Health and safety

Health and safety in the workplace is about preventing injury and illness through incidents and accidents. Under UK law it’s the employer’s responsibility to protect the health and safety of not only their employees, but also anyone else who might be affected by their business such as visitors, passers-by, etc. But health and safety is also about promoting wellbeing because it’s better for everyone. Taking measures to enhance wellbeing can improve productivity, contentment and loyalty among staff.

Occupational health

Occupational health relates to people at work and the activities and factors that affect their health. Health problems at work are extremely common, as shown by the latest government figures:

  • 1 in 4 UK employees have a physical health condition
  • 1 in 8 has a mental health condition
  • 1 in 10 has a musculoskeletal condition
  • 1 in 3 has a long-term health condition
  • 42% of those with a health condition say that it affects their work


Keeping safe

Some types of work are more risky than others, for example, where chemicals are handled, or work is carried out at height, or heavy machinery is used. But in every business, regulations are in place that require employers to assess the types of risk in their workplace and to take steps to reduce these risks as far as possible.

Health and safety laws aim to protect employers, workers and the public from workplace dangers.

 

Health and safety in product design

Health and safety also relates to products. Badly designed products can injure and even kill people. A hand tool such as a knife or a chisel can slip or break with dire consequences if it has not been designed for the way that a human hand will hold it in use and apply forces through it. Conversely, a well-designed product can nudge users towards safe operation.

The importance of good design expands if the product is a building, a motor vehicle, an aircraft, an air traffic control system or a nuclear power station to be used by other people whose awareness of risk may vary a lot. Modern health and safety legislation places responsibility on designers to ensure that products they develop are safe to use, and this can only be done by carefully analysing how users will interact with the product. User centred design provides a vehicle for ensuring that user risks are assessed sufficiently early in the design process, and periodically at each iterative design.

Design standards exist to ensure there is minimal risk from use of products. Compliance with many basic health and safety standards can be picked up from ‘DIY’ tests for school students offered by the British Standards Institute.