This document discusses the origins of industrial accidents and existing labor laws. It provides historical context on labor laws and accident prevention measures dating back to the late 19th century in Brazil. Several key points are made: 1. The causes of industrial accidents are diverse and can involve factors related to the employee, company culture/environment, work conditions, tools/equipment. A simple equation cannot capture all the unknown factors. 2. Statistics from 1980 in Brazil show high accident rates, with construction, wood/cork, and mining among the highest. Millions of lost man-days are reported. 3. Labor laws have aimed to establish preventive measures related to construction/demolition, hazardous materials, excav

1. The origin of the industrial accidents
Antonio Fernando Navarro[1]
Introduction:
We propose here present and associate the origin of the industrial accidents and existing laws,
without drawn parallels with comparative stats and, but and so only so simple, present the question, which
concerns all those who, like us, we work in HSE activities, whether in the supervision of works, in the
elaboration of standards or procedures, managing the activities or in the deployment or implementation of
integrated management systems.
We ran into were for a long time with this question involving the origin of accidents, after much
research and write about it we realized that the source of accidents may be the most diverse possible, since
the causes are distinct, involving not only the employee, but also the company, its culture and environment,
and the work, with its difficulties and conditions of execution of tasks, including the use of tools and
equipment, often unknown. It turns out that a simple equation with three unknowns cannot be resolved
unless you replace at least two of the unknowns. In the language of mathematics may mean that if you're
substituting unknown values or situations not known for something you can stipulate. In certified companies
and with high technical standards, is to assume that the environment and working conditions are good, in the
same way that the worker, before starting your activities will undergo training and evaluation periods. But
does that really matter? We haven't had updated spreadsheets that secrete accidents by companies that are
certified or not. One thing, however, we can come to a consensus, which is that the mere participation of the
worker as a cause of the accident is a complex thing.
Discussion of the theme:
In 11/19/1984, FENASEG (National Federation of Insurances Companies) Newsletter, no. 789,
16th year, in space intended for Studies and Opinions, under the title: Why an accident at work occurs, thus
expressing us:
What are the reasons why accidents occur? What they represent for the nation, for employers
and for insurance companies?
The Decree Law of n9 83,080/79 defines the workplace accident as being one that occurs at
work in the service of the company, causing personal injury or functional disturbance that causes
death, or loss or permanent or temporary reduction of working capacity. Equipped to work accident,
among others. for the purposes of granting benefits:
a) occupational disease or work;
b) accident suffered by the employee at the time and place of work due to acts of sabotage or terrorism
(practiced even by coworker, intentional physical injury caused by work-related dispute, recklessness,
negligence or malpractice of third parties, including co-workers), Act of private person the use of
reason, landslide, flood or fire;

2. c) accident suffered by the employee, even though outside the workplace and working hours, in the
execution of the order or performing service under authority of the company, in the provision of any
service to the company wanted to avoid injury or provide benefit in the company's service trip, on the
way to work or this for that, en route to the location of meal or back him in working range.
As the definition of industrial accident and well wide, covering not only, as one might assume, at first
the accident suffered by an employee of a company, at the time and place of work and in the execution
of a certain task.
Statistically many are the ways to evaluate the incidence of accidents at work. they are: frequency
Rate, rate of gravity and Severity assessment index.
The Brazil, in the early 70, was champion in work accidents. Unfortunately there were also the "greatest" and
the "best" in accident rates. Much has been made since then, with the objective of reducing these indexes the
values considered as acceptable by international bodies. However, even today, despite all the effort, our
percentages are quite high. The FUNDACENTRO in article: BRAZIL, 1980: statistics of industrial
accidents; catalogued the accidents, based on work of DATAPREV and M.P.A.S.. To exemplify with some
actual data obtained through the coordination of Informatics of the Ministry of Planning of the INPS, we cite
some data for the base year of 1980.
I) Typical Accident:
•
•
Occupational disease:
Path crash:
1,404,531 accidents (95.9%)
3,713 crashes (0.3%)
55,967 accidents (3.8%)
II) Indices by accident settled
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Simple accident medical assistance:
Temporary incapacity less than 15dias:
Temporary disability greater than 15dias:
Permanent disability with additional aid:
Permanent disability with accident aid:
Retirement due to disability:
Deaths:
207,375 (13.8%)
791,504 (52.6%)
473,964 (31.5%)
9,911 (0.6%)
13,118 (0.9%)
4,896 (0.3%)
4,824 (0.3%)
III) accident rates by sector of activities more significant until the 10th placement:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cork and wood industry:
furniture industry:
mineral extraction industry:
administration of ports and airports:
metallurgical industry:
beverage industry:
food industry:
mechanical engineering:
construction:
27.3%
20.6%
l8 .7%
15.1%
14.2%
13.4%
12.8%
12.7%
12.3%
IV) index of man-days lost until the 5th placing
•
•
construction:
Cork and wood industry:
23,055,472
6,992,659

3. •
•
•
retail trade:
mechanical engineering:
food industry:
5,954,939
5,756,678
5,411,544
After the presentation of these numbers can have a pale idea of representing the work accidents
for the Parents, for Employers and Insurers. However, asked if those numbers could not be reduced to a
minimal, or who knows, completely eliminated? The total elimination is not possible, because of the
possibility of an accident is not dependent on a single factor, but rather a multitude of factors, including
aggravated by conditions at the moment.
A worker at end of shift is always more prone to accidents than in beginning of round. The loss
of your football team to another team is also a dominant factor for the occurrence of accidents. Periods of
economic recession, paydays, end of month, eve of public holidays, etc., are factors that promote the
emergence and accidents. As it turns out, any factor that motivates the psycho-social imbalance in the human
being is a factor of accident;
Now imagine that all of these factors can occur with each of the members of a community
worker, all the moments, involving participants and third parties. What is observed is that the Elimination of
accidents is a work impossible. However, the reduction is always possible provided they are created
conditions of work, adequate training and appropriate equipment and materials.
Recently, a fact that attracted our attention, presented by the most widely circulated newspapers.
It was a meeting of more than 1,000 people in a northeastern city, showing part of the upper limbs amputated
by pulping of sisal. The scene presented the people exposing the parts of your Coro amputated was shocking
to all of us. What was missing to those men and women who had not been injured? Will a proper machine
would not have been enough already, or maybe a specific training for this type of operation? There was talk,
too, that these people receive for production, that is, earn from what they produce. In this condition the faster
work more produce and, consequently, more will receive. If we set our logical sequence of facts presented,
we will see that these are people, without much or any resource, working without any type of training and
inadequate equipment, technique and adverse conditions. Now, all of these factors are opposed to any
measure of prevention or eradication of accidents. The result is a meeting of more than 1,000 people
exposing their wounds and fighting for their rights.
Section XV, the consolidation of labor laws, in particular article 200, addresses the regulatory
standards, presenting some preventive considerations (emphasis added), as follows:
It is the responsibility of the Ministry of labour establish additional provisions to the rules of
this Chapter, in order to the peculiarities of each activity or sector of work, especially on:
1.
accident prevention measures and personal protective equipment in construction, demolition
or repairs;
2. depots, storage and handling of fuels, Flammables and explosives, as well as transit and
sojourn in the respective areas;

4. 3. work in excavations, tunnels, galleries, mines and quarries, especially regarding the
prevention of explosions, fires, landslides and burial, elimination of dust, gases, etc., and rapid
output facilities of the employees;
4. fire protection in General and the appropriate preventive measures, with special coating
requirements to doors and walls, fire walls, building dikes and other screens, as well as
general warranty easy circulation, access corridors and large and protected outputs, with
adequate signaling;
5. protection against heat stroke, heat, cold, humidity and winds, especially at work in the open,
with provision for this, drinking water, housing and prophylaxis of endemic diseases;
6. protection of workers exposed to harmful chemicals, ionizing radiation and non-ionizing
radiation, noise, vibration or abnormal vibrations and pressures at the workplace, with
specification of appropriate measures for elimination or mitigation of those effects, the
maximum exposure time, the intensity of the action or its effects on the body of the worker,
compulsory medical examinations, age limits, permanent control of workplaces and other
requirements necessary to be;
7. hygiene at workplaces, with breakdown of requirements, sanitary facilities, with separation of
sexes, showers, lavatories, changing rooms and individual lockers, cafeterias or comfort
conditions during meals, drinking water supply, cleaning conditions of workplaces and
providing for its execution, industrial waste treatment;
8. employment of colors at the workplace, including the signs of danger.
9. Sole paragraph-in the case of ionizing radiation and explosives, the detailed rules referred to in
this article shall be issued in accordance with the resolutions adopted by the technical respect.
The evolution of the techniques of prevention:
Throughout the time of implementation of this legal device, always occurred some distortions,
is about the understanding or implementation of the measures recommended in its various chapters and
articles.
It should be noted that since the 40, and therefore the more than sixty years ago, there was the
concern of legislators to worker safety, being necessary specific preventive measures, whereas the industrial
accidents occur normally without any control and worker protections were underperforming. Therefore, it
can be said that the mention of the accident prevention measures and personal protective equipment in
construction, demolition or repairs was one of the major progress achieved in this area.
In our assessment of the problem we understand that the occurrence of an accident depends,
fundamentally, of groups of distributed and intertwined factors as follows:

5. I) Human Being:
The human contribution to the occurrence of accidents may be due, among others, the following
factors (treated here so reduced, because it is not subject of this discussion):
Main Factors
Hunger
Disease
Drug Addiction
Rush
Inattention
Stress
Community Contributes Factors
Poor diet
Lack of food
Feel ill be
Use of drugs that affect your balance or understanding
Use of legal drugs or not, that undermine the understanding or the
performance of the employee
End of the journey
Termination of service
Hunger
Feel ill be physical or emotional
Pressure by the end of the activity
Excessive journeys
Abnormal situations in the work environment, as for example, the
proximity of electrical power failure, the immediate need for an
adjustment or repair a piece of equipment, the momentary interruption of
a sector of the company, among others.
Disease
Hunger
Ill be physical or emotional
Possibility of the football team win or lose later
Possibility to receive any calls, either for a new job or home, for some
problem
Family problems
Financial problems
Physical conditions of the work environment
Adverse environmental conditions
Excessive conversations around
Excessive journeys
Disease
Hunger
Possibility of layoffs at work or cutting people or reduction of activities
Work environment

6. Lack of training or training
Lack of skill
Lack of knowledge
Psychological problems
Family problems
Adverse environmental
conditions
Ergonomic aspects
Interpersonal relationships at work
Adverse environmental conditions
Excessive journeys
Dark, dimly lit or excessively illuminated
Pressure by the completion of the tasks
Pressure by supervisors or colleagues
No training
Training poorly transmitted
Low capacity of assimilation
Understanding of training
Understanding of the activity
Lack of skill
Culture
School training
Diseases/disorders
Disorders caused by pressure
Motivational factors
Diseases in family
Financial pressures
Cold
Heat
Moisture
Vibration
Moving of machines and equipment
Workstation
Desktop
· Noise
· Cold or heat
· Vibration
· Excessive Insolation
· Lack or excess lighting
· Excessive Conversations around
Working conditions
It can be observed that many factors community contributes end for repeating, at various times.
The "hunger" which can lead to a rush to the end of the activity also generates the "inattention".
4.3 Environment:
Numerous are the factors related to middle which surrounds the worker, or is in their
surroundings, which may promote the occurrence of an accident. Some of these are:
•
No indication of the places of risks;
•
No local protection of risks;
•
Transit of equipment or vehicles in the vicinity of the workplace;
•
Dangerous activities nearby (pile driving, enforcement of industrial assemblies, realization of welds
and cut, among others);
•
Lack of full visibility of all risks in the surroundings;
•
Place hot or dusty;

7. •
Place messy or dirty;
•
Low lighting or excessive brightness.
4.4 conditions:
Are all those that come to facilitate the occurrence of an accident. Can be translated as the
missing link in the chain.
An employee, using a circular saw for cutting a Board, without employing the PPE
recommended for the activity, you can get hurt if you're called to attention by your tender, so untimely, or by
simply passing someone or something to call attention. In this case, the concern of the supervisor, or the
momentary inattention may be the main reason of the occurrence of the accident. An employee who is not
with a proper health condition may not have the performance required for the execution of the activity. This
can be the propitious situation.
4.5 external factors:
As external factors can have all those who are in the surroundings of the employee or that
surround it. E.g.: an employee who is running a weld on a pipe and suddenly realizes that a backhoe comes
toward you, even though she doesn't want to, will be affected, in its quietness for this movement. Another is
made, if there is a material handling about you, that hurts your concentration. These external factors are
dynamic. There are also static factors such as air humidity, ambient temperature, illumination of the
workplace, among others.
4.6 material Factors:
The material factors are those of which the worker uses to carry out its tasks. This group has:
portable tools or not, equipment, countertops, support materials, and other activities. A tool that was
delivered to the employee without having been properly inspected and problems can be one of the risk
factors that cause accidents.
[2] Legal references labour inspection in Brazil dating back to the 19th century, as the Decree
No. 1313 of 1/17/1891, but the same just rules for the work of children in the Federal District (at the time,
the city of Rio de Janeiro) and has never been respected. It was up to States the competence to legislate on
the work and inspection was poisoned by employers ' interests. The Decree 3,550, 10/16/1918, created the
National Labour Department, fitting to this Department to the enforcement of laws on industrial accidents,
journey, vacations, work of women and minors and Union organizing. In 1921 was established labour
inspection, circumscribed to the Distrito Federal (Rio de Janeiro). With the constitutional reform of 1926
established the competence of the Union to legislate on the job. The Decree 21690, 8/1/1932 created the
Regional Provinces in the States of the Federation, later transformed into regional Labor offices, by Decree
No. 2168, 5/6/1940. The Maritime work Stations were created by Decree n. º 23259, 10/20/1933, fitting them
to the work in ports, fishing and navigation. The DTM were extinguished during the Government of

8. President Fernando Collor de Mello. The mandatory reporting of industrial accidents to the police authority
was established by Decree No. 24637, 7/10/1934, which also provided for the imposition of administrative
fines, the National Department of labour. Decree-Law No. 1985, 1/19/1940 established the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of agriculture to oversee and establish work standards in the mines. The labour protection laws were
grouped in the consolidated labor laws – CLT, by Decree-Law No. 5452, 5/1/1943.
In 7/19/1947 the International Labour Organization -ILO adopts Convention No. 81, which
States that each ILO Member for which the Convention is in force, you must have a system of labour
inspection in industrial and commercial establishments. The Brazil ratified the Convention No. 81 of the
ILO, by Legislative Decree No. 24, 5/29/1956, promulgated by Decree No. 41721, 6/25/1957. Although the
Labour Inspector's career has been created by law No. 6479, 4/9/1944, just after the promulgation of
Convention No. 81 and issuance of the Decree, 3/15/1965, 55,841 regulation of labour inspection, which
structure the careers of labour inspection in the various specialties-labor Tax, occupational physician,
Engineer and Social worker, and establishes standards for inspection.
With regard to the historical development of labour legislation in Brazil we mention Law No.
5161, 10/21/1966, authorizing the creation of the National Center for safety, hygiene and occupational
medicine-FUNDACENTRO, whose title was amended by law No. 7133, 10/26/1983, National Foundation
Jorge Duprat Figueiredo of safety and occupational medicine.
The Decree 95461, 12/11/1987, reinvigorated the Decree No. 41721, 6/25/1957, agreeing the
Convention No. 81. The rule n. 32, November 29, 1968, DNSHT-National Department of labor safety and
hygiene, adopts provisions concerning the Organization of the internal accident prevention commissions,
regulating articles 158 and 164 of the CLT, with amended by Decree Law n. 229, of February 28, 1967.
In the 4/5/1971 Brazil denounced Convention No. 81, due mainly to article 6, which stipulates
that the status of officialdom should ensure the stability of the inspection staff and make them independent of
any change of Government or of any undue external influence, in addition to paragraph 2, article 11, which
provides for the restitution of all the associated costs of labour inspectors, necessary for the performance of
their duties.
The ministerial order No. 3237, July 17, 1972, which was part of the "Plan of recovery of the
worker" of the Federal Government, obligated the existence of occupational health services and workplace
safety engineering in all companies with one or more workers.
Law No. 6514, 12/22/1977, amended chapter V of title II of the CLT, concerning safety and
occupational medicine-articles 154 to 201. The ministerial order No. 3214, 6/8/1978, approves the regulatory
standards of safety and occupational medicine-NR. These rules have been altered over time, by several
Gatehouses.
Currently the Brazil adopts a series of conventions of the International Labour Organization
(ILO). The ILO conventions that have been ratified and promulgated by the Brazil have led to changes in
regulatory standards relevant to each subject covered by the said Convention. The regulatory norms have
been altered in recent years, both for the evolution of productive methods and labor relations as to conform
to ILO conventions promulgated by Brazil.

9. Analysis of Question:
For decades the work safety professionals has always been questioned about this theme. In
Brazil, these professionals began to be qualified, through specific training courses in the mid-1970. Until
then, there were engineering courses, in their curricular grids made mention of certain items relating to safety
conditions for workers. The rest of the world has already commented about job security since the Decade of
1950. Therefore, this concern for the safety of the work, translated by training specific professionals is not as
old as well. Here begins with the supervisors of work safety, which were nothing more than property security
professionals who received additional courses. These Supervisors were transformed into workplace safety
Technicians. How were the Technical Word title, began to be targeted by the Advice, especially the regional
engineering, architecture and Agronomy. Endless discussions, eternal procrastinators meant that only a small
percentage of these technicians spend part of CREAS. As for the training of engineers, the courses were
adapted from courses outside of Brazil, having been the first course taught between 1975 and 1976. In his
first title, were the Work of engineers. Subsequently, the work safety Engineers. There are still some aspects
which understand to be occupational safety engineers. There are distinctions between the work and the work,
but which do not bring benefits to the understanding of the proposed theme: the origin of the industrial
accidents.
So, this article lends itself to bring some contributions to the theme and the role exercised by
both the safety and the Technical security engineer, in the context of the origin of the industrial accidents.
The role of workplace safety professionals:
We can say that since it was enacted the consolidation of labor laws, in the Era Getulista
(Decree-Law No. 5,452, MAY 1, 1943), there was already a concern, at least materialized in Law, for issues
related to worker safety. In part, and this is not disclosed, it may be that this concern in an era in which the
Country lived a dictatorial regime, may have been due to the fact of admission of the nation of the United
Nations, what would happen years later, since at the time of the redaction of Decree-law the world was still
at war. The Brazil participated by sending the "GL" for Italy, providing mineral resources and initiating
industrial activities.
In 1978, through a Ministerial Decree nº 3,214 took, issued on 6/8/1978, and published in the
7/6/1978, was finally regulated in article 200 of the CLT, through the dissemination of regulatory norms
specific to activities related to human labor. Many of these regulatory norms were effectively implemented
years after, in the same way that were drawn up.
It is interesting to mention that, through law No. 7,410, of 11/27/1985, was regulated the
activity of work safety Engineer and the profession of occupational safety technician (formerly work safety
Supervisors). For being a very interesting text, we quote him:
Law nº 7,410, of 27 OVEMBER 1985

10. Adopts provisions concerning the expertise of engineers and architects in workplace safety Engineering, the
profession of technician Job security and other arrangements.
Art. 1st-the specialization of work safety Engineer will be allowed, exclusively:
I.
I-engineer or Architect, with certificate of completion of the specialization course on workplace
safety Engineering, to be taught in the country, in graduate level;
II.
II-certificate bearer of the specialization course on workplace safety Engineering, held in priority
character, by the Ministry of labor;
III.
III-to the holder of record of work safety Engineer, issued by the Ministry of labor, until the date
fixed in the regulation of law.
Art. 2nd-the practice of the profession of occupational safety technician is allowed exclusively:
IV.
bearer certificate of completion of course work safety technician, to be taught in the country in
educational establishment of 2nd degree;
V.
bearer certificate of completion of course work safety Supervisor, held in priority character by the
Ministry of labor;
VI.
the owner of record of work safety Supervisor, dispatched by the Ministry of labor, until the date
fixed in the regulation of this law.
The question to be presented is that a lot had knowledge of the predictability of the occurrences
of accidents, the same way that already had statistical information that could be employed in management
systems, unthinkable in the past. So, why the accidents are still happening? Existing legislation, after all, is
good, although prolix in many respects. What else is in the works, residential or industrial is the most total
non-compliance with the legislation. Except Honorable exceptions, which rely heavily on corporate culture
more than employees in other companies one realizes how much we should tread so that our country can be
considered as a country where labor laws are followed.
Conclusion:
When a topic becomes clear as the continuous occurrence of accidents, when you have the right
tools today hold the analysis of occurrences of accidents, including in order to trace the limits of containment
of deviations, first stage to give a fatal occurrence, when it has the comfortable standards and procedures to
be employed when there is an increasingly growing number of certified companies, why accidents keep
occurring? It seems that the answers are obvious, no? If they were, surely would have occurred the changes
needed.
There needs to be greater oversight on businesses that do not meet the law. The workers ' unions
should leave aside the strikes for the simple fact that they want to raise more and think about security of its
affiliates. Companies must seek changes in attitude and culture. The certification companies must review
their concepts for the granting of certificates to companies that do not comply with the laws. Sounds simple,
doesn't it? But getting out of your comfort zone to a zone of conflict, Yes, because change can mean conflict,
it's not as easy as that. While it is normal to die people to compose the statistical tables and all work with
numbers without the necessary proactive the scenario will be the same, with thousands of people maimed or

11. suffering in hospital queues to be serviced and healed. As it does not represent? So, if we consider that we
are experiencing a special moment of the nation's growth, with the lack of skilled labor. In this manner, we
cannot and we must not let anyone out in public. This is our first duty. To this end, we have to eliminate the
risks. If this is impossible, the next step may be to not accept the risk, but mitigates them and to protect
workers. This must be our mission. Protect workers, causing this concern arises. We, professionals of SMS
are mere inductors of culture change.
[1]
Antonio Fernando Navarro is a Civil Engineer, work safety Engineer and Master in health and environment, having
acted in industrial activities for more than 30 years, and professor at Fluminense Federal University-UFF in Actuarial
Sciences disciplines.
[2]
Text
extracted
from
Wikipedia
the
free
encyclopedia,
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Cronologia_da_Legisla%C3%A7%C3%A3o_de_Seguran%C3%A7a_e_Sa%C3%B
Ade_no_Trabalho_no_Brasil, accessed at 2/25/2012