**5. Worker acts**

Employees' act is another important aspect to be considered at workplaces, to reduce or eliminate accidents that might result in illnesses, diseases, injuries, and death at workplaces. Certainly, no environment is free from all hazards, but workers' behavior toward handling the hazards is a crucial aspect of preventing accidents from occurring at workplaces. Undoubtedly, safety and health specialists need to have general knowledge of the impacts of any hazardous materials to the human body and train all employees on ways of preventing such effects, but because of human nature, how many adhere to the totality of this principle? Employees' safety responsibilities were acknowledged in 1999 by Bratton and Gold [20] that employee is to behave in a manner that safeguards his or her own health and safety and that of his/her co-workers. Furthermore, Jonathan and Mbogo documented the findings from the research carried out at The Research Centre Design and Technology of the Saxion University of Applied sciences on "Safety at work," which acknowledged that personal safety, a safe environment, and safe behavior were important components that employers need to ensure their availability within their organizations for proper productivity and safety of the employees. Liao et al. [21] acknowledged in their study that almost all accidents and injuries occurring at workplace are attributed to workers' unsafe acts, which are also a reflection of system deficiency and unsafe work condition. Dodoo and Al-Samarraie [22] concluded in their study that lack of adequate knowledge on safety and health, violation of safety rules, work pressure, stress, and non-use of protective equipment were the unsafe acts perpetrated by the workers sampled. Researcher has also referred unsafe act as a deliberate omission or deviation from the recommended safety standards Mason [23]. The same researcher described an unsafe act as an individual's likelihood of

**5**

**Author details**

of the readers.

Bankole K. Fasanya

University Northwest, USA

\*Address all correspondence to: fbankole@pnw.edu

provided the original work is properly cited.

Environmental Health and Safety Concentration, College of Technology, Purdue

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

*Introductory Chapter: Safety and Health for Workers - Theory and Applications*

not following standard safety rules, procedures, instructions, and specified criteria for work imposed by the organization management. Since the contributions of worker's unsafe acts to the workplace accidents is undeniable worldwide, research aimed at reducing this factor should be considered a discipline of great interest for

The physical and chemical properties of raw material use and produce are other essential factors that need attention to properly monitor the health and safety of workers at workplaces. To do this, detailed attention must be given to workplace Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). The importance of MSDS in handling worker exposure to hazardous materials in every workplace cannot be substituted for another record keeping data sheet for the purpose of workers' health and safety. According to Translink online website, MSDS is a document that contains information on the potential health effects of exposure to chemicals, or other potentially dangerous substances, and on safe working procedure when handling chemical products. It is an essential starting point for the development of a complete health and safety program. MSDS contains hazard evaluations on the use, storage, handling, disposal information, and emergency procedures related to that material. Therefore, it is imperative to consider the use of MSDS in every workplace to ensure

This book highlights significant factors contributing to workers' poor health and safety at work, which could result in injury, chronic diseases, and death. Both theories and practical applications are discussed in this book for easy understanding

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92196*

**6. Properties of materials used or produced**

better control of hazardous materials effect on the employees.

society in general.

not following standard safety rules, procedures, instructions, and specified criteria for work imposed by the organization management. Since the contributions of worker's unsafe acts to the workplace accidents is undeniable worldwide, research aimed at reducing this factor should be considered a discipline of great interest for society in general.
