1. Introduction
The paper involves specific content that describes the proper prospect of occupational health hazards in the workplace or the organization. It is basically in the workplace that the environment of the workplace affects the individual and so is the lifestyle of the individual and vice versa. At that time it becomes necessary to make the proper assessment of the occupational health hazards occurring at the workplace. For that reason, the paper selected the oil and gas industry such as Beach Energy in Australia.
Based on the services as well as the literature regarding the hazards and the company this paper will eventually provide a proper method that will help in developing the occupational health management plan for Beach Energy (Cooklin, et al., 2015). The company is involved in the exploration, production, and development of natural gas, oil, and liquefied natural gas along with the transportation, refining as well and marketing of lubricant products as well as goods. In that manner, safety is the most important criterion that the organization must possess. In that context, the paper is supposed to provide the details of the workplace along with the hazards associated with that workplace (Guzman, Tompa & De Boer, 2013).
2. Details of the workplace
The workplace which is selected for the assessment of occupational health hazards is Beach Energy situated in Australia. It is one of Australia’s rich onshore oil producer companies headquartered in Adelaide. The organization mainly works for the active exploration as well as the development drilling program in Cooper Basin in Australia. The reason behind it is the Beach has a core focus on the Cooper basin because it is rich in resources and it will help the organization to extract more oil and natural gas to serve the globe and to raise the economy (Kvorning, Hasle & Christensen, 2015). Thus it can be said that the major physical place it occupies is the whole area of Cooper Basin along with making identification of many other diverse beaches with a rich amount of resources.
Therefore by exploring the diverse as well as strategically located resource basins the company establishes its infrastructure supply to many of the key markets across the globe. Moreover, the company continues its processes by getting access to prime tight gas acreage situated in Nappameri Trough. So it makes them work collaboratively to transform the prospects for the market of Australia’s East Coast gas market. In that condition, the oil and gas reserves of almost 70 million barrels of oil were within it by the time of 30 June 2016 (Laberge, MacEachen & Calvet, 2014).
This resulted in a strong balance sheet along with a fully funded FY17 of the whole capital expenditure program anticipated. Along with that, the company is enriched by the collaboration of the local laborers as well as the contractors. Those laborers and contractors generally come under the young age group as they have to take many risks while continuing the work. The FY16 comprised a mixture of all age groups that posed a threat to the safety of the employees.
In that manner, the company changed its policy and formulated the policies to achieve safety outcomes concerning the environmental impact raised within the organization. Thus from FY16, it is seen that the total injury rate or the health hazards are normally getting decreased from the organization (Lay, et al., 2016). And more specifically the company is starting the Aboriginal employment processes. The organizations, therefore, worked to deliver sustainable growth of the company concerning shareholder value. In addition, the company had planned this by providing the maintenance of the financial strength, pursuing quite compatible growth opportunities along building the complementary gas business in the East Coast basins.
For that reason, the company works with its values of safety, creativity, performance, teamwork, respect, and performance of the employees as well as the contractors. Though the company aims at such an amount of improvisation in its profile still safety is the primary concern for which the paper is concerned (Lay, et al., 2016). The company also feels safety to be the important part due to which they think safety to be at precedence in every action. In that context, the employment length gets that affects the socio-economic background. All these are possible by the identification of the proper health hazard which becomes the basis of safety within the organization (Lay, et al., 2016).
The reason behind this is the prolonged exposure to the health hazards occurring within the workplace. Thus occupational health represents the health hazards of the employees in their working conditions which can lead to chronic illness. These hazards somehow present a danger to health, life, and limbs which are associated with the occupation or the working environment.
3. An occupational health hazard and associated risks
Occupational health and safety can be considered an important part of an organization that deals with the identification of the chronic illness of any individual in the working conditions at his or her workplace. Thus occupational health management majorly describes the process of prevention of adverse health effects on the health of the workers in the workplace. In addition, it also enables the protection of the workers and takes care of their physical, mental as well and social well-being in the workplace. For that reason, the paper includes a workplace like Beach Energy in Australia and specifically analyzes many of its possible health hazards (McLeod, 2014).
In that context, while developing a keen idea regarding the occupational health hazards associated with Beach Energy it came out that the employees who work in the organization face chronic diseases, infections, and accidents. The infection gets more vital with more and more exposure of the individual to the wastes. When there has been more and more exposure to the infected wounds there will be skin as well as blood infection. It will also result in the eye as well as the respiratory infection due to the dust. In addition to that, there will be various kinds of intestinal infections also due to the transmission of flies (Myers, et al., 2016).
Along with that the employees also face burning injuries from occupational accidents which can also result in bone and muscle disorders. The most vital which can be considered with must concern is the chronic diseases. Chronic diseases are the one that mostly kills employees very slowly and get reflected in their last stage where there is no chance of getting cured. These chronic diseases are the respiratory diseases and cancers (Pirzadeh, et al., 2015). Chronic diseases are the result of the chemicals being used within the organization. These chemicals are hydrogen sulfide, mercury, silica, and drilling fluids.
The leaking of hydrogen sulfide makes the body of the employee tremble which can cause the death of the employee within a few minutes or seconds as per the breath failure. Similarly, the drilling fluids also result in the emergence of drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, and headaches. In addition, the prolonged inhaling of fine silica results in the occurrence of silicosis and damages the lung tissues causing respiratory failure (Pirzadeh, et al., 2015).
While the workers are working in the oil and gas industries by taking such risks to their lives at that time they must be provided with the best possible legal requirements which can save them from many kinds of hazards. These acts provide knowledge regarding eye and face protection, hand protection, head protection, foot protection, machinery and machine guarding, storage and handling of liquefied petroleum gasses, and fire protection.
In addition, there will be the strong implementation of flame-resistant clothing along with the positioning of the Active hydrocarbon Zone (Pirzadeh, et al., 2015). There will also be a barrier guard for the draw works drum at the oil drilling sites. Various industries have incorporated the safe entry and cleaning of the petroleum storage tanks, planning and managing tank entry by Recommissioning to Decommissioning.
The changes within the whole process are the part that establishes the health and safety within the organization. In any case, the changes that have been required within the processes are the flaws in the safety culture, lack of real commitment, flawed communication, inadequate learning from the previous events, and finally the lack of real commitment by the leaders toward safety (Pirzadeh, et al., 2015).
The reason behind the implementation of these changes will enhance productivity along with the improvement of safety. Moreover, there will be a decrease in accidents as compared to previous times to help calculate the high and low accident rates within the organizations. The changes will never let the employees face adverse or unsafe conditions within the workplace at Beach Energy.
The health and safety establishment is the part that helps in the formulation of the rules as well as policies which will help the employees in getting the solutions to the issues raised in the occupational health exposure the overall assumptions provided by the paper will provide a clear scenario of the occupational health hazard.
Thus the designing of the work methodologies along with the tools as well as equipment will help in the elimination of occupational health hazards. More specifically due to this fact the production, human life, and quality will be mostly at risk which will enhance the capabilities which will help in recognizing the limitations (Solaß, et al., 2013).
Thus the management by which the occupational health hazard can be minimized comprises of the health care system, hygiene and sanitation, first-aid, emergency medical care, health risk assessment, medical management of obnoxious substances, pre-employment and regular medical check-ups and wellness as well as the fitness program for the employees and the families.
4.
The employees in the Beach Energy generally face the condition of occupational health hazard that affects their skin, lungs as well as other organs. In that context, the employees face this situation by getting exposed to the scenario for a prolonged period. Moreover, this may also lead to the emergence of noise-induced hearing loss. And finally, the most important part is that occupational health hazards result in the threatening of the life of the workers (Solaß, et al., 2013).
Thus for that reason, the management of Beach Energy should formulate an effective plan that will help the employers to carry out the whole process. In that context, the occupational health program is such a part that protects the workers from being exposed to chemicals, radiation, and all other hazardous materials. As per the concept, an effective plan is an approach that will help in working against the exposures (Wong, Gray & Sadiqi, 2015).
For that reason, the plan should contain the purpose statement, responsibilities of the employers, supervisors, and workers, identification as well as the assessment of the associated risks, risk control, manpower education, and training, safe and clear working procedures, hygiene facilities and the decontamination procedures, documentation, and health monitoring. By acquiring these processes there will have the organization will reach the elimination of occupational health hazards.
In addition to that, the monitoring of these processes or the health monitoring in Beach Energy can be carried out by identifying the respective chemical or any other causative exposure. By identifying the accurate process or the actual nature of the chemical the monitoring can be fulfilled. The assessment of the whole procedure is the witness that the organization will be able to fulfill the objective by carrying out proper planning, implementation, and evaluation of the risk as well as every possible management strategy (Solaß, et al., 2013).
This will help address the health hazards, enforcement, data collection systems, surveillance, and dissemination. The tools and techniques like the automatic detection technology will be very helpful in improving employee outcomes. Along with that, the real-time monitoring solutions will also help in the communication process and precise employee positioning.
5. Conclusions
This paper illustrated the key insights regarding occupational health hazards. Along with that it also provided detailed knowledge of how these occupational health issues can be tackled in the oil and gas industries like Beach Energy. In that context, the paper provided a management process that can be gained from the above-mentioned plan. The proper implementation of the plan and the regular monitoring of the implemented plan will improve the health and safety process in the organization.
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