Health and safety in mech. engineering

Introduction
The main aim of this research report is to understand the workings of health and safety in mechanical engineering and understanding its ways.

Health and Safety
All companies no matter the size are responsible for the well-being of their workers in the workplace, which is why companies abide to the health and safety regulations made by the country in which they are situated.
Health can be defined as the state of ones wellbeing at a certain point in time, which means freedom from injury, pain and illness (physical or mental). The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its wider sense in 1946 as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being”. Health care providers are people who undertake the task of curing health care problems and aid in promoting good health in humans. Health does not always attribute to living things, it is also used in describing different things i.e. communities, places etc.
Determinants of Health
There are a lot of factors which affect the health of a person, these factors are called the determinants of health. These factors have considerable impact on the health of people and many cannot be controlled by a person alone.

Figure 1: Determinants of Health (Kingsfund, 2012)
1. Physical Environment: People with cleaner physical environments have been shown to be healthier than people with unkempt physical environments.
2. Income and Social Status: Higher income earners have better health than lower income earners, probably due to the fact that they have more money to spend on healthcare. And people without a social circle tend to be in worse health than people within a social circle.
3. Genetics: People have little control over genetics, i...

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...le to highlight the significant hazards and ways to avoid them. A risk assessment should show:
• The workplace was properly checked.
• People who might be affected.
• Significant hazards have been dealt with.
• Workers were involved in the process.
Review of Assessments and Updates if Necessary
Workplaces cannot stay the same forever, workers and equipment would surely change thereby changing hazards, review of the risk assessment should therefore be taken frequently by using the methods used to start the risk assessment. If there is a major change, the risk assessment should be checked and updated if necessary.

Figure 6: A risk assessment sheet.(HSE, 2011)

Conclusion
This research report has shown the importance of health and safety in general and in the mechanical engineering sector. It has also shown the importance of risk assessments in every workplace.