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How to carry out routine law enforcement inspections and occupational disease prevention?

2016-08-31View Original

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Although the Work Safety Law and the Law on the Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases have little overlap, and their respective regulatory frameworks and standard systems are relatively independent, the responsibilities for work safety supervision and the prevention and control of occupational diseases both fall under the jurisdiction of work safety authorities. In daily law enforcement inspections, it is necessary to integrate work safety supervision with efforts to prevent and control occupational diseases, ensuring that planning, inspections, and corrective actions are carried out together. Drawing on my own work experience, I believe that routine law enforcement inspections must pass through \"six key checks\", all of which are essential. Stage 1: Preliminary preparation. For enterprises that are large in scale and cover a wide range of activities, prior to carrying out enforcement inspections, it is necessary to use the data platforms and online information systems available within the system to obtain basic information about the enterprise in question. This includes understanding the enterprise’s relevant licenses, production processes, and other related details, so as to identify potential accident hazards and occupational disease risks. It is also important to familiarize oneself with the relevant laws, regulations, rules, and standards applicable to the industry/sector in which the enterprise operates. Before carrying out law enforcement, it is necessary to prepare the appropriate tools for such tasks, including law enforcement credentials, official documents, inspection forms, evidence collection devices (cameras, recorders, body cameras, etc.), portable testing instruments (dust detectors, toxic gas detectors, noise meters, etc.), as well as suitable personal protective equipment (dust masks, gas masks, safety helmets, chemical protective suits, etc.). For enterprises where confidence is lacking, experts from the relevant industry/field can be invited to join, thereby improving the accuracy and scientific nature of the law enforcement inspections. Except for those enterprises that explicitly require unannounced inspections, the enterprises to be inspected are notified one day in advance to make preparations for the inspection. Second stage: On-site coordination. During routine law enforcement inspections, many officers find themselves conducting an inspection at a particular company for the first time. To this end, it is highly necessary to accurately grasp information related to enterprise safety production and occupational health, dispel the enterprises’ concerns, encourage them to actively cooperate with law enforcement inspections, and hold a brief and effective on-site meeting. First, the law enforcement officers must present their identification to prove their identity, and then guide the company under inspection to provide information on potential accident hazards, occupational disease risks, as well as the company’s production processes and the layout of its premises. Select workshops (warehouses) with similar functions that are old and have poor production conditions as targets for enforcement; coordinate to determine the routes and schedule for on-site inspections, and if there are enough staff, conduct group inspections both on-site and in the records. Third stage: On-site inspection – What exactly needs to be checked in the enterprise? In simple terms, it involves checking whether the company’s principal responsible persons are fulfilling their duties in accordance with the law, and whether the company’s capacity to provide such safeguards meets the legal requirements. So what should be the focus of on-site inspections? The author believes that it is necessary to take into account the causes of the accidents that occur frequently at present, analyze strategies to eliminate these causes, and make them a focus of on-site law enforcement inspections. Upon entering the workshop, what comes to sight are the posted warning signs, hazard notices, operating procedures, and so on ; Configuration of emergency rescue equipment and facilities and development of rescue capabilities ; Regarding the provision, use, and suitability of personal protective equipment, special attention should be paid to the situations where such equipment is provided but not used, or is available but cannot be utilized ; Installation of safety equipment and facilities and implementation of occupational hazard control measures ; The arrangement of escape and evacuation routes in the production layout, as well as the separation of hazardous and non-hazardous operations ; The safety management status of key areas such as hazardous production processes and raw material warehouses. It is important to engage in dialogue with workers to understand the actual situation of enterprises regarding personal protection, education and training, and safety equipment and facilities. It is essential to maintain control throughout the entire process of law enforcement inspections ; It is important to develop the habit of *taking pictures of potential hazards on the spot*, capturing issues related to behaviors and conditions at the workplace; images provide evidence, making it easier to explain things and organize information. Fourth stage: Record review stage. The author believes that law enforcers should be adept at identifying problems through record reviews. The primary task when checking records should be to verify the legal legitimacy of the enterprise and relevant individuals, that is, whether their licenses, permits, reports, etc. are within their valid periods. For example, when inspecting a non-coal mining enterprise whose safety production license had expired, many potential hazards were identified, but the issue of an expired license was not detected at all. Such law enforcement inspections are extremely dangerous, as they lead to a passive situation of investigating violations by illegal entities. In addition, when reviewing the records, special attention should be paid to the establishment and implementation of important systems and procedures such as the enterprise’s responsibility system and hazard identification mechanisms; the setup of management structures and the allocation of management personnel; the development, testing, and documentation of emergency response plans; efforts in publicity, education, and training; the reporting of occupational disease hazards and the testing of relevant risk factors; as well as the occupational health examinations for workers in exposed positions at three different stages: before starting work, during employment, and after leaving the job. Fifth stage: Feedback and communication stage. When reaching this stage of the enforcement inspection, the personnel from the company under inspection can be asked to step away temporarily, allowing the enforcers to hold private discussions to determine whether it is necessary to issue a corrective action order or to initiate formal investigations. The inspection records should accurately document the operational status of the enterprise during the enforcement inspection on that day, and the enforcement documents should use appropriate legal terminology to describe the existing issues. The provisions requiring enterprises to make corrections within a specified time frame should take into account the current level of development in production technologies in China as well as non-enterprise-related factors, in order to provide targeted and clear suggestions for improvement, and guide employers in conducting dynamic assessments of the effectiveness of such corrections. At the same time, it is necessary to actively emphasize to enterprises the extreme importance of work safety and occupational health, urging them to take proactive responsibility and complete the rectification of existing issues on schedule and to a satisfactory standard. Stage 6: Implementation of the closed-loop process – If no significant issues are identified during law enforcement inspections, the enterprises should be urged to continue focusing on work safety and occupational health. If the enterprise has issues that require rectification, a rectification order will be issued, requiring the enterprise to complete the corrections within a specified time frame. Upon completion of the rectifications, a written and detailed report on the corrections, along with comparative photos before and after the rectification of the safety hazards (stamped with the enterprise’s official seal), must be submitted. The law enforcement authorities shall conduct a re-inspection within 10 days from the date when the enterprise submits an application for rectification and seeks a re-examination, or from the expiration of the specified deadline, and shall put forward opinions or suggestions regarding the re-inspection. For enterprises that require further investigation, a closed-loop management process shall be followed in accordance with the relevant procedures. The materials submitted by the enterprise for reinspection are extremely important; they represent both an admission by the enterprise of its own problems and confirmation of the corrective actions taken, as well as important evidence that the potential risks have been properly addressed. (Author’s institution: Hangzhou Work Safety Supervision Bureau, Zhejiang Province)

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