Article review: The mess gets worse at the Hanford’s nuclear site
Introduction
In order to understand the current issues concerning human resource management, it is necessary to review the safety management systems of companies.
This analytical treatise attempts to explicitly review the article, “the mess gets worse at the Hanford’s nuclear site”, in order to identify the employees’ safety concerns in relation to OSHA and safety act.
Article Summary
Written by LaFlure on behalf of the NBC News, the article explores the safety concerns that have been raised by employees of the Hansford nuclear site owned by the government. The main safety concern identified by the employee included the exposure to toxic waste materials from the leaking tanks in the nuclear disposal units.
Instead of addressing the safety concern as stipulated in the OSHA act, the management of the Hansford nuclear site responded by dismissing the technical and research manager for raising the safety fear.
According to the dismissed technical and research manager, the decision organ at the Hansford nuclear site ignored all the safety warnings he sounded. Instead, the senior management team responded by pushing aside the safety evaluation findings in the safety report.
This action was against the OSHA rules which recommend investigation and appropriate action against any safety concerns. The decision exposed three hundred employees to health and safety risks, such as toxic wastes. Such exposure might have led to health complications such as cancer, skin, and lung infections (LaFlure, par 15).
Lesson learned
The main purpose of safety management plan in any organization is to provide it with strategies and measures that empower the company to be able to consistently identify and manage health and safety risks, to reduce any potential for accident.
The written safety management plan is important in ensuring that organizations comply with the numerous safety and health regulations stipulated by the OSHA act and other agencies that are responsible for governing safety and health at the workplace.
Moreover, the safety management plan serves as a basis of the vital framework of organizational commitment to shared safety responsibilities among the administrators and employees.
Unfortunately, the safety management plan was not proactively implemented at the Hanford nuclear site. The nuclear site must have dealt with the safety breach when the situation had deteriorated.
Relation to course content
As we learned in the class module, there are indispensable sets of safety plans that are reviewed, produced, and updated to ensure continual safety of members of an organization.
The safety management plans are developed to detail how the safety is going to be managed between the supervisors and the employees. However, in the case of the Hanford nuclear site, it failed to recognize safety at the individual level.
Besides, occupational health and safety must be managed in a systematic way. However, the management of the system safety depends on the size and nature of an organization. It is important to identify the hazards, establish what might be the cause of the hazards, and assess the risks if necessary.
This process is vital in understanding the nature of the harm, its severity, and the likelihood of its reoccurring. Apparently, the nuclear site failed to recognize the hazards.
Conclusion
Risk control engagement is the most efficient measure to curb any possible hazard in work environment. Risk control assessments are done to ascertain that safety procedures are working as required by the OHS standards.
The Hanford nuclear site must remain accountable to the employees’ safety concerns within the boundaries of the OSHA and safety act.
Works Cited
LaFlure, Rebecca. The mess gets worse at the Hanford’s nuclear site. 2013. Web.