EHS4U

Hazardous chemicals are linked to about 1.7 million work-related deaths a year, and many come from products we handle every day. Follow Tom, Joyce, James and Joseph as they find out what their workplaces have been doing to their health.Learn to read GHS labels and pictograms, find answers fast in a Safety Data Sheet, and remember the four ways chemicals get into your body.Then do a chemical risk assessment and work through the hierarchy of controls, from elimination down to PPE, so you meet the Regulations for Hazardous Chemical Agents, 2021 and go home healthy.

In about 25 minutes, this refresher covers the essentials of working safely with hazardous chemical agents, in line with the Regulations for Hazardous Chemical Agents, 2021.Brush up on the four ways chemicals get into your body (IISE), what short- and long-term exposure can do to you, and how to read GHS labels, pictograms, Safety Data Sheets and chemical registers.Then go over what your employer must do and what you must do, from following control measures and reporting defects to choosing, checking and looking after your PPE.

Your skin is one of the most common ways chemicals get into your body, and a glove that looks fine can still let them through.Learn how to use Section 8 of the Safety Data Sheet to pick the right glove, and how nitrile, PVC, natural rubber, neoprene and butyl each hold up against different chemicals.Then find out what permeation, breakthrough and degradation mean, how to check, remove and care for your gloves, and how the same rules keep your aprons, boots and other chemical PPE working.

A respirator with the wrong filter or a broken seal can let hazardous vapours straight through, and you may not smell them or feel any effect.Learn how to match your respirator to the hazard, tell vapours from particulates, read cartridge colours, and choose between half-face, full-face and FFP masks.Then practise the checks and seal tests to do every time you put one on, learn when to change filters and cartridges, and see how to clean and store your respirator so it keeps working.

The average office worker spends about 50,000 hours of their working life sitting, and around 40% will suffer from back pain, but the right desk set-up and habits can prevent most of it.Learn how to set up your desk, chair, footrest, monitors and laptop in the right order, and why “the next position is the best position”, through the stories of Monica, Prince, Olivia and David.Then see how a poor workstation, heavy workloads and lack of support feed into psychosocial stress, and pick up simple changes that protect both your body and your mind.

Back pain, neck strain and stress build up quietly at a desk, at home, in a café or in your car, but they can be managed once you know what to look for.This refresher takes you through the risks, where and when they show up, why they matter, and what you and your employer must each do under South Africa’s Ergonomic Regulations.Then go through a step-by-step checklist for your desk, chair, monitors, laptop, keyboard and mouse, with practical ways to break up sitting time and manage your workload before it turns into pain or burnout.

Musculoskeletal injuries make up about half of all work-related injuries, and in this course you follow Jake through his first weeks in a physically demanding job as he learns to protect the only body he’ll ever have. You’ll learn how the FERMI approach (food, exercise, rest, mind and intention) helps you stay fit for the job, how to spot the warning signs of strain, and how to plan a lift by checking the load, your own readiness and the route. Then see how to cut the risk at the source, from automation and mechanical aids to job rotation, and practise the boxer stance, pivoting and team lifting so that every lift you do is a safe one.

This refresher covers what counts as manual handling, which jobs carry the most risk, and why musculoskeletal injuries make up about half of all work-related injuries, with the lower back most at risk. It shows you how to use TILE (task, individual, load and environment) to spot problems before you lift, and what you and your employer must each do to reduce the risk. You’ll then go over how to plan your lift, use the boxer stance and pivot instead of twisting, coordinate a team lift, and report warning signs early, before strain turns into lasting injury.

Noise causes a third of all hearing loss, and once your hearing is gone it doesn’t come back. Follow Dylan from his first guitar to 30 years on a construction site, and see how the choices he made about noise caught up with him.Learn how your ears work, why every 3 dB jump doubles the noise energy, and what the 82 dB(A) and 85 dB(A) limits mean, plus how dosimeters, noise zones and risk assessments keep you under them.Then see how to control noise, from “Buy Quiet” and engineering fixes to fitting earplugs and earmuffs properly, and how a committed safety culture protects your hearing.

This 25-minute refresher covers the basics of hazardous noise: when sound turns into noise, how to spot the warning signs at work, and why every 3 dB rise doubles the noise energy against the 85 dB daily limit. It shows how noise permanently destroys the tiny hair cells in your inner ear, and how to recognise the early signs of noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus. It ends with who is responsible for what, from the employer’s risk assessments, hearing tests and noise controls to your part in wearing, fitting and looking after your earplugs and earmuffs properly.