Worker safety is primarily the responsibility of the individual and employer. However, for the self employed they are one and the same. In any event, it is the worker's hide.  Self preservation should cause us all to go beyond what is given at work and seek additional information.  Since early in the industrial revolution in Britain, after considerable public pressure, the British Government has actively worked to improve worker safety.  Their site for the Health and Safety Executive is very user friendly and lists most professions and substances of concern.  See also the related Canadian Site which lists provincial links.

British Government Site: http://hse.gov.uk/ 

Workplace Health and Safety Canada: http://ccinfoweb.ccohs.ca/

The American site is http://www.osha.gov/

Unfortunately governments yield on occasions to outside pressures to water down safety requirements and do cost cutting at the expense of legislated enforcement.  For example, see:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/24/AR2008072403021.html

Under these conditions, it is of greater importance that workers take an increasingly active part in promoting their safety. 

THE SENSES

A surprising lack of coverage on both the British and Canadian sites is the treatment of our senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.   We can find treatments on eye safety, hearing safety, skin protection, hands and feet protection but touch, smell and taste get little or no treatment.  We shall therefore tackle our senses in what we hope is a commonsense and sensitive approach.

If we look about us and think of the non-human animal world we find that the animal kingdom depends heavily on sight, sound and smell for safety as well as for food and for propagation of the species.  To remove one of these from an animal makes it difficult to survive.  These three senses are the first line of defense for all, including humans.  That being the case, we need to protect our senses from injury and loss.

SMELL AND TASTE

We shall add to these senses, taste which is closely related to smell.  Much of the finer aspects of taste come from our ability to smell. Only bitter, sweet, salty, umami (meaty), fattiness and sour are left for many who have lost their sense of smell because of head trauma or disease.  Our eyes do get involved with odor detection in those instances where they become irritated by the foods we would smell such as onions and garlic and many chemicals.  An odor can, if very concentrated overpower the senses.  A lethal concentration of hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs) will quickly become less odoriferous.  One needs to act when smell is the sense being stimulated.  In the household a single rotten egg is not going to present any hazard.  In the great outdoors, a strong rotten egg odor should be taken seriously.  Prolonged exposure has health implications at sub-lethal dosage levels.  Routine identification of compounds by their vapors is a relatively new advance in the chemical sciences.  Wine tasters can often identify the presence of trace substances at the parts per million level by taste and smell combined with experience.  The nose is an important safety device and will serve one for many years when treated with care.  It is sufficiently useful that sulfur containing odiferants are added to household gas (both methane and propane) to alert occupants to the presence of leaks. For those without a sense of smell (anosmia), there are added problems.  

"Persons who are anosmic should observe some simple precautions.

A smoke detector in the home is important.  As a minimum there should be a smoke detector in the kitchen, in every room that might have a fire such as a room with a fireplace, and in every room in which the patient might sleep, eg. bedroom, den, etc.  Smoke detectors can be battery-operated or connected directly into a 110 volt AC current system and can be obtained at most hardware, lighting or other building stores.

An electric stove is preferable to a gas stove, but a gas stove equipped with an automatic pilot improves the safety.  Commercial gas detectors are available.  If the house uses propane or natural gas, there should be an appropriate gas detector at each location where a gas leak might exist and cause a problem.  Propane gas and regular gasoline are heavier than air, and so detectors for these substances should be placed near the floor. Natural gas is lighter than air and rises as does smoke. Detectors for these substances should be placed at high points such as the ceiling, top of the stairwell, etc.  Propane detectors are available through propane dealers, recreational vehicle dealers, and marine stores.  Natural gas detectors, propane detectors and gasoline detectors are all available through marine facilities.

See:  http://shopping.yahoo.com/t-Home-Safety-Security-20/propane-detector

"Care should be taken in preparing food, particularly left-overs, since undetected, spoiled food can be hazardous.  When in doubt, discard left–overs or have a family member with a normal sense of smell confirm that the food is not spoiled.” 

The foregoing is taken from  http://drdavidson.ucsd.edu/Portals/0/Pathway/Anosmia.htm .

The explanation of taste and smell is not new. The foundation lies with Democratus, a Greek philosopher born around 460 BCE who derived an atomic system with matter being made up of indivisible atoms.  The Greek philosopher Asclepaides (born around 129 BCE) expanded upon this idea with substances being made up of molecules.  He moved to Rome where he had many students.  The Roman poet and philosopher Lucius Lucretius Carus, born around 99 BCE, hypothesized that smell and taste involved receptor sites in the nose and on the tongue which had differing shapes as did molecules and the fitting of the two created the sensations we call smell and taste.  In the 20th Century a number of workers established the general correctness of these hypotheses.

How does one protect against loss of taste and smell? The answer is not difficult but it does require personal discipline.  Since the odor receptors are in the nose, it is important to keep it unclogged.  Since strong odors drown out more mild ones and nicotine, for example, coats the inside of the nose and tongue, smoking is deleterious.  Avoidance of head trauma is often difficult but wearing head protection where there is a clear danger is common sense.

SIGHT

Everyone should take a few moments and think what their life would be like with severely reduced vision, be thankful for what they have and think about the ways one can protect it. Once it's gone, it's gone. The hazards are not limited to the work place and it is advisable to inventory all of the places where the industrial treatment of eye safety applies to the home as well. What provisions do you have in the home for treatment of household chemicals attacking the eye? Do you know that contact lenses make such situations worse?

A technique used in laboratory accidents can be used at home, but ideally it involves two rescuers. Straddle the victim's chest pinning arms and hands away from the eyes. Slowly pour water near room temperature on to the bridge of the victims nose while gently pushing up on the eye brows to force the eyes open. This allows access of the water and washes the contaminant away from the eyes. Several liters of water should be used at a minimum. Medical attention should be sought in all chemical related incidents.

Another hazard that concerns the redactor is safety airbags in motor vehicles. The common propellant for airbag deployment is sodium azide. Upon initiation it generates nitrogen gas and sodium metal vapor which immediately reacts with any oxygen or moisture to furnish very caustic substances, sodium peroxide and sodium hydroxide. The eyes should be flushed as soon as possible. These irritants can be inhaled and may cause respiratory distress. There also is the question of what the airbag deployment will do to any eyeglasses worn by the recipient of an air bag in the face.

http://www.surveyophthalmol.com/article/S0039-6257(01)00256-9/abstract

For a general treatment of eye protection see:

http://hse.gov.uk/ (requires searching within site)

Here are some general sites dealing with noise.

http://www2.worksafebc.com/Topics/HearingLossPrevention/HearingProtection.asp

http://hse.gov.uk/

http://hse.gov.uk/noise/index.htm

http://www.hse.gov.uk/noise/musicsound.htm

Sound travels and under the right (or wrong) conditions, it travels far. Along the Medway Valley, where there is an appreciably higher bank on one side, there is an amphitheater effect and a normal voice carries embarrassingly far, especially so when hitting the thumb holding a tack. On heavily overcast days the author has heard trucks pulling up a grade on what became the northern branch of the Trans Canada Highway (11) while canoeing a minimum of 8 miles from the road. On another occasion, he and his parents heard an announcement that his uncle had won the draw for a Browning shotgun over a lake 2 miles wide and still an additional mile from the band stand.

One should take in such factors when the volume can be controlled. However many of the controllable noise levels are harmful to listeners close by. Upon a search of Consumers Reports on Google, there were 100s of hits but in the first 20, there were 14 warning about the need ,in many cases, to operate various pieces of household equipment with some form of ear protection. In one instance it was noted that approximately 75 % of the users of power lawn mowers do not wear recommended ear protection. People are clearly careless of their ears and those of others both on safety and neighborliness grounds. The Consumer's Reports listed household vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers. string trimmers, the impact action of cordless drills, motor cycles, ATVs, snow mobiles, shooting, individual water craft, hedge trimmers, power blowers, garden tractors, snow blowers, MP3 Players and i-pods when volume is turned up high, hand held power saws, chain saws and wood splitters, to name just a few.

PROTECTION DEVICES

Our surmise is that one of the problems leading to a failure to use proper ear protection is the perceived inconvenience be it muffs, wax plugs or foam plugs. Muffs are hot and if one is working in a “hard hat required area”, it requires a hard hat adapted to take muffs and probably a face shield. That is fine in winter but in the mosquito season it can be miserable.  Moldable wax plugs offer a quick solution but tend to pick up dirt and have short lives if hygiene is a concern, (and it should

FOAM PLUGS

SOUND AND SOUND LEVELS

Sound propagates in waves and has an associated frequency and amplitude. The amplitude gives the volume and the frequency give the tone. The ear drum is displaced by the vibration wave and by some rather complex functions, sends a signal to the brain. The minimum ear drum displacement that a healthy ear can detect is on the same order of magnitude as of the diameter of a molecule when the frequency is 1000 vibrations/second. What that translates into is the ear is a very, very sensitive instrument.

A variety of ear protection devices are available today. Over-the-counter earplugs can be purchased at most drugstores and shooting supply stores. They range from foam variety to rubber, silicone, and wax. They're all affordable, comfortable, disposable, and provide important help in reducing the dangers of exposure to excessive levels of noise.” 
                                    Quoted from:  http://www.workrights.ca/content.php?doc=148

WHAT A DECIBEL IS

The decibel is a convenient means of measuring sound intensity. The numbers could be placed in simple energy terms but the range in energies involved is so great that one would be handling lots of zeros at the upper end of the scale, which in turn would seem to have no meaning when compared with the low end. This has been solved by employing a logarithmic scale much like what one encounters with earthquakes. But with sound the range from no sound of zero goes to 120 which is the pain threshold. The unit is named after Alexander Graham Bell and is abbreviated dB. The table given below was taken from a survey made by the New York City Noise Abatement Commission, (1930).

Pain threshold 120 dB
Riveter 95 dB
Elevated train 90 dB
Busy street traffic 70 dB
Ordinary conversation 65 dB
Quiet automobile 50 dB
Quiet home radio 40 dB
average whisper 20 dB
Rustle of leaves 10 dB
Threshold of hearing 0 dB

Remember that each decibel represents a power of 10. Consequently 120 represents 1 followed by 120 zeros. And the rustle of leaves is 10,000,000,000 more energetic than the hearing threshold.

Note that 8 hours near the elevated train level is a maximum exposure allowed in Alberta. We suspect that the noise level inside the tractor of a semi is well above 80 dB., and that on our fire trucks the noise level with the siren going exceeds 90 dB.

“If you drive an 18-wheeler for a living, you may need to make some tough choices down the road.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal reports that the sounds made by a heavy truck can be noisy enough to harm your hearing.

The noise made by the truck itself is about 83 decibels (dB). The maximum safe noise exposure level over an eight-hour period is 85 dB. After that, continued loud noises cause hearing loss.

So if you're driving the rig and turn on the radio, that increases the sound level by 2.8 dB. Opening the window increases the sound level by another 1.3 dB. And driving on four-lane highways increases the sound level, probably because of higher speeds, by 1.6 dB.”

Above quoted from:  http://www.health24.com/medical/Condition_centres/777-792-1461-1670,15406.asp

Studies have shown that portable CD players, iPods and MP3 players can cause irreversible hearing loss.

  Consumer Reports:  Music Can Cause Hearing Loss

TOUCH

To follow.  See: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/science/09angi.html?ref=science