Glossary and calculation methods| Safety and health

This glossary provides a list of key terms related to workplace safety and health and their definitions.  

Company employee (employee)

A person who is on the payroll of the member company, e.g. has an employee number that identifies that person as a company employee. Employees are directly supervised by a company representative. Temporary or agency workers hired directly by the company are to be considered as employees if the company has primary responsibility for supervising their activities.

Contract employee (contractor)

An individual supplied by an external company (contractor, sub-contractor, consultant, or vendor) on a full or part-time basis and who is providing a service (production, maintenance, or administrative support) to the member. The contractor’s safety, health and well-being are primarily supervised by the external contractor’s supervisor or manager. He is paid directly by the external company. The external company presents an invoice for the contract for service to the member company.

Visitor

Anyone on the company premises other than a company employee or contractor. Injuries to a visitor will be included as a company employee, as the company has a duty of care and direct safety supervision. If hours visited can be added to the calculation for frequency purposes, then please include them.

Work-related injury

A workplace injury is the direct result of ‘work-related’ activities for which management controls are, or should have been in place, or those occurring during business travel.

Examples  – Work-related injuries:

• Exposure (contact with, contacted by, falls, etc.) to workplace conditions that directly result in injury, i.e., slippery floors, falling objects, protruding objects, molten metal, dust, gases.
• Strains and sprains while performing work-related activities such as strenuous lifting and pulling.In summary, those injuries in which corrective action(s) can be identified and can be taken to improve upon the work being done at the time of the injury (this point is the key determining factor).
• ‘Work-related’ includes attending company-sponsored courses, conferences, business travel, or any other activity where presence is expected by the company.
• For contractor personnel, ‘work-related’ typically refers only to the time spent on company premises.
• Injuries occurring in member company car parking lots, walkways, or any other portion of company property.

Examples – Non-work-related injuries:

• Symptoms arising on member company property or business travel that are the result of other factors, i.e., cold or flu, or heart attack.
• Voluntary participation in wellness programmes/sports.
• Personal grooming, self-medication, self-infliction.
• Vehicle incidents/on foot travel to and from work, other than during business travel.

Preventive actions are activities planned with the intention of preventing the occurrence of safety incidents. They include:

• Safety and health audits
• Walks
• Safety inspections
• Reviews
• Innovations
• Positive safety observations

Fatality (F)

Death from a work-related injury, certified by a medical professional.

Fatality frequency rate (FFR) is calculated on the number of fatalities per million man hours.

Lost time injury (LTI)

Any work-related injury resulting in the employee or contractor not being able to return to work for their next scheduled work period. Returning to work with work restrictions does not constitute a lost time injury status, no matter how minimal or severe the restrictions, provided it is at the employee’s next scheduled shift. However, if an injury deteriorates and time is later lost, an LTI should be recorded.

Lost time Injury frequency rate (LTIFR) is calculated as number of lost time injuries (LTI) per million man hours.

Restricted work case (RWC)

Any work-related injury other than a fatality or a lost time injury (LTI) where the injured person cannot fulfil his normal work the day following the injury but is able to undertake a temporary job, work at his normal job but not full-time, or work at a permanently assigned job but is unable to perform all duties normally assigned to it. If the injury has led to lower productivity or slower work from the worker, but the worker is still capable of undertaking all of their routine tasks, then this would not be classified as restricted work.

Medical treatment injury (MTI)

Any work-related injury other than a fatality, a lost time injury (LTI), or a restricted work case (RWC), that resulted in a certain level of treatment (not first aid treatment) given by a physician or other medical personnel under the standing orders of a physician (e.g. medical treatments: using prescription medications, or use of a non-prescription drug at prescription strength, using wound closing devices such as surgical glue, sutures, and staples, using any devices with rigid stays or other systems designed to immobilise parts of the body, administration of oxygen to treat injury or illness).

Minor injury (MI)

Any work-related injury other than a fatality, a lost time injury (LTI), a restricted work case, or a medical treatment injury (MTI), which is treated, for example, by first aid or minor manipulation to provide relief for a strain or bruise. A minor injury does not require treatment by a professionally trained paramedic or physician and does not incur loss of work time other than the time of the shift on which it occurred.

The injured person continues with his normal scheduled work ( e.g. using a non-prescription medication at non-prescription strength, administering tetanus immunisations, cleaning, flushing or soaking wounds on the surface of the skin, using wound coverings such as bandages, Band-Aids™, gauze pads, etc.; or using butterfly bandages or Steri-Strips™, using hot or cold therapy, drilling of a fingernail or toenail, using eye patches, short physical rest).

Near miss incident

An incident that physically occurred, but there was no personal injury to the employee, contractor or visitor, but which could have resulted in a serious injury and needs to be followed up in the same way as a lost time injury (LTI), but recorded as a near miss.

• Example: The operator finds a heavy bolt on the floor next to his operating station, likely having fallen from an overhead crane or roof structure.

Unsafe act, unsafe situations (Precursors)

Any action that may endanger a person or people working around him/her.

• Examples: When working at heights (on a roof, for instance) without using a safety harness or not clipped on; not wearing a seatbelt when driving a vehicle. Or any situation judged as being such that, sooner or later, it may lead to a risk of an incident inflicting harm to one or more persons.

• Example: Missing or broken handrail leading to risk of falling from height.

Potential serious injury or fatality (PSIF)

Any incident, regardless of actual severity, that has the potential to lead to a life-threatening, life-altering, or fatal injury. Serious injuries generally refers to long term or permanent incapacity and fatalities. A PSIF precursor is any unmitigated high-risk situation that will result in serious injuries if not controlled because management controls are absent, ineffective, or not complied with.

PSIF events can be identified using predetermined criteria based on the hazards and risk related to steelmaking operations e.g. molten metal contact, confined spaces, electrical hazards, fire hazards, etc. An event can also be considered as having high potential for serious injury or fatality if it ranks high for severity in a risk matrix. This is the reason why some steel companies describe these events as ‘Severity 4 (S4), Potential 4 (P4).‘

Occupational pyramid including PSIF concept

Typically, precursors of fatalities and serious injuries account for approximately 20% of the total events in each level of the occupational pyramid. Expressed by increasing consequence pyramid levels are: PSIF Precursors, near misses, minor injuries, medical treatment, restricted work cases, and lost time injuries with the potential to cause fatality and serious injuries.

Electrical

Incident caused by exposure to electrical energy directly or indirectly.

• Examples: Part of the body of a person in direct contact with bare wires, live busbars providing energy to an overhead crane, part of the body of a person in indirect contact with electrical energy by touching the switch gear or high voltage cabling or wires.

Explosion

A release of energy that causes a pressure discontinuity or blast wave (e.g., detonations, deflagrations, and rapid releases of high pressure caused by rupture of equipment or piping).

• Examples: Water in liquid steel, leak of oxygen, generation and leak of hydrogen or leak of CO or blast furnace gas can lead to an explosion.

Exposure to chemicals

Incident caused by contact or exposure to a hazardous chemical substance. If the injury is caused by breathing toxic gas, the injury is categorised as caused by gassing/asphyxiation.

• Examples: Acid burn, chemical spill, allergic reaction.

Fall from height

Depending on the country, companies may define a height level where a fall prevention or restraint must be worn and used. The level is usually anywhere there is a risk of falling off 1.8 metres or 6 feet, but proper preventive fall practices should also be used, as the fall from a lower distance can lead to serious injuries.

• Examples: Fall from a ladder, fall from a platform, fall from a roof, fall into a shaft, a pit or a hole in the ground.

Falling object

Object falling on a person for any reason, also objects that can be released sideways or upwards, are considered.

• Examples: Tool falling from a scaffold, load falling from a crane, product falling due to the collapse of a pile of products, something stored vertically falling or sliding down, building components broken during a storm, or broken by snow, ice, or even hail, snow or ice blocks.

Fire

Any incident resulting from the combustion of materials and propagation of the flames causing damage to people, installation and the environment.

Forklift

Any incident resulting from the use of or contact with a forklift truck, a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials. Incidents with forklifts can occur due to the load handled, the environment in which the forklift is moving, the state of the vehicle or the skills of the driver.

• Examples: Collision between a forklift and any other vehicle, a person hurt by a forklift during the reversal of the forklift, forklifts tend to swing around in a large radius and can run over pedestrians.

Gassing / Asphyxiation

Incident in any area where gas can accumulate or be trapped, and the air does not sustain or support life:

•  ‘Gassing’ occurs when the breathing air contains a toxic gas;
  Example: Gassing due to a rate of carbon monoxide (CO) in the breathing air above the threshold limit, depending on the duration of the exposure to CO.
•  ‘Asphyxiation’ occurs when the oxygen rate in the breathing air decreases below 19.5%;
  Example: Asphyxiation due to the presence of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2), argon (Ar) or any other gas taking the place of the oxygen in the breathing air.

Hot metal

Incidents caused by hot or liquid metal. Main risks are heat radiation, splashing, and scalding from hot metal.

• Examples: Projection of hot metal on a person; burn by radiation of hot metal.

Hot substances

Incident caused by exposure to any type of hot material, equipment, surface, steam or water. If the injury is caused by hot metal, the injury is categorised into that cause.

• Example: Burns caused by hot equipment in contact with skin.

Manual tasks and tools

Incident caused when performing tasks manually or using hand tools or power tools. If the injury is caused by, e.g., sharp edges of steel while handling the product, the injury is categorised as product handling/storage.

• Example: Carrying or lifting heavy objects, using a screwdriver as a chisel causing the tip of the screwdriver to break and fly.

Moving machinery

Incident caused by any component of machinery or equipment that is able to move by any energy source (electrical, steam, hydraulic, pneumatic, heat, wind, product such as strip being pulled by other equipment), by remote control or by gravity.

• Examples: Crushed by the movement of a shaft rotated by an operator in a remote cabin, unexpected start of an un-isolated motor or engine, unexpected start of a conveyor, trapped between the belt and the roll of a conveyor, crushed by the movement of a cover or table of a machine operated by hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders.

Off-site road/vehicle

Incident on the public road with any type of vehicle or on foot to and from the workplace. Includes business travel.

• Examples: Sales or marketing people injured on the road during working time, employees driving to an externally organised training session.

Object in the eye

Incident caused by something that enters the eye from outside the body.

• Examples: Steel sliver in the eye, dust in the eye

On-site road/vehicle

Incident with a vehicle inside the site, including private cars and industrial vehicles, except forklifts.

• Examples: A pedestrian hurt by a truck, a collision between a car and a truck.

Other

Incident is caused by a reason which is not listed. In case there are several reasons behind the incident, the most suitable is chosen.

Other mobile equipment

Incidents whose main cause is the use of equipment other than moving machinery, overhead crane, vehicle and train.

• Examples: Hurt by a stepladder on wheels pushed by an operator, hurt while using an aerial work platform (cherry picker, boom lift, man lift, basket crane).

Overhead crane

Any incident whose main cause is the operation or condition of an overhead crane or its product holding component such as C-hook or coil grab, chains or slings.

• Examples: Collision between two overhead cranes running on the same track or overlapping tracks; people injured due to the swing of the load lifted by an overhead crane, components dropping from a crane, or loss of load.

Product handling/storage

Incident involving the handling, movement and storage of products, machinery or equipment. Steel products can be sharp-edged or move when cooling or being stored by crane.

• Examples: Operator hurt by a product being handled, hands crushed between a sling and the product when the crane driver begins to lift the product, hand cut by the sharp edges of a product.

Product loading

Any incident resulting from the process of loading and unloading products, semi-products, raw materials or any equipment to or from a truck trailer, a rail trailer or a ship.

• Example: An operator standing on the trailer is hurt by the product during the loading of this product on the trailer, squeezed between the load and the wall of the trailer while retaining the load.

Rail

Incident involving any rail vehicle on the site or during the handling of railcars.

• Examples: Collision with a train, pedestrians crushed between the bumpers of railcars while hooking up railcars, person falling from or struck by a locomotive or railway cars.

Slip, trip, fall, same level

Incident caused by falling on the same level, not from elevation. Slips happen when there is too little friction or traction between the footwear and the walking surface. A trip is the result of a foot striking or colliding with an object, which causes a loss of balance.

• Examples: Winter slipperiness fall, twisted ankle while walking, stumbling on an uneven surface.

Structural failure

Any incident resulting from a failure of the structure of a building, machinery or equipment.

• Examples: Deficient scaffolding, roof or wall panels or structural frames, weather conditions or lack of maintenance may deteriorate the surface, or a constructive defect of machinery.

Unknown

The cause of the incident is not known by the reporter at that time.

Note: Root causes of every fatality or lost time injury (LTI) must always be investigated and the true cause found and reported.

Any accident on the public road during a trip from home to the workplace or from the workplace back home, with any type of vehicle or on foot. Accidents that occur inside the site or during business travel are excluded, as they are considered workplace accidents.

worldsteel recognises that not all companies record commuting accidents because of local legislation, and also that not all commuting accidents are the result of measures the company has or has not taken.

Sickness absence

Absence from work on the grounds of incapacity to work due to any sickness, work-related or not, and which could qualify for ‘disability income’. All other cases of absence, such as pregnancy, childbirth, leave, training and seminars, are not included in the definition of sickness absence.

Sickness absence rate

Sickness absence rate is calculated as the total number of hours of sickness absence per scheduled hours. Sickness absence is calculated for a year, and for a defined perimeter (department, plant, country, region…).

Containment, primary

A tank, vessel, pipe, truck, rail car, or other equipment designed to keep material within it – typically for the purposes of storage, separation, processing, or transfer of material.

Containment, secondary

An impermeable physical barrier specifically designed to mitigate the impact of materials that have breached primary containment. Secondary containment systems include, but are not limited to tank dikes, curbing around process equipment, drainage collection systems, the outer wall of open top double walled tanks, etc.

Explosion

A release of energy that causes a pressure discontinuity or blast wave (e.g. detonations, deflagrations, and rapid releases of high pressure caused by rupture of equipment or piping).

Fire

Any combustion resulting from a LOPC, regardless of the presence of flame. This includes smouldering, charring, smoking, singeing, scorching, carbonising, or the evidence that any of these have occurred.

Loss of primary containment (LOPC)

An unplanned or uncontrolled release of any material from primary containment, including non-toxic and nonflammable materials (e.g. steam, hot water, nitrogen, compressed CO2, or compressed air).

Molten metal

During the manufacture of steel and its co-products, different types of molten metals are used, such as zinc, iron and the steel itself.

Process

Production, distribution, storage, utilities, or pilot plant facilities used in the manufacture of steel products and co-products. This includes process equipment (e.g. reactors, vessels, piping, electric arc furnaces, blast furnaces, coke ovens, boilers, pumps, compressors, exchangers, cooling towers, refrigeration systems, etc.), storage tanks, ancillary support areas (e.g. boiler houses and waste water treatment plants), on-site remediation facilities, and distribution piping under the control of the company.

Note: All definitions are reproduced from API ANSI RP 754 except for: molten metal and process.

1. Safety-related calculations:

Hours worked

For company employees, the total number of hours worked, including overtime and training, during the period.

For contractor employees, the total number of hours worked for the company during the period.

If visitor hours can be included in the calculation for frequency purposes, then add them to the hours worked for employees.

Preventive actions frequency rate:

Number of individual preventive actions * 1,000,000 / hours worked

Percentage of potential serious injuries and fatalities (PSIF):

Number of PSIF events / Number of total events * 100

Fatality frequency rate (FFR):

Number of F * 1,000,000 / hours worked

Lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR):

Number of (F + LTI) * 1,000,000 / hours worked

Total recorded injury frequency rate (TRIFR):

Number of (F + LTI + RWC + MTI) * 1,000,000 / hours worked

All injury frequency rate (AIFR):

Number of (F + LTI + RWC + MIT + MI) * 1,000,000 / hours worked

 

2. Process safety-related calculations:

Tier frequency rates are calculated as:

Tier 1 frequency rate: Total Tier 1 Count * 1,000,000 / hours worked (production activities)

Tier 2 frequency rate: Total Tier 2 Count * 1,000,000 / hours worked (production activities)

The Tier framework helps to improve process safety performance as we shift the focus from managing lost time injury frequency rates (LTIFR) and other conventional lagging indicators to properly identifying and investigating incidents and precursors for major events.

Tier 1 and Tier 2 are standardised definitions and support the industry benchmark. Threshold quantity values should be considered depending on the substance/material/energy release to classify as Tier 1 or Tier 2.

Tier 3 and 4 are company-defined.