LSC S1:Hazards and Safety (First Aid)

Introduction
In this chapter, you will be introduced to hazards and safety (First Aid), and appropriate methods of preventing hazards in the home and school. What are hazards? What are the major causes of hazards in your community? Falls, fires, carbon monoxide poisoning, fractures, fainting, electric shocks, bites, choking, cuts, poisoning,
strangling, drowning and burns are examples of hazards at home and school.
What are the warning and safety signs that are used in laboratories and on roads? This will enable you to understand the safety precautions to prevent hazards. You will explain the content and role of a first aid kit. The first aid kit is the one which
contains the materials used to treat the hazards, though the materials in it can only provide basic first aid or care in preparation for further treatment. Therefore, the knowledge of this chapter will help you administer first aid to common hazards.

2.1 : What are Hazards?
Hazards are unexpected happenings that arise as we use some of the machines or other materials. These hazards lead to some of the injuries shown in Figure. 2.1 below:

Activity 2.1 : Exploring the meaning of hazards
What you need: Notebooks, stylus, slate, and perkins brailler and braille papers.
What to do:
Individual research using other textbooks or Internet on:

1. Meaning of the term hazards and risks?
2. Mention any five types/categories of hazards.
3. Individually write or braille your findings and present to the rest of the class.
   Examples of Hazards at Home and School
   The home or school is supposed to be a place where you are safe and protected, but every year emergency units deal with serious injuries and sometimes fatal accidents that occur in the home or school. In activity 2.1 , you will discuss examples of hazards around schools and homes.

Activity 2.2: Discussing examples of hazards around schools and homes
What you need: Notebooks, Stylus, Slate, and Perkins brailler and braille papers.
What to do: In groups:

1. Discuss the examples ofhazards thatyou experienced in your school and homes.
2. Put your submissions on charts orbraille papers and ensure there are illustrations.
3. Present your work to the class.
4. Individually write or braille the class conclusions.
   You may have discovered that the hazards are many. You have also ever experienced pain from a cut or a burn. Therefore it’s important that you learn how to prevent and minimise these hazards.

2.2: Warning and Safety Signs
When you read the label of a bottle of any chemical, there are different signs. Have you ever wondered the reason for putting these signs? Safety signs are signs providing information or instruction about safety or health at work by means
of a signboard, a colour, an illuminated sign, verbal communication or hand signal. Warning signs are signs used to alert on dangerous conditions. In this section, you are going to discover warning and safety signs on the manufactured items we buy. This may enable you to prevent some of the previously
mentioned hazards. In activity 2.3, you will look at the meaning of different safety hazard symbols.
Activity 2.3: Discovering the meaning of safety hazard symbols
What you need: Notebooks, stylus, slate, and perkins brailler and braille papers.
What to do: In a group, study and discuss Figure. 2.2:

1. Identify the meaning of the warning and safety signs in Figure. 2.2.
2. Listand describe otherwamingandsafetysigns apart from the ones on Figure. 2.2.
3. State the meaning of each warning sign you have drawn in question (2).
4. Explain how safety and warning signs are important.

5. Present your work to the rest of the class. (You may prepare a power point presentation).
   Safety Precautions Involved in Preventing Hazards
   It is better to ensure safety in everything you do since prevention is better than cure. In activity 2.3, you will discuss safety precautions involved in preventing hazards.
   Activity 2.4: Discovering safety precautions involved in preventing hazards
   What you need: Notebooks, stylus, slate, and perkins brailler and braille papers.
   What to do:
   In groups;
   1.Meet the school health worker or any health worker in your community.
   2 .Ask the health worker on how best the common hazards at home and school
   can be prevented.
   3. Record your findings in form of a poster that can help avoid ocurrence of hazards. Present your work to the class.
   4. Individually write or braille the class conclusions in your notebooks.

2.3: First Aid
As shown, in Figure. 2.3, it is very important to offer someone first aid in the shortest time possible when he/she faces a hazard to avoid spreading of the effects arising from the injury.
In activity 2.4, you will explore the meaning of the word “First Aid” and why it is important to offer someone first aid?

Activity 2.5: Discussing the meaning of the phrase ‘First Aid’ and its role What you need: Notebooks, stylus, slate, and perkins brailler, braille papers, dictionary, internet connection, science textbooks, news prints or manila papers. What to do: In groups;

1. What is meant by the term “First Aid”.
2. Discuss the role of First Aid.
3. Present your findings in class.
4. Individually write the class conclusions in your notebooks.

2.4: First Aid Kit
The first aid kit (Figure. 2.4) contains a number of materials that are used to treat minor injuries. Each item in a first aid kit has a specific function. In activity 2.5, you will discover the contents of a first aid box and discuss their uses.

Activity 2.6: Identifying contents of first aid kit and their uses
What you need: First Aid kit, Notebooks, Stylus, Slate, Perkins brailler, braille papers,
science text books, internet connection, smart phone, news prints or manila paper.
What to do:
In a group, study and discuss Figure. 2.5 and do the task.
1.Identify each item shown in Figure. 2.5.
2. Give the uses of the items you have identified in (1) above
3. Apart from the items in Figure. 2.5, what are the other instruments found in First Aid kit. Use the first aid kit provided by your teacher.
4.What are the uses of the items you have stated in question (3)?

5. Present your work to the rest of the class.
   2.5: Process of Administering First Aid for Common Hazards
   The process of giving First Aid is a more critical process. The patient should be handled with total expertise and care to avoid causing more extreme harm. One should be well conversant with a set of procedures involved in attending to different patients of different issues. It is important to note that each hazard has its own first aid procedures. So, in Activity 2.6, you will discover the processes of administering first aid for common hazards.

Activity 2.7: Practising the process of administering first aid for common hazards
What you need: Notebooks, stylus, slate, and perkins brailler, braille papers and
pictures of common hazards.
What to do: In groups,

1. The pictures in Figure 2.6 show common hazards at home or school.

Figure. 2.6: Common hazards

2. Discuss about the procedures involved in administering first aid for common hazards in Figure. 2.6.
3. Organise your work for presentation in class.