Element 3 Risk Assessment and Control

Element 3

Risk Assessment and Control

v  The aim and objective of Risk assessment

v  Adequate (acceptable) risk assessment

v  The Stage of Risk assessment based on UK Health and Safety Executive 5 steps

v  Controlling Health and Safety Risk.

v  Common Safety Signs.

                                                                                      

This element focuses on hazard and risk and in particularly the need for the method of carrying out risk assessment.

     It discusses the principle of controlling exposure to health and safety risk and shows some common safety signs, identify their types and purpose by the use of color and symbols.

On Completion of this element you will know

1. Outline the aim and objective of risk assessment and give examples of common hazards?

2. Explain what set up suitable for Risk Assessment?

3. Outline the stages of Risk Assessment?

4. Outline the general principal for controlling Health and Safety Risk?

5. Identify common safety signs?

What is Risk?

A Risk is the chance, large or small, that someone (Not Necessary a Worker) could be harmed by the hazard, with an indication of how serious the harm might be (OR)

Risk is a combination of likely hood and a happening of a hazardous contact and the severity of injury or ill health that can be caused by the contact.

What is Risk Assessment

     A Risk assessment is an important step in protecting your workers and your business, as well as complying (meet the terms) with the law. It helps you focus on the risk that really matters in your workplace. The ones with the potential to cause harm.

     In Many orders straight forward measures can readily control risk.

     For example, ensuring spillages are cleaned up promptly so people do not slip or cupboards drawers, kept closed to ensure people do not trip. For most that means simple cheap and effective measure to ensure your most valuable assets – your workforce – is protected.

What is Risk Assessment

     A risk assessment is simply a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people so that you can assess up weather you have taken enough precaution or should do more to prevent harm.

     Workers and other have right to be protected from harm caused by a failure to take reasonable control measures.

     Accidents and ill health can collapse lives and effects your business too if output is lost, machinery is damaged, insurance costs increase you have to go court.

     We are legally required to assess the risk in your workplace so that we put in place so that we put in place a plan to control the risks.

     The law does not except you to eliminate all risk, but you are required to protect people as far as is “soundly practicable”.

     This element tells you how to achieve with the minimum troubles.

Risk assessments are of 2 types:

Quantaities And Qualitative Risk Assessment:

Quantative risk assessment: If the work is in high hazard industry, like chemical industry, we may come across other system, possibly one as which use specific values, to estimate overall Risk severity and that is called Quantative Risk assessment.

Qualitative Risk Assessment:

The Risk assessor makes an overall judgment of all level of risk, but this is a subjective view based on their own experience and the evidence they have gathered and examined.

This is called qualitative risk assessment.

What are hazards?

Something with the potential to cause harm. May be physical , chemical, biological, ergonomics or psychological.

The expose (representation) to danger, risk, chance to accident.

A hazard is the potential of a substance, person activity or process to cause harm.

Hazard take many forms, including for chemicals electricity and working from a ladder.   

The Hazard can be ranked relative to other hazard to a possible level of danger.

Eg: Heat, light, noise, acids, metals, animals borne, job moments etc.

Most common work place hazards are likely to come across:

1.      Slip Trip and fall:  These hazards are very common and are the most likely caused off work place accidents. Accounting for about are third of all major injuries they are arise.

·   From the physical nature of the floor surface

·   From sudden change of level

·   From substance like oil and obstruction (blocks) such as boxes on the floors.

2.      Falling objects: Material falling from work taking place overhead such as roof tiles, tools, etc and materials falling from racking or others storage areas.

3.      Collision with objects:  This includes walking or driving into fixed objects such as scraping edge of machines.

4.      Manual handling:  This involve the moving, lifting carrying of load such as boxes.

5.      Fire and Explosion: Fire and explosion hazard source include gas cylinders, flammable liquid and dust.

6.      Trapping / Crushing under or between objects:  All or part of the body many be trapped or crushed under or between object’s.

7.      Contract with machinery / vehicles:  This can involve direct contract with a dangerous machine or part of the clothing or body becoming entangle vehicle accident for a significant number of fatalities, particularly from reversing.

8.      Hazardous substances:  Hazard comes from dust like silica, gasses like carbon monoxide, some chemicals, and biological organism such as legionella (type of bacteria) which can cause fever.

9.      Noise:  Noise from equipment and plant can not only damage hearing byt can also interfere with your ability to communicate effectively with other workers.

10.  Vibration: Vibration can occur to both the head and arm when holding vibration tools and equipment or in case to whole body.

Aims and objective of Risk Assessment

     A risk assessment is a careful examination of what could cause harm to people so that we can determine weather we have done enough or should do more to prevent harm.

·         Aim or risk assessment is to ensure that no one suffers harm as a result of work place activity.

·         The aim is to make sure that no one gets hurt or become ill.

·         It is legal requirement.

Reasons for Assessing and managing risk:

Human Harm: The strong reason for risk assessment is to prevent harm occurring to people as result of work place activity.

Legal effect’s: Employer’s have legal obligation in relation to health and safety which, if they don’t full fill them, may give rise to severe penalties including fines or imprisonment. A proper risk assessment may provide evidence to an employer has taken the proper steps to full fill that obligation.

Economic Effect’s:  Employer’s will want to minimize the often substantial financial cost of accidents in the workplaces. The cost include not only this direct cost of damage to machinery and equipment and compensation payments to those injured, but also range of indirect cost such as loss of output, lost of order, increased insurance premiums etc.

Who should be responsible for the risk Assessment

The employer has all the overall responsibility to ensure that risk assessment is undertaken.

The responsibility may be delegated to a manager to ensure that assessments are undertaken in his department.

This is a satisfactory providing the manger has power to do something about any issued identified by the risk assessment.

Who should undertake the Risk Assessment

The Risk assessment should be undertaken by someone with the competence to do so they must.

1.      Understand enough about the work to identify the hazard involved.

2.      Be able to access the risk

3.      Be able to identify existing control and any further control need.

Who Should involved in the Risk Assessment Processes

Those who are exposed to the risk, especially the worker must directly affected should be involved in the risk assessment.

They are likely to now far more about the process or situation which give rise to risk than anyone else.

The worker may have noticed things that are not immediately noticeable to the assessor.

They may have already developed their own solution to protect themselves from the risk which the risk assessor can consider.

Who should involve in the Risk Assessment process

Where available Health and Safety representative should also be consulted and involved in the risk assessment process.

·         Does it identify al significant hazard?

·         Is it current?

·         Does it identify all people who may be affected?

·         Does it record all significant findings?

·         Is there a need to undertake general and specific risk assessment?

5 Step’s of Risk Assessment

1. Identify Hazard

2. Decide who may be harmed and how

3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions

4. Record your finding and implement them

5. Review your assessment and update if necessary.

Flow Chart of Risk Assessment

Identify the Hazards

First you need to work out how people could be harmed when you work in a place every day it is easy to overlook some hazards. So, here are some tips to help you identify the one that matters.

·         Walk around: Your work place and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm.

·         Ask your employees:  Ask your employees or their representative what they think. They may have noticed things that are not immediately clear to you.

·         Check manufacturers instruction: or data sheet for chemicals and equipments as they can be very helpful in indicating out the hazards and putting them in their true angle.

·         Have a look back : Have a look back at your accident and ill health a records these often help to identify the less noticeable hazards.

·         Remember To think about long term hazards:  Remember to thing about long term hazards to health Eg: High level of noise to harmful bodies as well as safety hazards.

Identify the Hazards

1.      Work place inspections

2.      Talking to workforce

3.      Non inspection techniques

4.      Combined (collective techniques)

5.      Examination of Documentation

6.      Accident, ill health or Near miss Data.

Who may be Harmed and How?

For each hazard you need to be clear about who might be harmed it will be help you identify the best way of managing the risk.

     That doesn’t mean listing every one by name, but fairly identifying groups of people.

Remember some workers have particular requirement ex: new and young workers, new or expected mothers and people with disabilities may be at particular risk.

Extra understood will be need for: cleaners, visitors, contractors, maintenance, workers, etc who may not be in the workplace all the time.

Members of the public, if they could be hurt by your activities if your share workplace you will need to think about how your work affects others present, as well as how their work effects  your staff talk to them and ask your staff if they can think of anyone you may have missed.

     In each case identify how they might be harmed, i.e., what type of injury or ill health might occurs.

Who may be Harmed and How?

1.      What are the hazards?

2.      How likely to occur?

3.      Consequences (Movement)

4.      Number of employees exposed?

5.      Frequency of expose  (Picture)

6.      Effects of Contact?

7.      Competence (Know How)

8.      Existing (Remaining) Controls?

Special at Risk Group

Consider groups who may be especially at risk.

1.      The Disabled

2.      Pregnant workers

3.      Children

4.      Young workers

Severity	Likelihood
1= minor injury no time lost	1=very unlikely (doubt)
2= Minor injury, under 3 days	2= unlikely
3= injury, non disabling illness, over 3 days	3= likely (possible)
4= Major disability injury	4= very likely
5= fatality	5= Certain (confident)

Risk= Severity * Likelihood

1-7 Low Risk                            8-14 Medium Risk                                        15-25 High Risk

Evaluate risk and decide on precautions

After Marked the hazards then you have to decide what to do about them

The law requires you to do everything “Reasonably practicable” to protect people from harm. You can work this out for yourself, but the simple way is to compare what you are doing with good practice.

     First look at what you are already doing; think about what controls you have in place and how the work is organized. Then compare this with the good practice and see if there is more you should be doing to bring yourself up to standard.

     Asking yourself this, Study:

·         Can I get clear of the hazard altogether?

·         If not how can I control this risk so that ham is unlikely doubtful? When controlling risks, apply the principles below.

·         Issue personal protective equipment (ex: Clothing, footwear, goggles etc.)

·         Provide welfare facilities ex: first aid and washing facilities for removal of infections.

·         Improving health and safety need not cost a lot.

For Instance placing a mirror on a dangerous blind corner to help prevent vehicle accidents is a low cost precaution considering the risk failure to take simple precautions can cost you a lot more if an accident does happen.

Evaluate risk and existing precautions

When evaluating existing controls they may be consider under two headings:-

Workplace precautions (WP): Action which are taken to reduce identified risk to an acceptable level. They are risk control measures. Ex. Machinery guards, ppe, Safe system of work, First Aid, Training ventilation, job rotation good hygiene practice

Risk control system (RCSC): These are the system required to ensure that the workplace precautions continue to operate Ex: REC for machinery guarding would be regularly inspections, for ppe training, storage Etc.

Record the Finding

Putting the results of your risk assessment in to practice will make a difference when looking after people and your business.

     Writing down the results of your risk assessment, and sharing them with your staff, encourages you to do this.

     When writing down your results, keep it simple, for ex: weekly housekeeping checks, or fume or welding: local exhaust ventilation used and regularly checked.

We do not expect assessment to be perfect, but it must be suitable and sufficient. You need to be able to show that.

·         A proper check has made

·         You asked who might be affected

·         You give out all the clear important hazards, taking into account the number of people who could be involved

·         The precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk is low

·         You involved your staff or their representative in the process.

Record the Finding

The significant hazards should be recorded and small hazards and risk can be ignored.

·         The number of people affected

·         The Adequacy (Suitability) of present controls.

·         Any further precautions necessary.

Review your Risk Assessments

Review your risk assessments and update if necessary, few workplace stay the same earlier or later, you will bring in a new equipment, substances and procedures that could lead to new hazards.

     It makes sense to review what you are doing on the continuing basis

Look at your risk assessment and think about:

·         Weather there has been any changes?

·         Are there improvements you still need to make?

·         Have your workers marked a problem?

·         Have you learnt anything from accidents or near misses?

·         Make sure your risk assessment stays up to date.

When you are running a business it’s all too easy to forget about reviewing your risk assessment until something has gone wrong and it’s too late.

During the year, if there is a significant change don’t wait.

·         Check your risk assessment and where necessary modify it.

·         If possible, it is best to think about the risk assessment when you are planning your change – that way you leave yourself more flexibility.

Reviewing Assessment and Revise if necessary

The Change of situation that requires a Risk Assessment to be reviewed could be:

1.      After the incident / Accident

2.      Changes in process

3.      Changes in materials

4.      Change in premises

5.      Change in personnel

6.      Change in legislation

7.      Changes in work pattern

8.      Prosecution/ enforcement action

9.      Policy review

10.  Professional advise

11.  New plant or technology

12.  New information become available

Controlling Health and Safety Risk

When risk cannot be avoided the risk assessment that we have discussed should be carried out to decide what controls should be introduced.

It is always better to deal with a risk source (Cause)

1.      Elimination / Reduce

2.      Substitute/ Replacement

3.      Isolation/ Separation

4.      Engineering controls

5.      Safe system of work

6.      Information, instruction, training and supervision.

7.      Personnel protective equipment.

Risk Assessment Summary

Factors to be considered.

1.      Hazards involved

2.      Likelihood and severity of harm

3.      Number of employee involved

4.      Frequency of contact

5.      Competence of persons carrying out activities

6.      Competence of person carrying out risk assessment.

7.      Elevation of present control measures.

Common Safety Signs

Sometimes where risk can’t be avoided and even through controls have been put place to reduce the risk it may still be necessary to warn workers and others of any risk which exists

Safety signs provide a clear warning of some times give advice. They should be displayed in a noticeable location close to the hazard. The signs should be clearly display the meaning of the hazard.

Specific designs for safety signs are used in many countries for specific situations.

1.      Prohibition Signs: These are used to stop dangerous behavior. They are round with a black character on a white background with red border and cross wise line.

2.      Warning signs: These are giving warning of hazard or danger warning signs are triangular with a black character on a yellow background with black border.

3.      Mandatory signs: These sings require specific behavior for Ex.

§  Ear protection must worn

§  Safety helmets must be worn in this area

§  Face shield must be worn in this area.

They are round with a white character on a blue background.

4.      Emergency Escape or first aid Signs: (Safe conditions Signs): These signs give information on emergency exists. Escape routes first aid, or rescue facilities. They are rectangular or square with a white character on a green background.

Night Shift Working

The factors to be considered when measuring the risk to workers on the night shift take account of:

1.      Hours worked and recovery period between shifts

2.      Level of supervision required contact for long working.

3.      Contact to specialist advice

4.      Emergency arrangements/ first aid  facilities

5.      Contact to welfare facilities

6.      Work environment Ex: Lightning levels, temperature etc.