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1) Consider your workplace or a workplace of one of your family members. Are there chemical, biological, radiological or ergonomic issues? Using the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls, how might you address the issues? How are they being addressed in reality?
I am a pharmacy intern, as for any healthcare setting there will be biological issues, and I would also add ergonomic issues too. For biological issues in the pharmacy, we come in contact with may sick patients on a daily basis, so there is a lot of germs, pathogens such as viruses going around. For me, I think that working in the healthcare field, we have trained our immune system to be less susceptible to some of the common illness like the flu, and common colds since we are constantly coming in contact with it. Definitely I think that we are more conscious about hygiene and sanitation, which does greatly minimize the chance of catching bacterial or viral strains. One of the services that we offer in the pharmacy is immunizations, so there are potential for hazard and accidents such as one of our pharmacist poked her finger on a used needle, and many safety precaution procedures had to be done to make sure she did not contract any unwanted disease. Ergonomic issues also apply in the pharmacy especially retail/community pharmacy. I noticed that we are constantly on our feet, sometimes for more than 10 hours a day, and many of my colleagues have complained of neck, back, and knee pain. Its especially tough for the pharmacists who mainly is standing in one area verifying prescriptions, so we have gotten many anti-fatigue mats around the pharmacy to reduce the pressure, therefore increasing productivity.
2) What might be the barriers to workers exercising their rights to a healthy and safe workplace?
For my workplace, we try to find ways to make our working environment more healthier and safe, such as adding the anti-faigue floor mats, we take 10 minute breaks or have regular training on how to handle biological concerns and proper sanitation.
 What might be barriers to workers from exercising their rights may be that they are afraid of losing to job if they protest, or speak up to their boss or management. Therefore, I think everyone in the workplace should join forces and demand to have a healthy and safe workplace together because people may think one person can't make any changes but if there is the support of a group then they will be less likely to back off.






Comments

  1. UnknownApril 15, 2018 at 8:25 PM

    Hi Feng,

    I think it's interesting that in many healthcare industries - ergonomics seem to be a great thing. The other day I was picking up a prescription at a Walgreens. It was a busy hour but none of the pharmacy technicians had anytime to sit down. One of the girls was really tall and the computer station at the checkout table forced her to hunch in order to type or look at the screen. There should be a law that regulates this type of thing for flexibility.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 16, 2018 at 11:33 AM

    I agree, I think that workers working in the healthcare setting are exposed to all kinds of chemical, biological, radiological and ergonomic issues. Especially for biological issues, workers have become less susceptible to many illnesses. Unfortunately, it sometimes also creates antibiotic resistance within certain healthcare settings.

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