Health and safety engineers

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PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTER: JOB DESCRIPTION, DUTIES AND REQUIREMENTS

 

Firefighters usually work for local governments providing firefighting services. Their main duty is to respond to emergency situations such as car crashes, pandemics, and accidents. The job is physically demanding and requires a lot of training.

Firefighters can perform all of the following duties:

1. Fighting building and forest fires.

2. Responding to fire alarms and other calls for assistance, such as automobile and industrial accidents, bomb threats and other emergencies.

3. Rescuing victims from burning buildings and accident sites.

4. Controlling and extinguishing fires using manual and power equipment, such as axes, water hoses, aerial ladders and hydraulic equipment and various firefighting chemicals.

5. Providing first aid and other assistance.

6. Acting as members of emergency response team to eliminate consequences of other emergencies such as chemical leaks or fallen electrical lines.

7. Ensuring proper operation and maintenance of firefighting equipment.

8. Supervising and coordinating the work of other firefighters.

When a call comes into a fire station, firefighters receive it and decide what equipment should be used and how many specialists should be involved. Once they arrive on the scene, they must quickly identify and solve problems, because even a few minutes can have a great impact on the situation during accidents and fires. If firefighters are responded to an automobile accident, they will help medics to extract victims and prepare them for transporting. Many firefighters also have paramedic training, which makes them invaluable in these types of situations. Other emergencies, such as chemical leaks or fallen electrical lines are taken care of by firefighters as well. They must be well trained in all types of situations because of the extensive nature of emergencies that firefighters are expected to face. Despite the chaos that surrounds emergencies, firefighters are expected to maintain their concentration and communicate both to other emergency responders and victims and victims' families. As firefighters often see people at the most tragic moment of their life they must retain empathy for the victim without being emotionally involved.

The job is quite challenging and risky and requires skills, knowledge, and experience. Firefighters should possess good communication skills, physical strength, adaptability, decisionmaking skills, courage, self-sacrifice and dedication. Firefighters must be able to identify and solve problems in extremely stressful situations.

The profession of a firefighter is very responsible and honourable. They save people’s lives and protect people, the environment and property in different types of accident and emergencies.

 

 

HEALTH AND SAFETY ENGINEERS

Health and safety engineers are responsible for keeping people free from danger, risk, or injury in the workplace. They combine knowledge of systems engineering and health or safety to make sure that chemicals, machinery, software, furniture, and consumer products won’t cause harm to people or buildings. They develop safety programs to minimize losses due to injuries and property damage. Safety engineers try to eliminate unsafe practices and conditions in industrial plants, mines, and stores as well as on construction sites and throughout transportation systems. They work for a wide variety of industrial and commercial companies; others are employed by government agencies or safety organizations.

Health and safety engineers can perform such duties:

1. Reviewing plans and specifications for new machinery and equipment to make sure they meet safety requirements.

2. Identifying and correcting potential hazards by inspecting facilities, machinery, and safety equipment.

3. Evaluating the effectiveness of various industrial control mechanisms.

4. Ensuring adequacy of buildings or products to health and safety regulations, especially after an inspection that required changes.

5. Installing safety devices on machinery.

6. Reviewing employee safety programs to recommend improvements.

7. Breaching safety regulations and applying knowledge of current policies, regulations, and industrial processes.

Health and safety engineers also investigate industrial accidents, injuries, or occupational diseases to determine their causes aiming to find out whether the incidents could have been prevented. They interview employers and employees to learn about work environments and incidents that lead to accidents or injuries.

Health and safety engineers may use their expertise to write or revise safety regulations and/or codes. They commonly confer with other professionals such as medical professionals and firefighters to correct health inspection violations and develop new ways of safety concerns management. Some industrial, health and safety engineers plan and conduct industrial hygiene research while others may design and build safety equipment.

Health and safety engineers must identify potential hazards and problems before they cause material damage or become a health threat. Thus, these engineers must be able to sense hazards to humans and property wherever they may arise at workplace or at home.

They must observe and learn how operations function so that they can identify risks to people and property. This type of observation and learning requires the ability to think in terms of overall processes within an organization.

Health and safety engineers should possess such qualities as creativity, critical thinking skills, observational skills, problem-solving skills, ability to work independently, have good knowledge of mechanical industry, willingness to learn new technologies.

Health and safety engineers typically work in offices. However, they also must observe worksites when necessary, that involves business trips.

Most health and safety engineers work full time.

The profession of a health and safety engineer is very important and demanding. The specialists are responsible for people’s lives as they are preventing safety violations and potential hazards and reducing the number of industrial accidents at worksites.

 

 

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