HSE: Health Safety & Environmental Profession Explained

HSE generally is used for health, safety and environmental profession, but in UK it refers to Health and Safety Executive. In first instance most people will think of hse as a profession in terms of occupational health, safe work place and good environment.

Health safety and environment HSE has now become a specialized discipline and profession that studies and implements practical aspects of environmental protection, healthy and safe work place. In simple terms it is what organizations must do to make sure that their activities do not cause harm to anyone including their employees, customers and environment.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in Great Britain. It is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom with its headquarters in Liverpool, England.

Regulatory requirements play an important role in HSE discipline and HSE managers must identify and understand relevant HSE regulations, the implications of which must be communicated to executive management so the company can implement suitable measures. Organisations based in the United States are subject to EHS regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations, particularly CFR 29, 40, and 49. Still, EHS management is not limited to legal compliance and companies should be encouraged to do more than is required by law, if appropriate. (Ref: Kavianian, Hamid R. “Occupational and Environmental Safety Engineering and Management”, Van Norstrand Reinhold Company, New York (1990))

Health Safety & Environment Perspective

From health and safety perspective, this discipline or profession involves creating organized efforts and procedures for identifying workplace hazards and reducing accidents and exposure to harmful situations and substances. It also includes training of personnel in accident prevention, accident response, emergency preparedness, and use of protective clothing and equipment.

From an environmental standpoint, this profession involves creating a systematic approach to complying with environmental regulations, such as managing waste or air emissions all the way to helping site’s reduce the company’s carbon footprint.

Successful HSE programs also include measures to address ergonomics, air quality, and other aspects of workplace safety that could affect the health and well-being of employees and the overall community.

Role of Risk Assessment & Risk Management

Organizations adopt the approach of assessing the HSE risks involved in any process or activity. Different companies name this process also in different way i.e. HIRA, HAZOP, JSEA. The main elements or steps for a good risk assessment involves the thorough study of processes and all related parties and their interaction. The role of historic data and inputs from experienced workers plays vital role to achieve best results to manage the risks.

Health, Safety & Environmental Related Acronyms

HSE goes by a number of acronyms which may exclude environment or include security and quality.

Acronym	Name	Group
OHS	Occupational health and safety	Occupational health and safety
HSE	Health, safety and environment	Health, safety and environment
EHS / EH&S	Environment, health and safety
SHE	Safety, health and environment
QHSE	Quality, health, safety, and environment	Quality, health, safety, and environment
HSEQ	Health, safety, environment and quality
HSSE	Health, safety, security and environment	Health, safety, security and environment
QHSSE	Quality, health, safety, security, and environment	Quality, health, safety, security, and environment
HSSEQ	Health, safety, security, environment, and quality

HSE Categories in Different Industries

HSE guidelines cover categories specific to each industry as wells as those that are general to most industry sectors. Examples of general categories and subcategories are:

1- Environmental

1.1 Air emissions and ambient air quality

1.2 Energy conservation

1.3 Wastewater and ambient water quality

1.4 Water conservation

1.5 Hazardous materials management

1.6 Waste management

1.7 Noise

1.8 Contaminated land

2- Occupational health and safety

2.1 General facility design and operation

2.2 Communication and training

2.3 Physical hazards

2.4 Chemical hazards

2.5 Biological hazards

2.6 Radiological hazards

2.7 Personal protective equipment (PPE)

2.8 Special hazard environments

2.9 Monitoring

3- Community health and safety

3.1 Water quality and availability

3.2 Structural safety of project infrastructure

3.3 Life and fire safety (L&FS)

3.4 Traffic safety

3.5 Transport of hazardous materials

3.6 Disease prevention

3.7 Emergency preparedness and response

4- Construction and decommissioning

4.1 Environment

4.2 Occupational health and safety

4.3 Community health and safety