Element 6

RISK ASSESSMENT:

What are the five categories of health and safety? Or

Defined the terms hazard?

Hazard           

Something with the potential to cause harm. For example a lorry moving around a site road is a hazard because it might run over a worker. Hazard can be classified as:

1.             Physical – things which cause harm because of their physical characteristics e.g. electricity, work at height, radiation, vibration, noise, heat, trip hazards.

2.             Chemical – things which can cause harm because of their chemical characteristics e.g lead, mercury, sulphuric acid, cement dust etc.

3.             Biological – living micro organism that cause disease and ill health e.g. hepatitis B virus,

Legionella bacteria.

4.             Ergonomic – stress and strain put on the body through posture and movement e.g. frequent repetitive handling of small boxes.

5.             Psychological – things that have the potential to cause injury to the mind rather than the body e.g. exposure to highly traumatic event.

Risk

The likelihood that hazards will cause harm in combination with the severity of Injury, damage or loss that might occur for example an electrical flex trailing across a busy corridor in a hospital creates a risk. For example an electrical flex trailing across a busy corridor in a hospital creates a risk. The degree of risk can be described as high or medium depending on how likely person might trip over that trailing flex and how badly they might be injured.

Explain the aims and objectives of risk assessment? Or

Identified the aim of risk assessment?

Objectives of Risk Assessment:

The aim of risk assessment is to ensure that hazards are eliminated of risk is minimized by the correct application of relevant standards.

The objects of risk assessment are to prevent following thing

1.       Death and personal injury

2.       Other types of loss incident

3.       The occurrence of breaches of statute law which might lead to enforcement action/ prosecution

4.       The direct and indirect cost that follow on form accidents.

Accident can be categorized into following types depending on outcomes.

1.       Injury accident

2.       Damage only accident

3.       Near miss

4.       Dangerous occurrence

5.       Ill health incident.

As per bird triangles these are the numbers:

For every 1 serious injury there are 10 minor injuries and 30 damage only and 600 incidents

Identify hazards by means of workplace inspection, analysis of tasks, legislation, manufacturer’s info and incident date? Or

What techniques are used for identifying hazards?

Hazards identification method

Hazards can be identified using various methods such as:

1.       Workplace inspection                    2. Task analysis                  3. legislation

4          Manufacturers information        5. Incident rate.

Workplace inspection

A formal inspection can help to find out hazards that are present at site.

Task analysis:

This method help to identifying hazards before work start. There is useful acronym for tasks analysis:

1.       Select the task                                                                  2. Records the steps or stages of the task            

3.    Evaluate the risks associated with each step.      4. Develop the safe working method

5.    Implement the safe working method                     5. Monitor to ensure it is effective.

Legislation:

Knowledge of the legal standards that apply to a particular workplace is an important.

Manufacturer information:

When new substance is purchased it comes with labels and MSDS that clearly identify hazards.

Incident Data:

Internal accident and near miss data can be useful in identifying hazards

Hazards may generate risk to safety and risk to health.

Safety Hazards:

Safety hazards can be categorized according to the type of accident that is foreseen:

1.       Slips, trips and falls          2.   Falls from height                        3.   Falling objects

4     Collision with objects      5.   Crush between objects          6.   Manual handling

       7     Contact with machinery 8.  Electricity                                         9.   Transport

      10.  Contact with Chemicals   11. Fire and explosion                    12.   Violence

What are the health hazards?

Health Hazards:

1.             Physical – things which cause harm because of their physical characteristics e.g. electricity, work at height, radiation, vibration, noise, heat, trip hazards.

2.             Chemical – things which can cause harm because of their chemical characteristics e.g lead, mercury, sulphuric acid, cement dust etc.

3.             Biological – living micro organism that cause disease and ill health e.g. hepatitis B virus, legionella bacteria.

4.             Ergonomic – stress and strain put on the body through posture and movement e.g. frequent repetitive handling of small boxes.

5.             Psychological – things that have the potential to cause injury to the mind rather than the body e.g. exposure to highly traumatic event.

State the five steps involved in risk assessment? Or

Explained the five steps or approach to risk assessment?

Principles and practice of risk assessment:

There are five steps to risk assessment:

1.       Identify the hazards

2.       Identify the people who might be harmed and how.

3.       Evaluate the risk and decide on precautions.

4.       Records the significant findings and implement them

5.       Review and update as necessary

·         Identifying Hazards:

Hazards are the things with the potential to cause harm. It is important to identify both safety and health hazards. The hazards identification might be done by task analysis, manufacturers information of inspection of workplace.

·         Identify the people who might be harmed and how.

1.       Employees      2. Maintenance staff      3. Cleaners     4. Contractors     5. Visitors     6. Public members

Discussed the principle of rating risk using a simple scoring system for likelihood and severity?

Evaluating the Risk and Deciding on Precautions:

Risk can be scored or rated using a simple formula   Risk = Likelihood X Severity

Semi quantitative risk rating system

Likelihood	Severity
1 = extremely unlikely	1 = very minor injury
2 = unlikely	2 = first aid injury
3 = possible	3 = lost time injury
4 = likely	4 = hospital treatment
5 = very probable	5 = disabling injury

Semi quantitative risk rating system is useful for following reasons

1.       Clarity of thinking

2.       Consistency of approach

3.       Prioritization

4.       Timescale

1.      Clarity of thinking:

People are more carefully think about likelihood and severity of injury. It is giving accurate result.

2.      Consistency of approach:

Different people can use this system and will get similar result.

3.      Prioritization:

It is possible to easily separate out the various risks presented by several hazards and rank them in order

4.      Timescale:

It is even possible to allocate particular timescales to the risk rating that are calculated using this type of system.

What is residual risk?

Residual, acceptable and tolerable risk

This risk that remains one these existing controls have been taken into account can be referred to as residual risk

Residual risk:

If the residual risk is low then it might be considered

Acceptable Risk:

The existing control are adequate nothing more need be done.

Tolerable:

Tolerable implies that it is not acceptable but can be tolerated for a short time while interim control are put into place.

Unacceptable:

Implies that the risk level is too high for work to be allowed

State the principles which underlie the order of the general control hierarchy?

General Control Hierarchy:

If the risk is unacceptable then controls must be introduced to either eliminate hazards or create safe place or a safe person. Any residual risk must be acceptable

1.      Eliminate the hazard

Remove the source of the risk. This is most effective option since removal of the hazards eliminates the risk associated with the hazards

2.      Create a safe place:

Use engineering control to change the hazard itself or guard or enclose the hazard in some way to prevent people coming into contact with it.

3.      Create a safe person:

Develop safe working methods or system of work so that people are exposed to hazard in controlled manner. This requires the provision of information, training and supervision along with good enforcement of safe behavior.

Use of standards:

Legal standards can often be used to indicate what level of risk is acceptable.

If there are clear legal standards about the control that should be applied to particular hazard in a workplace then the use of scoring system and risk prioritization and timescales will become unneeded.

What conditions might trigger a risk assessment review?

Reviewing Risk Assessment:

Assessments must be reviewed on significant change, after an incident and perhaps periodically.

There are number of situations that might trigger a review of a risk assessment:

1.       Significant change to a matter that the risk assessment relates to:

Process                substances         equipment         personnel           legal standards 

Workplace environment

2.       There is reason to suspect that the assessment is not valid:

1.       Accident      2. Near miss       3.  ill health

Criteria for a suitable and sufficient assessment:

A risk assessment should be suitable and sufficient. In particular it should

1.       Identify the significant risks arising out of work

2.       Enable the employer to identify and prioritize the measures that must be taken to protect people from harm.

3.       The assessment should be balanced to the risks in the workplace.

A  Low risk workplace like retail shop

A high risk workplace like chemical works

What particular staff groups require special consideration during risk assessment?

Special cases and vulnerable workers:

Sometimes it is necessary to focus risk assessment on a vulnerable person or group of workers such as young persons, expectant women and nursing mothers, disabled workers and lone workers.

·         Young person:

A young person is defined by law under 18 year age. There are several reason why a young person might be vulnerable to risk in workplace

o   Lack of experience

o   Physical and mental immaturity

o   Poor perception of risk

o   Heavily influenced by peer group pressure

o   Eager to show a willingness to work.

It may necessary to;

                Prohibit a young person form carryout certain high risk activities

Restrict their work patterns and hours

Train and supervise them

Expectant women and nursing mothers:

Hazards that present greater risk to pregnant women:

1.       Certain hazardous chemicals

2.       Certain biological agents

3.       Manual handling especially later in pregnancy

4.       Extremes of temperature

5.       Whole body vibration

6.       Ionizing radiation

7.       Night shift work

8.       Stress violence

Disabled workers:

During the risk assessment process it may be necessary to:

·         Identify certain health and fitness criteria for some jobs then screen staff against these criteria

·         Identify workers with known disabilities and consider what the implications of their particular type and level of disability

Lone workers:

People who work entirely on their own for periods of time like service engineers who spends four hours alone in a plant room servicing machinery is a lone worker.