Environment Health and Safety, EHS, are an abbreviation for the methodology which studies and applies the key aspects of maintaining health and environmental safety in the workplace and preventing any accidents or damage to the environment. In simple words it’s what employers have to do to ensure that their activities don’t cause damage to anybody. The Environmental Health and Safety Practices Act of 1990 has made it mandatory for employers to establish an effective workplace health and safety program and follow it strictly. For this they have to prepare a draft health and safety plan based on the various factors such as hazard identification, risk assessment, risk management, etc. If everything in the plan is practiced in the right manner no accident can take place.
Since the purpose of the employers health and safety program is to protect the workers from health problems caused due to negligence on part of the employer, the program also involves hazard communication. This is one of the important elements of EHS that makes employers aware of the hazards in their environment so that appropriate steps can be taken to overcome them. It also requires employers to notify the workers about the health risks of their surroundings so that they can take measures to overcome them. The National Health Services Plan (NHS Plan) is the major source of health and disability advice and this is the primary regulating body for environment safety.
The National Health Services Plan draws up a set of principles and guidelines which are designed to provide guidance to all employers concerning the identification, assessment, prioritization and implementation of safety programs. All large companies and industries are required to submit annual hazard reports covering a wide variety of aspects of their environment that may be hazardous for their employees. Hazard identification is an important aspect of environment safety program. Based on the identified hazard the plan specifies the preventive measures to be taken against it. Other related aspects that need to be understood include planning and allocation of resources, hazard reporting, communication of information, training of employees, providing protective equipment, and disposal of waste.