- Published: October 4, 2022
- Updated: October 4, 2022
- Level: Undergraduate
- Language: English
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Safety History Safety History Background Between 1900 and 1917, the progressive era was characterized by a great interest ininvestigating and ameliorating hazardous working conditions. Through the use of settlement houses and related urban social activities, reformers were on the forefront to aid workers as well as families to get rid of dangerous working conditions. The issue of compensating workers was also put into consideration, a factor that encouraged researchers to study more on safety. Many organizations were found to motivate the research even further, in ensuring the safety of workers in industries. Some of them included: the American Standards Association, Crystal Eastman’ Work Accidents, and United Mine Workers. The era was marked by the perception that workers’ safety was necessary and that accidents at the workplace were mental.
Safety concerns in the agricultural sector, the steel industry, and several other manufacturing industries had outstanding records. Of these industries, the Steel one led the way with the ideas by Fredrick Taylor making major contributions in creating a safe environment for the management. Taylor developed a favorable interaction between management policies, various processes, and worker schedule (McGerr, 2010). In addition, the researches in this period discovered that most accidents were psychologically made and that the only remedy was to create awareness and train individuals about the issue. However, the 1930s made it difficult for workers to sue those who violated the safety regulations due to the introduction of thoughts from the West. The Judiciary became stricter in ruling out cases, since they would consider the level of fault from both sides of the coin; the workers and the company in question. Following such challenges, there was little evidence that the psychological way of looking at safety was convenient. It was also a hard task for researchers to convince people that science and investigation would precisely solve the issue, thus the occupational approach became less popular.
Energy Exchange Theory
The Energy exchange theory consists of ideas related to modern science. It developed a connection between human injury and the various forms of energy. According to this theory, the first set of injuries meddles with the whole body. The energy exchanges establish the environment in which people’s fears, personalities, and goals play out. For example, when one kidney fails, the activities of the entire body are interfered with, since energy is not equally distributed or some chemical functions are not in order. In the subsequent set, extreme forms of energy in the body may hinder proper functioning. From this example, it is logical to argue that electrical or heat energy charges can result in human injury. Hudson suggested that by developing procedures and policies, employees got protected, a suggestion that contributed so much in the workplace safety management. His ideas were adopted by most engineers and expert s in the quest to get guidelines on all issues surrounding accidents as well as preventive measures (Burke, 2006)
Accidents and Injuries Prevention
Accidents and injuries have for a long time been a public health challenge. The difference between their prevention strategies is in the aims, timing, and nature. As far as safety management is concerned, accident prevention is generally centered on the workplace and what causes the accidents. Contrary to this, injury prevention focuses on the people at a specified place of work. Basically, accident prevention deals with safety of the workers and the environment at work, while injury prevention looks at reducing the danger placed on workers by the various risks at the workplace. It is after an accident has occurred that injury prevention can be considered. Prevention for a nature accident is for the purpose of avoiding injury to people around and breaking the property of an organization. The two approaches are meant to enhance workers’ safety while they carry out their daily activities (Channing & Ridley, 2012).
References
American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. Division of Safety Education. (2010). Sports safety: accident prevention and injury control in physical education, athletics, and recreation. New York: The University of Michigan.
Burke, P. (2006). Contemporary Social Psychological Theories. London: Stanford University Press.
Channing, J. and Ridley, J. (2012). Safety at Work. New York: Routledge Publishers.
McGerr, M. (2010). A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in A. Oxford: Simon and Schuster.