Workplace accidents/incidents have always been a problem. Since the early 1800's there have been many views on the role of health and safety in the workplace. Even today, the emphasis seems to be on the safety aspect and not so much on the health aspect. We are much better at controlling disease than we are at controlling workplace injuries.

In the early days workplace accidents were usually blamed on alcohol consumption. This led to the thinking that people were responsible for their own safety, and if they were unfortunate to have a workplace incident they would share the guilt for his or her injury. This "blame the victim" approach pervailed in society at the time due to religious beliefs and the "psychological" theory of accident prevention. They believed that certain people were accident prone, but nobody could identify the personality type that fit this discription. It was not until the early 50's that serious study of workplace safety began and investigaters started looking at the energy exhange theory of accident prevention.

Two well known researchers, William Haddon and JJ Gibson suggested that the word "Accident" is a barrier to clear thinking on the subject of injury and safety. The common definition of an accident as an "unpredictable event" suggests that by definition accidents are not controllable. Instead, they placed the emphasis on the process of the injury and not on "blaming the victim". Their work was the basis for current day theory on workplace health and safety.

 

 

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