Achieving less than one workplace fatality per 100,000 workers requires Singapore to look beyond Vision Zero, an approach which appears to focus predominantly on tackling workplace safety hazards and, at most, occupational and work-related diseases.
To make this goal a reality, Singapore needs to widen its perspective and recognise that the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases, like diabetes and hypertension, are equally important, because these diseases can affect a worker’s safety and capacity to work.
Led by Associate Prof Chia Sin Eng, Vice Dean (Academic Affairs), the School’s Total Workplace Safety and Health (Total WSH) emphasises the interconnectedness of ‘work’, ‘safety’ and ‘health’. Most people already know of the relationships between work-safety and work-health, for example noise-induced hearing loss or occupational asthma from exposure to grain dust, wood dust or certain chemicals.
However, there’s a third relationship that is often overlooked: health-safety. The health condition of an individual can affect the risks at the workplace – an unwell worker who experiences frequent giddy spells is more prone to falls, which result in injuries or even death.
It also makes economic sense for employers to include a disease management component to workplace wellness programmes; a recent study found that the return on investment for such programmes was S$5.10 for every dollar spent.
Workplace safety and workplace health are not isolated issues. Refocusing on both the ‘safety’ and ‘health’ will not only boost bottom lines but also improve the wellbeing of the Singapore workforce, enabling individuals to live longer, healthier and more productive lives.
Find out more about Total WSH here:
- Workplace safety: Health a factor too, The Straits Times Opinion, 18 September 2017
- Total Workplace Safety and Health