Public Health and Safety is generally defined as the science of the anticipation,

recognition, evaluation and control of hazards arising in or from the workplace that could
impair the health and well-being of public, taking into account the possible impact on the
surrounding communities and the general environment. This domain is necessarily vast,
encompassing a large number of disciplines and numerous workplace and environmental
hazards. A wide range of structures, skills, knowledge and analytical capacities are needed to
coordinate and implement all of the “building blocks” that make up national Public Health
and Safety systems so that protection is extended to both public and the environment.

Public health is the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting
health through the organized efforts of society. The goal of public health is the biologic,
physical, and mental well-being of all members of society. Thus, unlike medicine, which
focuses on the health of the individual patient, public health focuses on the health of the
public in the aggregate. To achieve this broad, challenging goal, public health professionals
engage in a wide range of functions involving biological sciences, technology, social
sciences, and politics. Public health professionals utilize these functions to anticipate and
prevent future problems, identify current problems, identify appropriate strategies to resolve
these problems, implement these strategies, and finally, to evaluate their effectiveness. Public
health is a global issue, and will become even more so in the 21st century, as the
interconnectedness of nations increases through modern communication, resulting in the need
to deal with epidemics of communicable and non-communicable diseases and environmental
issues that require transnational solutions. Thus, public health must address the challenge of
confronting health problems and political, social, and economic factors affecting health, not
only at the community, state, and national levels, but at the global level as well.

Health and Safety is important because it protects the well being of employers, visitors and
customers. Looking after Health and Safety makes good business sense. Workplaces which
neglect health and safety risk prosecution, may lose staff, and may increase costs and reduce
profitability
Example of Public Health and Safety: PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT CYCLE

1. Plan: Planning for implementation means identifying where we are now and then
identifying where we want to be.

For example, we could be looking at introducing a new piece of equipment into our
workplace. So what should we be considering at this stage?

• How are we going to control the risks associated with this equipment?
• What is the most suitable equipment from a safety perspective?
• What emergency procedures need to be put in place?
• What are the training requirements?
• Is any personal protective equipment required?

2. Do: Implement the process

The do stage looks at three key areas:

1. Profiling the health and safety risks

2. Organising
3. Implementing your plans
So in reality what does this mean?

• Identifying the risks through suitable and sufficient risk assessment.

• Organising by identifying roles and responsibilities, communication
procedures and ensuring competent personnel are in place.
• Implementation of the plan – ensuring risks are adequately controlled; correct
maintenance procedures are in place and providing information, instruction,
training and supervision to ensure people are competent and that procedures
are followed.

3. Check: monitor and measure processes against health and safety policy, objectives,
legal and other requirements, report the results
 This is an important stage. Once we have implemented our plan we need to ensure that it
is working effectively. To achieve this we need to MEASURE PERFORMANCE. Good
quality performance monitoring will help us to identify problems, understand why the
problems arose, and understand what changes are necessary to resolve the issues.

How do we do this?

There are numerous ways that we can measure our performance. For example, with our new
piece of equipment we could introduce the following monitoring procedures:

• Inspection of the plant and equipment carried out on a regular or scheduled basis
• Job observations to check the effective operation of workplace precautions
• Health surveillance, for example, audiometry tests for signs of hearing loss (if the
equipment introduced is noisy)
• Environmental monitoring, for example, measuring noise or dust levels

4. ACT: This is where we evaluate our health and safety performance to determine
whether or not the essential principles of our plan and policy are being implemented
correctly or whether there are improvements that can be made.

Environment and Sustainability is about acting in a way that ensures future generations
have the natural resources available to live an equal, if not better, way of life as current
generations. Environment and Sustainability is also known as the process of designing or
operating systems such that they use energy and resources sustainably, in other words, at a
rate that does not compromise the natural environment, or the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs.

• Alternate definition: Environmental sustainability is the capacity to improve the

quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of the earth's
supporting ecosystems.

• Alternate definition: Environmental sustainability is about stabilizing the currently

disruptive relationship between earth's two most complex systems: human culture and
the living world.
Example: Subsidising/encouraging more sustainable environmental practices. For example,
moving toward renewable energy, like solar and wind power rather than relying on non-
renewable energy sources which create pollution. Including all environmental consequences
in the cost-benefit analysis of decision making

Cost-Effectiveness (includes Life Cycle Cost Benefits)

Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is a method for assessing the total cost of facility
ownership. It takes into account all costs of acquiring, owning, and disposing of a building or
building system. LCCA is especially useful when project alternatives that fulfill the same
performance requirements, but differ with respect to initial costs and operating costs, have to
be compared in order to select the one that maximizes net savings. The purpose of an LCCA
is to estimate the overall costs of project alternatives and to select the design that ensures the
facility will provide the lowest overall cost of ownership consistent with its quality and
function. The LCCA should be performed early in the design process while there is still a
chance to refine the design to ensure a reduction in life-cycle costs.

Example: There are numerous costs associated with acquiring, operating, maintaining, and
disposing of a building or building system. Building-related costs usually fall into the
following categories:

• Initial Costs - Purchase, Acquisition, Construction Costs

• Fuel Costs

• Operation, Maintenance, and Repair Costs

• Replacement Costs

• Residual Values - Resale or Salvage Values or Disposal Costs

• Finance Charges - Loan Interest Payments

• Non-Monetary Benefits or Costs

Cultural and Societal

Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the
members of a particular group or society. Through culture, people and groups define
themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. Thus, culture
includes many societal aspects: language, customs, values, norms, mores, rules, tools,
technologies, products, organizations, and institutions. This latter term institution refers to
clusters of rules and cultural meanings associated with specific social activities. Common
institutions are the family, education, religion, work, and health care.

Society is defined as the people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture. The
cultural bond may be ethnic or racial, based on gender, or due to shared beliefs, values, and
activities. The term society can also have a geographic meaning and refer to people who
share a common culture in a particular location. For example, people living in arctic climates
developed different cultures from those living in desert cultures. In time, a large variety of
human cultures arose around the world.

Culture and society are intricately related. A culture consists of the “objects” of a society,
whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture. When the terms culture
and society first acquired their current meanings, most people in the world worked and lived
in small groups in the same locale. In today's world of 6 billion people, these terms have lost
some of their usefulness because increasing numbers of people interact and share resources
globally. Still, people tend to use culture and society in a more traditional sense: for example,
being a part of a “racial culture” within the larger

Example:

• Religion

Employees can bring varied belief systems and degrees of religious observation with them
into the workplace. These differences can sometimes manifest in overt needs, such as getting
certain holidays off, dietary restrictions, clothing and prayer requirements. The differences
may be more subtle, simply informing employee personalities and the character of their
interactions with others.
 • Race

Business and governments continue to work on integrating their workforces to better reflect
the general population because it’s good for business. Companies that hire a racially diverse
workforce consistently draw more customers and reap higher profits than those businesses
with a less diverse staff.

• Language

A common example of cultural diversity in the workplace is a multilingual workforce.

Language diversity can introduce communication complications, but can also provide
benefits for your business. Potential customers may leave your business because the staff
can't understand their orders. Linguistic diversity helps you project a clear image of inclusion
to the public. A multilingual staff can help ensure clarity of message when addressing a
culturally complex world and when you want to target a diverse marketplace.

• Age

Age is often overlooked when considering workplace diversity but can be a point of major
divergence in experience and knowledge. Consider the common stereotype that younger
people are more tech savvy, whereas older people are opposed to contemporary trends. Even
if this is the case, this range of perspectives allows for a more dynamic business approach
than one perspective could on its own. In companies where the stereotype is standard, you
can benefit from both the experience and insight of older employees and technical
implementation from the younger staff.
 Failed Project

Penang Second Bridge

The Penang Second Bridge is the longest bridge in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, and was
completed in March 2014. There were two major schedule re-adjustments throughout the
project duration: (1)revision of commencement date, and changing of the bridge’s opening
day. The published factors of schedule revisions were design matters, land acquisition and
increased costs of building materials. There could ostensibly be more factors causing such
revisions, which have not been divulged, which prompted the interest to conduct an academic
investigation. This study also includes the investigation on the effects subsequent to the
project schedule revisions. Qualitative research method using in-depth interviews was
conducted to collect the data, and respondents approached had been involved in the planning,
design and construction stages of the project. The results showed that contractor-related
factors have the highest impact on the project schedule, followed by client related factors and
external factors, and also revealed additional factors like changes to the concessionaire and
ramp collapse incident, further contributed to project delays. The impacts of schedule
revisions included acceleration, cost increases and negative reputation from the public. To
prevent issues of delays in the construction industry, actions and solutions should be
implemented by practitioners by taking into account the different nature, culture and
regulations of each project. On 6 June 2013, a ramp leading to the still under construction
Penang Second Bridge at Batu Maung interchange collapsed at around 7:00 pm, burying a car
and two motorcycles under the debris. One person was killed in the incident. The main causes
of incident is wrong design or installation and lack of maintenance would have caused the
bridge to collapse.