!

Somashekar, I am not shure to correctly understand your different needs because I do not understand correctly English.

But in any case I would confirm a very important element differentiating "incident" and "emergency" notions :
- an incident is a "finished" a "past" damaging event, its consequences are known and there is nothing more to do to limit its consequences,
- but an emergency is a "happening" a "current" damaging event, its consequences are now growing if no action is taken to reduce them.

Bye.
 

Richard Regalado

Trusted Information Resource
#7
Hello Henria. Both incident and emergency can be happening in the present as per MY definition. I believe the best differentiation between the two terms would be the severity of the consequences.

Why not make your own definition based on your understanding or the understanding of your organization? As long as it's being used consistently I believe there will be no problem.
 
#8
The following are my understanding of the terms used.

Incident: Any happening/situation which is a deviation from the normal, which has a potential to develop into an accident. It is generally understood that an incident is an indication of things to come (accidents, emergency) if not addressed properly. Using Bhopal Gas Tragedy as an example - e.g. increase in pressure of the methylisocyanate storage system, pressure higher than specified safe limit

Accident: An event that has the potential to harm people (both individuals and community), property, flora and fauna etc. Normally accidents are manageable with the resources available in the organization, if acted in time. e.g. Pressure exceeded the threshold value and poisonous gas was released into the atmosphere

Emergency: An emergency is a situation (arising because the organization could not take immediate appropriate corrective action on the accident) where the organization alone cannot handle the accident situation; it needs help from other agencies outside the organization to control the situation and reduce the damage. There is a possibility of irreparable damage to human beings, property, flora, fauna etc. Under the India Law (Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals Rules), certain organizations are expected to prepare (plan) for "on-site" emergency and "off-site" emergency. e.g. Methylisocyanate leaked and spread to Bhopal City, killing thousands of people

Mock-drill: An organization which is required to have an on-site emergency plan has to conduct "mock-drills" to (a) to check if the emergency plan is working, (b) to assess and improve responses from employees, (c) to identify and plug gaps in the plan (d) to ensure that equipment required during emergencies are in good working condition and (e) the coordination with agencies outside the organization and other stakeholders is up to the mark. In India, Factories Act requires that "mock drills" are conducted wherever there is a possibility of fire in a factory.

Awareness Training: Training in EHS issues; training each employee on various signals of EHS problems and make them aware of the immediate actions to be taken by them; this includes awareness on chemicals and materials that they use, escape routes and emergency exits, emergency sirens, contacts in case of accidents, incident reporting etc. Employee awareness on these issues can reduce EHS accidents tremendously.
(Imagine, if only people in Bhopal were made aware that they should close their nose with a wet handkerchief to avoid inhaling methylisocyanate, thousands of lives could have been saved !)
 

Richard Regalado

Trusted Information Resource
#9
Thanks Doctor for your contributions. Just want to share that in ISO/IEC 27001, aside from infosec incidents, there is also infosec event which is defined as:


2.20
information security event
identified occurrence of a system, service or network state indicating a possible breach of information security (2.19) policy (2.28) or failure of controls (2.10), or a previously unknown situation that may be security relevant

2.21
information security incident
single or a series of unwanted or unexpected information security events (2.20) that have a significant probability of compromising business operations and threatening information security (2.19)

(Both definitions are taken from ISO /IEC 27000:2009)


For OHS, there are also near-misses and mrs.
 
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
A How to address Environmental & OHS Opportunities? ISO 14001:2015 Specific Discussions 6
Sidney Vianna ISO seems not to be aware that ILO is not very happy with ISO's work on OHS Occupational Health & Safety Management Standards 5
R OHS (Occupational Health & Safety) Objectives and Targets Occupational Health & Safety Management Standards 15
P Who fancies looking at our OHS Manual Occupational Health & Safety Management Standards 11
S How to quantify the Benefits of Internal and External OHS audits? Occupational Health & Safety Management Standards 4
S Does 7.4 apply to products or services meant for Environment or OHS management? ISO 9000, ISO 9001, and ISO 9004 Quality Management Systems Standards 17
S What to do if no further control possible to reduce the OHS risk? Occupational Health & Safety Management Standards 16
M Basic Legal Requirements for OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) Occupational Health & Safety Management Standards 2
N OHS Policy from Region Office Occupational Health & Safety Management Standards 2
S OHS (Occupational Health & Safety) hazard review checklist? Occupational Health & Safety Management Standards 5
S OHS Risk Analysis - What does the 'Risk Rating' refer to? Total or Residual? Occupational Health & Safety Management Standards 5
Randy OHS (Occupational Health & Safety) Software Occupational Health & Safety Management Standards 8
Q What if I want to integrate Policy of QMS, EMS and OHS-MS ISO 9000, ISO 9001, and ISO 9004 Quality Management Systems Standards 1
M ISO 13485:2016 Complaint Definition Clarity Customer Complaints 2
K Defining Acceptance Quality Level, I need clarity on AQL 1.5, 2.5, 4.0 AQL - Acceptable Quality Level 5
S Clarity on requirements for a 510k exempt Class I device - Suture removal kit US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 9
A Need Clarity on AS9100 Lead Auditor Certification Requirements AS9100, IAQG, NADCAP and Aerospace related Standards and Requirements 19
V Manager wont take the lead ....Leadership wont provide clarity....what to do? Quality Manager and Management Related Issues 6
V Best way to represent "Role Clarity" Quality Manager and Management Related Issues 3
W 'Touch Current' test - Seeking clarity about clause 8.7.4.6 IEC 60601 - Medical Electrical Equipment Safety Standards Series 4
M Zebedee CL-100 Clarity Meter Calibration Procedure needed General Measurement Device and Calibration Topics 2
Marc Technology and Innovation - Easter Weekend 2017 - Thought Cartoon Coffee Break and Water Cooler Discussions 4
Marc Facebook and Privacy - Food for Thought After Work and Weekend Discussion Topics 8
Marc Wheels on Luggage? Who would have thought of that? Travel - Hotels, Motels, Planes and Trains 11
Chennaiite "Unusual Situation" in Gemba? Just Food for thought Quality Manager and Management Related Issues 0
U Shewhart, Deming and Data - a thought provoking article Statistical Analysis Tools, Techniques and SPC 3
bobdoering The Penta-Lobe Thread Rejection - Just when you thought you have seen it all Coffee Break and Water Cooler Discussions 9
P Food for Thought on Merck Vaccine Coffee Break and Water Cooler Discussions 0
Manix I read this and thought of you lot!! Coffee Break and Water Cooler Discussions 4
I Asian Supplier Sampling Plans besides MIL-STD-105? My thought was ISO 2859? Inspection, Prints (Drawings), Testing, Sampling and Related Topics 4
Stijloor Thought for the day..... Funny Stuff - Jokes and Humour 4
V Quality Control Index - We thought that Cpk or Ppk would be good choices Capability, Accuracy and Stability - Processes, Machines, etc. 6
M APQP timeline and definitions - Info I thought I would share APQP and PPAP 8
M Has anyone thought of doing their procedures in powerpoint (.ppt)? Document Control Systems, Procedures, Forms and Templates 20
Wes Bucey Just when you thought it was safe to surf the internet. . . World News 12
A Quick Test - Are You 98% or 2%? You just thought about.... Coffee Break and Water Cooler Discussions 123
D I thought that MIL-Q-9858A, MIL-I-45208A and MIL-STD-45662 were obsolete Various Other Specifications, Standards, and related Requirements 19
Marc Dead Horses - Dakota tribal wisdom - Thought for the Day Philosophy, Gurus, Innovation and Evolution 5

Similar threads

Top Bottom