The origin of the industrial accidents

Antonio Fernando Navarro[1]

Introduction:

We propose here present and associate the origin of the industrial accidents and existing laws,

without drawn parallels with comparative stats and, but and so only so simple, present the question, which

concerns all those who, like us, we work in HSE activities, whether in the supervision of works, in the

elaboration of standards or procedures, managing the activities or in the deployment or implementation of

integrated management systems.

We ran into were for a long time with this question involving the origin of accidents, after much

research and write about it we realized that the source of accidents may be the most diverse possible, since

the causes are distinct, involving not only the employee, but also the company, its culture and environment,

and the work, with its difficulties and conditions of execution of tasks, including the use of tools and

equipment, often unknown. It turns out that a simple equation with three unknowns cannot be resolved

unless you replace at least two of the unknowns. In the language of mathematics may mean that if you're

substituting unknown values or situations not known for something you can stipulate. In certified companies

and with high technical standards, is to assume that the environment and working conditions are good, in the

same way that the worker, before starting your activities will undergo training and evaluation periods. But

does that really matter? We haven't had updated spreadsheets that secrete accidents by companies that are

certified or not. One thing, however, we can come to a consensus, which is that the mere participation of the

worker as a cause of the accident is a complex thing.

Discussion of the theme:

In 11/19/1984, FENASEG (National Federation of Insurances Companies) Newsletter, no. 789,

16th year, in space intended for Studies and Opinions, under the title: Why an accident at work occurs, thus

expressing us:

What are the reasons why accidents occur? What they represent for the nation, for employers

and for insurance companies?

The Decree Law of n9 83,080/79 defines the workplace accident as being one that occurs at

work in the service of the company, causing personal injury or functional disturbance that causes

death, or loss or permanent or temporary reduction of working capacity. Equipped to work accident,

among others. for the purposes of granting benefits:

a) occupational disease or work;

b) accident suffered by the employee at the time and place of work due to acts of sabotage or terrorism

(practiced even by coworker, intentional physical injury caused by work-related dispute, recklessness,

negligence or malpractice of third parties, including co-workers), Act of private person the use of

reason, landslide, flood or fire;

c) accident suffered by the employee, even though outside the workplace and working hours, in the

execution of the order or performing service under authority of the company, in the provision of any

service to the company wanted to avoid injury or provide benefit in the company's service trip, on the

way to work or this for that, en route to the location of meal or back him in working range.

As the definition of industrial accident and well wide, covering not only, as one might assume, at first

the accident suffered by an employee of a company, at the time and place of work and in the execution

of a certain task.

Statistically many are the ways to evaluate the incidence of accidents at work. they are: frequency

Rate, rate of gravity and Severity assessment index.

The Brazil, in the early 70, was champion in work accidents. Unfortunately there were also the "greatest" and

the "best" in accident rates. Much has been made since then, with the objective of reducing these indexes the

values considered as acceptable by international bodies. However, even today, despite all the effort, our

percentages are quite high. The FUNDACENTRO in article: BRAZIL, 1980: statistics of industrial

accidents; catalogued the accidents, based on work of DATAPREV and M.P.A.S.. To exemplify with some

actual data obtained through the coordination of Informatics of the Ministry of Planning of the INPS, we cite

some data for the base year of 1980.

I) Typical Accident: 1,404,531 accidents (95.9%)

• Occupational disease: 3,713 crashes (0.3%)

• Path crash: 55,967 accidents (3.8%)

II) Indices by accident settled

• Simple accident medical assistance: 207,375 (13.8%)

• Temporary incapacity less than 15dias: 791,504 (52.6%)

• Temporary disability greater than 15dias: 473,964 (31.5%)

• Permanent disability with additional aid: 9,911 (0.6%)

• Permanent disability with accident aid: 13,118 (0.9%)

• Retirement due to disability: 4,896 (0.3%)

• Deaths: 4,824 (0.3%)

III) accident rates by sector of activities more significant until the 10th placement:

• Cork and wood industry: 27.3%

• furniture industry: 20.6%

• mineral extraction industry: l8 .7%

• administration of ports and airports: 15.1%

• metallurgical industry: 14.2%

• beverage industry: 13.4%

• food industry: 12.8%

• mechanical engineering: 12.7%

• construction: 12.3%

IV) index of man-days lost until the 5th placing

• construction: 23,055,472

• Cork and wood industry: 6,992,659

• retail trade: 5,954,939

• mechanical engineering: 5,756,678

• food industry: 5,411,544

After the presentation of these numbers can have a pale idea of representing the work accidents

for the Parents, for Employers and Insurers. However, asked if those numbers could not be reduced to a

minimal, or who knows, completely eliminated? The total elimination is not possible, because of the

possibility of an accident is not dependent on a single factor, but rather a multitude of factors, including

aggravated by conditions at the moment.

A worker at end of shift is always more prone to accidents than in beginning of round. The loss

of your football team to another team is also a dominant factor for the occurrence of accidents. Periods of

economic recession, paydays, end of month, eve of public holidays, etc., are factors that promote the

emergence and accidents. As it turns out, any factor that motivates the psycho-social imbalance in the human

being is a factor of accident;

Now imagine that all of these factors can occur with each of the members of a community

worker, all the moments, involving participants and third parties. What is observed is that the Elimination of

accidents is a work impossible. However, the reduction is always possible provided they are created

conditions of work, adequate training and appropriate equipment and materials.

Recently, a fact that attracted our attention, presented by the most widely circulated newspapers.

It was a meeting of more than 1,000 people in a northeastern city, showing part of the upper limbs amputated

by pulping of sisal. The scene presented the people exposing the parts of your Coro amputated was shocking

to all of us. What was missing to those men and women who had not been injured? Will a proper machine

would not have been enough already, or maybe a specific training for this type of operation? There was talk,

too, that these people receive for production, that is, earn from what they produce. In this condition the faster

work more produce and, consequently, more will receive. If we set our logical sequence of facts presented,

we will see that these are people, without much or any resource, working without any type of training and

inadequate equipment, technique and adverse conditions. Now, all of these factors are opposed to any

measure of prevention or eradication of accidents. The result is a meeting of more than 1,000 people

exposing their wounds and fighting for their rights.

Section XV, the consolidation of labor laws, in particular article 200, addresses the regulatory

standards, presenting some preventive considerations (emphasis added), as follows:

It is the responsibility of the Ministry of labour establish additional provisions to the rules of

this Chapter, in order to the peculiarities of each activity or sector of work, especially on:

1. accident prevention measures and personal protective equipment in construction, demolition

or repairs;

2. depots, storage and handling of fuels, Flammables and explosives, as well as transit and

sojourn in the respective areas;

3. work in excavations, tunnels, galleries, mines and quarries, especially regarding the

prevention of explosions, fires, landslides and burial, elimination of dust, gases, etc., and rapid

output facilities of the employees;

4. fire protection in General and the appropriate preventive measures, with special coating

requirements to doors and walls, fire walls, building dikes and other screens, as well as

general warranty easy circulation, access corridors and large and protected outputs, with

adequate signaling;

5. protection against heat stroke, heat, cold, humidity and winds, especially at work in the open,

with provision for this, drinking water, housing and prophylaxis of endemic diseases;

6. protection of workers exposed to harmful chemicals, ionizing radiation and non-ionizing

radiation, noise, vibration or abnormal vibrations and pressures at the workplace, with

specification of appropriate measures for elimination or mitigation of those effects, the

maximum exposure time, the intensity of the action or its effects on the body of the worker,

compulsory medical examinations, age limits, permanent control of workplaces and other

requirements necessary to be;

7. hygiene at workplaces, with breakdown of requirements, sanitary facilities, with separation of

sexes, showers, lavatories, changing rooms and individual lockers, cafeterias or comfort

conditions during meals, drinking water supply, cleaning conditions of workplaces and

providing for its execution, industrial waste treatment;

8. employment of colors at the workplace, including the signs of danger.

9. Sole paragraph-in the case of ionizing radiation and explosives, the detailed rules referred to in

this article shall be issued in accordance with the resolutions adopted by the technical respect.

The evolution of the techniques of prevention:

Throughout the time of implementation of this legal device, always occurred some distortions,

is about the understanding or implementation of the measures recommended in its various chapters and

articles.

It should be noted that since the 40, and therefore the more than sixty years ago, there was the

concern of legislators to worker safety, being necessary specific preventive measures, whereas the industrial

accidents occur normally without any control and worker protections were underperforming. Therefore, it

can be said that the mention of the accident prevention measures and personal protective equipment in

construction, demolition or repairs was one of the major progress achieved in this area.

In our assessment of the problem we understand that the occurrence of an accident depends,

fundamentally, of groups of distributed and intertwined factors as follows:

I) Human Being:

The human contribution to the occurrence of accidents may be due, among others, the following

factors (treated here so reduced, because it is not subject of this discussion):

Main Factors Community Contributes Factors

Hunger Poor diet

Lack of food

Disease Feel ill be

Use of drugs that affect your balance or understanding

Drug Addiction Use of legal drugs or not, that undermine the understanding or the

performance of the employee

Rush

End of the journey

Termination of service

Hunger

Feel ill be physical or emotional

Pressure by the end of the activity

Excessive journeys

Abnormal situations in the work environment, as for example, the

proximity of electrical power failure, the immediate need for an

adjustment or repair a piece of equipment, the momentary interruption of

a sector of the company, among others.

Inattention

Disease

Hunger

Ill be physical or emotional

Possibility of the football team win or lose later

Possibility to receive any calls, either for a new job or home, for some

problem

Family problems

Financial problems

Physical conditions of the work environment

Adverse environmental conditions

Excessive conversations around

Excessive journeys

Stress

Disease

Hunger

Possibility of layoffs at work or cutting people or reduction of activities

Work environment

Interpersonal relationships at work

Adverse environmental conditions

Excessive journeys

Dark, dimly lit or excessively illuminated

Pressure by the completion of the tasks

Pressure by supervisors or colleagues

Lack of training or training

No training

Training poorly transmitted

Low capacity of assimilation

Lack of skill

Understanding of training

Understanding of the activity

Lack of skill

Lack of knowledge Culture

School training

Psychological problems

Diseases/disorders

Disorders caused by pressure

Motivational factors

Family problems Diseases in family

Financial pressures

Adverse environmental

conditions

Cold

Heat

Moisture

Vibration

Moving of machines and equipment

Ergonomic aspects

Workstation

Desktop

· Noise

· Cold or heat

· Vibration

· Excessive Insolation

· Lack or excess lighting

· Excessive Conversations around

Working conditions

It can be observed that many factors community contributes end for repeating, at various times.

The "hunger" which can lead to a rush to the end of the activity also generates the "inattention".

4.3 Environment:

Numerous are the factors related to middle which surrounds the worker, or is in their

surroundings, which may promote the occurrence of an accident. Some of these are:

• No indication of the places of risks;

• No local protection of risks;

• Transit of equipment or vehicles in the vicinity of the workplace;

• Dangerous activities nearby (pile driving, enforcement of industrial assemblies, realization of welds

and cut, among others);

• Lack of full visibility of all risks in the surroundings;

• Place hot or dusty;

• Place messy or dirty;

• Low lighting or excessive brightness.

4.4 conditions:

Are all those that come to facilitate the occurrence of an accident. Can be translated as the

missing link in the chain.

An employee, using a circular saw for cutting a Board, without employing the PPE

recommended for the activity, you can get hurt if you're called to attention by your tender, so untimely, or by

simply passing someone or something to call attention. In this case, the concern of the supervisor, or the

momentary inattention may be the main reason of the occurrence of the accident. An employee who is not

with a proper health condition may not have the performance required for the execution of the activity. This

can be the propitious situation.

4.5 external factors:

As external factors can have all those who are in the surroundings of the employee or that

surround it. E.g.: an employee who is running a weld on a pipe and suddenly realizes that a backhoe comes

toward you, even though she doesn't want to, will be affected, in its quietness for this movement. Another is

made, if there is a material handling about you, that hurts your concentration. These external factors are

dynamic. There are also static factors such as air humidity, ambient temperature, illumination of the

workplace, among others.

4.6 material Factors:

The material factors are those of which the worker uses to carry out its tasks. This group has:

portable tools or not, equipment, countertops, support materials, and other activities. A tool that was

delivered to the employee without having been properly inspected and problems can be one of the risk

factors that cause accidents.

[2] Legal references labour inspection in Brazil dating back to the 19th century, as the Decree

No. 1313 of 1/17/1891, but the same just rules for the work of children in the Federal District (at the time,

the city of Rio de Janeiro) and has never been respected. It was up to States the competence to legislate on

the work and inspection was poisoned by employers ' interests. The Decree 3,550, 10/16/1918, created the

National Labour Department, fitting to this Department to the enforcement of laws on industrial accidents,

journey, vacations, work of women and minors and Union organizing. In 1921 was established labour

inspection, circumscribed to the Distrito Federal (Rio de Janeiro). With the constitutional reform of 1926

established the competence of the Union to legislate on the job. The Decree 21690, 8/1/1932 created the

Regional Provinces in the States of the Federation, later transformed into regional Labor offices, by Decree

No. 2168, 5/6/1940. The Maritime work Stations were created by Decree n. º 23259, 10/20/1933, fitting them

to the work in ports, fishing and navigation. The DTM were extinguished during the Government of

President Fernando Collor de Mello. The mandatory reporting of industrial accidents to the police authority

was established by Decree No. 24637, 7/10/1934, which also provided for the imposition of administrative

fines, the National Department of labour. Decree-Law No. 1985, 1/19/1940 established the jurisdiction of the

Ministry of agriculture to oversee and establish work standards in the mines. The labour protection laws were

grouped in the consolidated labor laws – CLT, by Decree-Law No. 5452, 5/1/1943.

In 7/19/1947 the International Labour Organization -ILO adopts Convention No. 81, which

States that each ILO Member for which the Convention is in force, you must have a system of labour

inspection in industrial and commercial establishments. The Brazil ratified the Convention No. 81 of the

ILO, by Legislative Decree No. 24, 5/29/1956, promulgated by Decree No. 41721, 6/25/1957. Although the

Labour Inspector's career has been created by law No. 6479, 4/9/1944, just after the promulgation of

Convention No. 81 and issuance of the Decree, 3/15/1965, 55,841 regulation of labour inspection, which

structure the careers of labour inspection in the various specialties-labor Tax, occupational physician,

Engineer and Social worker, and establishes standards for inspection.

With regard to the historical development of labour legislation in Brazil we mention Law No.

5161, 10/21/1966, authorizing the creation of the National Center for safety, hygiene and occupational

medicine-FUNDACENTRO, whose title was amended by law No. 7133, 10/26/1983, National Foundation

Jorge Duprat Figueiredo of safety and occupational medicine.

The Decree 95461, 12/11/1987, reinvigorated the Decree No. 41721, 6/25/1957, agreeing the

Convention No. 81. The rule n. 32, November 29, 1968, DNSHT-National Department of labor safety and

hygiene, adopts provisions concerning the Organization of the internal accident prevention commissions,

regulating articles 158 and 164 of the CLT, with amended by Decree Law n. 229, of February 28, 1967.

In the 4/5/1971 Brazil denounced Convention No. 81, due mainly to article 6, which stipulates

that the status of officialdom should ensure the stability of the inspection staff and make them independent of

any change of Government or of any undue external influence, in addition to paragraph 2, article 11, which

provides for the restitution of all the associated costs of labour inspectors, necessary for the performance of

their duties.

The ministerial order No. 3237, July 17, 1972, which was part of the "Plan of recovery of the

worker" of the Federal Government, obligated the existence of occupational health services and workplace

safety engineering in all companies with one or more workers.

Law No. 6514, 12/22/1977, amended chapter V of title II of the CLT, concerning safety and

occupational medicine-articles 154 to 201. The ministerial order No. 3214, 6/8/1978, approves the regulatory

standards of safety and occupational medicine-NR. These rules have been altered over time, by several

Gatehouses.

Currently the Brazil adopts a series of conventions of the International Labour Organization

(ILO). The ILO conventions that have been ratified and promulgated by the Brazil have led to changes in

regulatory standards relevant to each subject covered by the said Convention. The regulatory norms have

been altered in recent years, both for the evolution of productive methods and labor relations as to conform

to ILO conventions promulgated by Brazil.

Analysis of Question:

For decades the work safety professionals has always been questioned about this theme. In

Brazil, these professionals began to be qualified, through specific training courses in the mid-1970. Until

then, there were engineering courses, in their curricular grids made mention of certain items relating to safety

conditions for workers. The rest of the world has already commented about job security since the Decade of

1950. Therefore, this concern for the safety of the work, translated by training specific professionals is not as

old as well. Here begins with the supervisors of work safety, which were nothing more than property security

professionals who received additional courses. These Supervisors were transformed into workplace safety

Technicians. How were the Technical Word title, began to be targeted by the Advice, especially the regional

engineering, architecture and Agronomy. Endless discussions, eternal procrastinators meant that only a small

percentage of these technicians spend part of CREAS. As for the training of engineers, the courses were

adapted from courses outside of Brazil, having been the first course taught between 1975 and 1976. In his

first title, were the Work of engineers. Subsequently, the work safety Engineers. There are still some aspects

which understand to be occupational safety engineers. There are distinctions between the work and the work,

but which do not bring benefits to the understanding of the proposed theme: the origin of the industrial

accidents.

So, this article lends itself to bring some contributions to the theme and the role exercised by

both the safety and the Technical security engineer, in the context of the origin of the industrial accidents.

The role of workplace safety professionals:

We can say that since it was enacted the consolidation of labor laws, in the Era Getulista

(Decree-Law No. 5,452, MAY 1, 1943), there was already a concern, at least materialized in Law, for issues

related to worker safety. In part, and this is not disclosed, it may be that this concern in an era in which the

Country lived a dictatorial regime, may have been due to the fact of admission of the nation of the United

Nations, what would happen years later, since at the time of the redaction of Decree-law the world was still

at war. The Brazil participated by sending the "GL" for Italy, providing mineral resources and initiating

industrial activities.

In 1978, through a Ministerial Decree nº 3,214 took, issued on 6/8/1978, and published in the

7/6/1978, was finally regulated in article 200 of the CLT, through the dissemination of regulatory norms

specific to activities related to human labor. Many of these regulatory norms were effectively implemented

years after, in the same way that were drawn up.

It is interesting to mention that, through law No. 7,410, of 11/27/1985, was regulated the

activity of work safety Engineer and the profession of occupational safety technician (formerly work safety

Supervisors). For being a very interesting text, we quote him:

Law nº 7,410, of 27 2OVEMBER 1985

Adopts provisions concerning the expertise of engineers and architects in workplace safety Engineering, the

profession of technician Job security and other arrangements.

Art. 1st-the specialization of work safety Engineer will be allowed, exclusively:

I. I-engineer or Architect, with certificate of completion of the specialization course on workplace

safety Engineering, to be taught in the country, in graduate level;

II. II-certificate bearer of the specialization course on workplace safety Engineering, held in priority

character, by the Ministry of labor;

III. III-to the holder of record of work safety Engineer, issued by the Ministry of labor, until the date

fixed in the regulation of law.

Art. 2nd-the practice of the profession of occupational safety technician is allowed exclusively:

IV. bearer certificate of completion of course work safety technician, to be taught in the country in

educational establishment of 2nd degree;

V. bearer certificate of completion of course work safety Supervisor, held in priority character by the

Ministry of labor;

VI. the owner of record of work safety Supervisor, dispatched by the Ministry of labor, until the date

fixed in the regulation of this law.

The question to be presented is that a lot had knowledge of the predictability of the occurrences

of accidents, the same way that already had statistical information that could be employed in management

systems, unthinkable in the past. So, why the accidents are still happening? Existing legislation, after all, is

good, although prolix in many respects. What else is in the works, residential or industrial is the most total

non-compliance with the legislation. Except Honorable exceptions, which rely heavily on corporate culture

more than employees in other companies one realizes how much we should tread so that our country can be

considered as a country where labor laws are followed.

Conclusion:

When a topic becomes clear as the continuous occurrence of accidents, when you have the right

tools today hold the analysis of occurrences of accidents, including in order to trace the limits of containment

of deviations, first stage to give a fatal occurrence, when it has the comfortable standards and procedures to

be employed when there is an increasingly growing number of certified companies, why accidents keep

occurring? It seems that the answers are obvious, no? If they were, surely would have occurred the changes

needed.

There needs to be greater oversight on businesses that do not meet the law. The workers ' unions

should leave aside the strikes for the simple fact that they want to raise more and think about security of its

affiliates. Companies must seek changes in attitude and culture. The certification companies must review

their concepts for the granting of certificates to companies that do not comply with the laws. Sounds simple,

doesn't it? But getting out of your comfort zone to a zone of conflict, Yes, because change can mean conflict,

it's not as easy as that. While it is normal to die people to compose the statistical tables and all work with

numbers without the necessary proactive the scenario will be the same, with thousands of people maimed or

suffering in hospital queues to be serviced and healed. As it does not represent? So, if we consider that we

are experiencing a special moment of the nation's growth, with the lack of skilled labor. In this manner, we

cannot and we must not let anyone out in public. This is our first duty. To this end, we have to eliminate the

risks. If this is impossible, the next step may be to not accept the risk, but mitigates them and to protect

workers. This must be our mission. Protect workers, causing this concern arises. We, professionals of SMS

are mere inductors of culture change.

[1] Antonio Fernando Navarro is a Civil Engineer, work safety Engineer and Master in health and environment, having

acted in industrial activities for more than 30 years, and professor at Fluminense Federal University-UFF in Actuarial

Sciences disciplines. [2]

Text extracted from Wikipedia the free encyclopedia,

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Cronologia_da_Legisla%C3%A7%C3%A3o_de_Seguran%C3%A7a_e_Sa%C3%B

Ade_no_Trabalho_no_Brasil, accessed at 2/25/2012