Safety Definitions | HSE Definitions | N to P

                                                                           Safety Definitions 

Safety definitions

SAFETY DEFINITIONS | N - P

Near Miss: Near miss is an unplanned uncontrolled event or chain of events that has not resulted in recordable injury or physical damage or environmental damage but had the potential to do so in other circumstances. The near-Miss definition includes all types of events including Occupational Safety & Health, Environment, and Process Safety.

Non-Accidental Death:  Non-accidental death is the death of a company or contractor employee due to suicide or a non-work-related illness occurring in the work environment i.e. death within the employer’s premises. Any cause of death of a person either, where there is no identifiable incident or trauma involved or is the result of an apparent suicide.

Non-Conformance:  Non-fulfilment of a requirement, It can be any deviation from relevant work standards, practices, procedures, legal requirements, etc.

Non-Routine Operations:  Non-routine operations is work conducted that is not routine day-to-day activities and are not covered by written procedures. Non-Routine Operations can include; special heavy lifts, sand /grit blasting, entry into a confined space, and any activity that requires a permit to work.

NORM Naturally:  NORM naturally is Occurring Radioactive Material, which potentially includes all radioactive elements found in the environment. However, the term is used more specifically for all naturally occurring radioactive materials where human activities have increased the potential for exposure compared with the unaltered situation.

Objective Results to be achieved: An objective can be strategic, tactical, or operational. Objectives can relate to different disciplines such as financial, health and safety, and environmental goals and can apply at different levels such as strategic, organization-wide, project, product, and process. An objective can be expressed in other ways, e.g. as an intended outcome, a purpose, an operational criterion, as an energy objective, or by the use of other words with similar meaning e.g. aim, goal. In the context of energy management systems, objectives are set by the organization, consistent with the energy policy, to achieve specific results.

Occupational Health:  Occupational health is the multidisciplinary field aimed at the protection and promotion of the health of workers by preventing and controlling occupational diseases and injuries by eliminating occupational factors and conditions hazardous to health and safety at work- the development and promotion of healthy and safe work, work environments and work organizations, the enhancement of the physical, mental and social wellbeing of workers and support for the development and maintenance of their working capacity, as well as professional and social development at work.

Occupational Hygiene:  Occupational hygiene is the discipline of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling health hazards in the working environment to protect workers' health and well-being and safeguard the community at large. The term "Occupational Hygiene" is used synonymously with Industrial Hygiene.

Occupational Illness: Occupational illness is any abnormal condition or disorder, or any fatality other than one resulting from an occupational injury, caused by exposure to environmental factors associated with employment. Occupational illness may be caused by inhalation, absorption, ingestion of, or direct contact with the hazard, as well as exposure to physical and psychological hazards. It will generally result from prolonged or repeated exposure.

Occupational Injury:  An occupational injury is any injury that results from a work-related activity or an exposure involving a single incident in the work environment, such as a cut, fracture, sprain, amputation, deafness from the explosion, one-time chemical exposure, back disorder from a slip, trip, insect or snake bite, etc.

OEL Occupational Exposure Limit:  Occupational exposure limit as listed by UK-HSE WEL work exposure limit, ACGIH TLV (Threshold Limit Value) or OSHA PEL– permissible exposure limit an upper limit/ maximum acceptable concentration of a hazardous substance in workplace air.

OHRA Occupational Health Risk Assessment: Occupational health risk assessment of the identification of health hazards in the workplace and subsequent evaluation of risk to health, taking account of the impact on health and likelihood of exposure.

Organization:  Organization is a group of people that has its functions with responsibilities, authorities, and relationships to achieve its objectives. The concept of the organization includes, but is not limited to, sole-trader, company, corporation, firm, enterprise, authority, partnership, charity or institution, or part or combination thereof, whether incorporated or not, public or private.

Performance Measurable result:  Performance measurable results to performance can relate either to quantitative or qualitative findings. Performance can relate to the management of activities, processes, and products including services, systems, or organizations.

Performing Authority:  Performing authority is the competent person within the permit to work system employee or contractor as applicable, assigned to request a permit or supervise job performers. This person understands the task and accepts responsibility for ensuring that details in the permit and associated attachments provide a clear description of the work to be performed including tools, materials, and any special skills required.

Permanent Partial Disability:  Permanent partial disability is any work-related injury or illness which results in the complete loss or permanent loss of use of any part of the body or any permanent impairment of function or parts of the body, regardless of any pre-existing disability of the injured member of impaired body function. A PPD is not related to the ability of the injured person to do his/her normal work. Thus, a PPD shall be classified if the worker has lost a finger, toe, arm, limb, or part thereof, etc. but upon recovery was still able to perform normal work or any other work that permits for the partial disability.

Permanent Total Disability: Permanent total disability is any work-related injury or illness, which permanently incapacitates an employee from doing any work & results in termination of employment or medical severance.

Permit Issuer (PI):  Permit issuer is the competent person appointed in writing by the asset owner and responsible for monitoring the safety of an area and the assets within it and providing clearance to work in that area at any particular time. In the operations department, this will normally be the outside area operator. For non-operational areas, the PI is appointed by the Asset Owner for that particular area's maintenance, engineering or construction, or electrical.

Personal fall Arrest System: Personal fall arrest system is a system including but not limited to an anchorage, connectors, and body belt or body harness used to arrest an employee in a fall from a working level.

Personal Hygiene: Personal Hygiene is the Health habits that include bathing, washing hair, trimming fingernails, wearing clean clothing, and proper handwashing.

Physical Agents: Physical Agents are sources of energy that may cause injury or disease. Examples of physical agents include noise, vibration, radiation, and extremes in temperature and pressure.

PLL (Potential Loss of Life): Potential loss of life is the potential loss of life is defined as the sum of overall accident scenarios of the consequences in terms of fatalities of accident multiplied by the frequency of occurrence of these accidents over a specified period. PLL is expressed as some fatalities per year or the number of fatalities for a specified period such as project lifetime.

Policy:  Policy is the statement of the intentions and principles which gives rise to detailed strategic objectives. Company policies should in principle be endorsed and signed by the highest authority level within the company.

Pollution:  Pollution is any emission as a result of human activity which may be harmful to human health or the quality of the environment, offend any human senses, result in damage to material property, or impair or interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of the environment.

PPC Pollution Prevention and Control: Pollution prevention and control is the term used to describe the regulatory regime applying to certain types of industrial processes, under the PPC regulations.

PPE Personal Protective Equipment: Personal Protective Equipment is any device or appliance designed to be worn or held by an individual for protection against one or more health and safety hazards.

PTW System:  Permit to work system is the formal document for the safe system of work or an integral part of the work management system providing the formal written instructions, and authorization to the personnel carrying out potentially hazardous work or a defined job in a hazardous environment and control measures before and after.