masterwordsmith-unplugged

1. “You’re not as safe here as you might think.”

Cubicle dwellers might think that their desk jobs, if boring, are at least danger-free, but there are real occupational hazards at the office: There were 286 fatalities in administrative and support jobs in 2011, for instance, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (versus 721among people working construction).

Surprisingly, though — despite the lurking danger that increases in office security over the years might imply — the most common cause of death had nothing to do with office-security threats. Rather, they involved slipping, tripping or falling, which often happens when employees climb furniture or bookshelves attempting to reach files or other objects, says Dwayne Towles, an occupational safety and health consultant. On rare occasions, of course, Americans go to the office to never return home for more dramatic reasons, succumbing to tragedies ranging from violent homicides to freak accidents. Still, most offices witness less excitement: Real estate and law offices had only 10 deaths each in 2011. “The incident rates are low in an office environment, but that doesn’t mean people don’t get hurt,” Towles says.


2. “Feeling run down? Blame the building.”

Desk jockeys commonly joke that work makes them sick. But sometimes, they’re correct. An indefinite feeling of illness might actually be caused by the office itself. Occupational health consultants term the phenomenon “sick building syndrome” — though experts say they have learned to take the phrase with a grain of salt. Mold, odors, inadequate ventilation, chemicals and other pollutants can cause real symptoms such as headaches, coughs and fatigue while employees are at the office, usually going away when they return home. Such problems often stem from moisture trapped in walls during construction, which can plague newly constructed buildings as well as old. (Staring at screens can also cause something called computer vision syndrome, a condition where employees’ eyes become dry and tired, and that may be linked to glaucoma.) And while it’s currently trendy for companies to repurpose historic buildings like fire stations or grist mills into office space, it may make matters worse, as outdated HVAC systems can cause problems if not retrofitted properly, says Everett Mount, president of Safety Synergy, a New Jersey-based occupational health consulting company. “Sick building doesn’t really mean old building,” says Towles.

But some experts say employee sickness may often be psychological, with workers’ stress and frustration (say, fear of layoffs) manifesting as physical symptoms — and paranoia can quickly spread across the office. “I’ve seen people using indoor air quality to get out of a place where they don’t want to be,” says Mount, who has investigated a few buildings top-to-bottom following worker complaints and found no problem whatsoever. “’Sick building syndrome,’” he says,“is grossly overused.”


3. “You’re sitting on your worst enemy.”

Before you blame your health problems on your boss or back-stabbing co-worker, consider that the culprit might be right beneath you. Experts say the most dangerous aspect of an office job might be the simple fact that most people sit while doing it: “There’s nothing else I can think of that is impacting more people than sitting,” says Marc Hamilton, who studies the physiology of inactivity at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Studies suggest that the body loses 20% to 25% of its good cholesterol and becomes insulin-resistant in a full day of sitting, increasing the risk of diabetes, heart disease, obesity — and death.

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Which professions are prospering?
A look at 2012's unemployment data shows it was a good year to be a metal worker or a credit analyst. Photo: Bloomberg.

The bad news: Recent research has shown that no amount of exercise can counteract the health damage caused by sitting, and people who exercise spend just as much time sitting as those who don’t. Plus, despite a booming ergonomics industry, which makes equipment specially designed to make people more comfortable at their desks (chairs that reduce lower-back pain and keyboards that ease carpal tunnel symptoms, for example), experts say the high-tech — and often expensive — gadgets can’t solve the problem that workers are chained to their chairs. Even desks allowing people to stand while they work aren’t a sustainable alternative to sitting: “After a while, they don’t use it; they just sit,” says Jos Verbeek of the Finnish Institute for Occupational Health and Safety.

CLICK HERE for the rest of the entry.

A housewife died due to burns sustained in the kitchen. Her husband too was hospitalized for injuries due to burns while trying to rescue his wife.

How it happened?:-

The gas stove was on and cooking under process. The lady observed some cockroaches near the sink and grabbed a can of insect killer and sprayed it near the gas stove,
which was on.

There was an explosion and in no time the poor woman was covered in flames, sustaining 65% burns. Her husband rushed in, tried to douse the flames and his clothes too caught fire.
The husband is still in hospital, in the burns ward, still unaware that his wife was declared dead on arrival.

Let us understand:- All insect killer sprays such as "Hit", "Mortein" etc. have highly volatile and inflammable solvents. The atomized nano spray particles spread extremely rapidly and one spark is enough to ignite this explosive mixture with oxygen present in air.

Did the poor lady realize the hazard involved? Apparently not!

Please educate your family about this and spread the word around.... who knows you may save more than a life....

-Author Unknown-

Take Care & Circulate.

Thanks to Angela who sent me this post.

1. The Star reported today that three nurses and a female medical officer at the Serdang Hospitals' Emergency Department were injured when 15 ceiling pieces measuring 2 ft x 2 ft each collapsed at 2.45am on Monday. The hospital's director Datuk Dr Ardi Awang said the initial investigation found the incident happened when a screw holding the ceiling pieces together had come off, sending the pieces crashing down.

According to the report, this incident was the second such incident at Serdang Hospital which has been operating since December 2005, after the first incident involving the ceiling at the main lobby which collapsed in January last year.

2. Sabah DAP reported here that a large section of ceiling in the QE1 medical ward collapsed in July this year. A large piece of concrete fell down and seriously hurt a patient who was in the ward. CLICK HERE for more details.

3. In May this year, The Malaysian Insider reported that the Penang State Assembly which was due to sit in two days time,  suffered the misfortune of a portion of the ceiling in the sitting hall collapsing yesterday. However, there were no casualties. Speaker Datuk Abdul Halim Hussain said approximately 70 per cent of the ceiling over the media and public galleries and where the Hansard writer sits came tumbling down at 3.30pm.

“At the time there were two or three assembly staff in the hall. Fortunately no one was injured,” he said when contacted by Bernama.

He said the Public Works Department had been asked to carry out a probe into to incident and inspect the safety of the premises.

On July 23 2008, four square metres of plaster ceiling in the lobby of the same building came tumbling down and narrowly missing people present.

4. On December 14th 2010, NST reported that it was a close call for 15 mothers and their newborn babies when the plaster ceiling of the Penang Hospital maternity ward came crashing down yesterday morning. Fortunately, no one was injured in the 8am incident.

The incident was believed to have been caused by a leaking pipe after the contractor changed the piping system from steel to PVC back in 1998. The mothers and their babies were evacuated to enable repair works to be carried out.

A study by Azuin Binti Ramli, Zainal Abidin Bin Akasah, Mohd Idrus Bin Hj. Mohd Masirin of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia on Building Safety and Health Modelling Framework for Polytechnic Buildings in Malaysia revealed:

The implementation of safety and health measures on building should be addressed during their life cycles to improve the occupants’ quality of life. Review of literatures shows that the design and management systems of building safety and health should be an integral part of all building systems. 

Otherwise, they may pose safety and health hazards to the occupants and affected the performance of polytechnic buildings in Malaysia. More effort is necessary to boost this application especially towards the safety of buildings. 

The safety of new and existing buildings must be well planned to ensure that its occupants can live in it safely. 

Comprehensive ways, tools and concept must be develop to determine performance indicators and criteria for safety and health building, focusing in general on the prevention of safety and health problems. 

The development of frameworks will intend to guide research efforts consolidate past
research and to construct a relevant concepts and theory of the systems that can serve as a common point of reference and integrate them into descriptive or predictive models [1]. 

It is hoped that such a structured approach will enhance better communication with shared understanding in which effectiveness research can build in specific areas.
There are numbers of unpleasant incidents, which occur due to failure of design, structural, materials used and maintenance problems. 

Reports by Lai [2] revealed the ceiling collapse at the Serdang Hospital’s main lobby and to worsen the cases of roof collapse at Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium after a year officially opened to host the 2008 Sukma Games [3].

Thus, the Housing and Local Government Ministry is responsible the implementation of Uniform Building By-laws towards sustainable development in Malaysia. Efforts are being made to provide a robust basis for policy development to make Malaysian buildings more safety, health and environment-friendly. 

The amendment of the By-laws will incorporate green building technologies and features include building materials and architecture [4].

Therefore, a safety and health framework will be created and planned according to local design, construction quality, climate, environment conditions and the use of existing buildings in Malaysia. Furthermore, the comprehensive and efficient framework can support building policies, regulations and maintenance [5,6,7] to provide detailed safety requirements and regulations with clear guidance for easy implementation by designers, architects and building managers.