Occupational Health and Safety Lecture 3+ Chapter 4

Hazard

Any object, action, or condition that can be a source of potential adverse health effects, damage, or harm to people, processes, or equipment within the workplace

Hazards don’t always pose risks in the workplace

Risk

The probability or the extent to which a hazard is likely to cause harm to people, process, or equipment

Risk Perception

Risk perception is how an individual interprets the danger of a hazard and its potential consequences.

- Influenced by social, physical, political, cultural, and psychological factors.

- People may perceive the same hazard differently, which influences how they respond to it

Risk Assessment: What

Systematic process that creates awareness about hazards and the risks they pose, identifies who may be at risk, and how to reduce risk by controlling for particular hazards

Risk Assessment: Why

To prevent or reduce the likelihood of injury, illness and death

Risk Assessment: When

At any point when one is needed before new processes, equipment, tasks, or personnel are introduced; before changes to processes, equipment/machinery, or personnel are made; when hazards are identified

Risk Assessment: How

Three key steps and a variety of different methods

Three steps to risk assessment

Hazard identification

Risk analysis

Risk control

Hazard Identification: People

People can create workplace hazards through:

- Commission: Doing something unsafe.

- Poor judgment: Making an unsafe decision.

- Omission: Failing to do something necessary.

Unsafe act: Behaviour that goes against standard safety procedures and increases exposure to hazards.

Hazard Identification: Environment

Can directly impact you, or can indirectly impact you

Hazard identification methods: Task and job inventory

Job description- the content and hierarchy specific to a particular job

Job specification- The requirements necessary to perform the various functions of the job

What is hazard analysis?

An orderly, analytical technique that examines a system for the most probable hazards with the severest consequences.

It is used to establish corrective or control mechanisms

Positive Tree vs. Fault Tree

Positive Tree: Illustration of how a job should be done.

Fault Tree: Illustration of things that can go wrong.

Audits and Reports: Review of reports

Filed after an incident accident or injury or as part of a safety inspection

Provide valuable information on hazards

Audits and Reports: Audit Infromation

Reviewing records of all injuries, accidents, incidents, workplace design changes, and environmental sampling

Useful source for cataloguing hazards

Step 2: Risk Analysis

Once hazards are identified, risk analysis determines the level of risk based on two factors:

- Probability: The likelihood that an event will occur and cause harm.

- Consequence: The severity of the potential injury or harm.

Consequences: workplace injuries and illnesses: injury

Any trauma, phsycial or metnal, direct or indirect, actur or chronic, experienced by a human being

Consequences: workplace injuries and illnesses: overt traumatic injuries

Injuries resulting from coming into contact with energy source

Consequences: workplace injuries and illnesses: overexertion injuries

Injuries resulting from excessive physical effort, repetitive motions, and possibly awkward positions

Consequences: workplace injuries and illnesses: occupational illness

Physical and mental conditions resulting from hazards (and that can affect the physical and mental health of workers)

Need special attention given they develop over time, thereby making them much more difficult to identify and manage

Step 3: Risk control

Risk control involves determining where and when controls are needed and which methods are most effective.

The Source–Path–Human model identifies three places to control hazards:

- Source: Control or eliminate the hazard where it originates.

- Path: Block the hazard from reaching the worker.

- Human: Protect the worker directly (e.g., PPE).

PPE

Last line of defense when other controls cannot fully eliminate hazards.

Includes helmets, goggles, protective clothing, etc.

Least preferred control method and should only be used as a backup, never as the sole protection.

Incident

An incident is an event that caused or could have caused harm to people, property equipment, or processes.

This includes events where nobody was actually injured

Near Miss/Close Call

A near miss or a close call is an unplanned event where injury or damage almost occurred but did not.

Example: A tool falls from a platform and lands beside a worker.

No injury occurred, but the event could easily have caused one.

Hazard Identification

The 5 types are: Biological, chemical, economic, physical, psychosocial

People as a Source of Hazards

Ignoring safety procedures.

Failing to wear PPE.

Taking shortcuts.

Operating equipment incorrectly.

Failing to report a hazard

Direct Unsafe Act

The person's behaviour directly creates the danger.

Example: removing a machine guard before operating the machine.

Indirect Unsafe Act

A person's action creates a dangerous situation for somebody else later.

Example: A designer creates an unsafe machine braking system that later places operators at risk

Equipment Hazards

Tools, machinery, and equipment can create hazards

Examples include broken ladders, defective tools, unguarded saw blades

Even normal office and kitchen equipment should be included when looking for workplace hazards

Environmental Hazards

The work environment itself can create unsafe conditions

Ex: Poor lighting, poor ventilation, extreme temperatures, etc

Environmental hazards can be naturally occurring, such as severe weather

Created by the workplace, such as poor ventilation

Material Hazards

Materials include workplace substances and supplies that can cause harm if they are incorrectly handled or used

Examples: cleaning chemicals, acetone, wood, solvents, raw materials

Some materials become especially dangerous when mixed incorrectly

Process Hazards

A process is the way people, equipment, materials, and the environment are combined to produce a product or service.

A badly designed work process can itself become a hazard.

Example: A production system forces employees to move so quickly that they regularly ignore safety procedures.

The individual machine may be safe, but the process itself creates the hazard.

Hazard Identification Methods: employee input

Workers should also be asked about hazards because they perform the work every day.

Employees may recognize problems that managers or safety professionals overlook.

Task and Job Inventory: Task analysis

Breaks a job into its individual tasks and examines things such as: Number of employees performing the task, time required, complexity, importance, physical effort.

Audits and Inspections

A workplace safety audit is a systematic review of health and safety programs, policies, procedures, records, and practices

A workplace inspection looks at the actual work environment for hazards and unsafe acts

Quantitative Risk Analysis

Uses numbers or statistics to estimate risk.

Subjective Risk Analysis

Uses professional or individual judgement rather than numerical calculations

Both can be useful depending on the hazards

Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSIs)

A repetitive strain injury (RSI) develops when repeated physical movements place continued stress on muscles, joints, tendons, or nerves.

Four major contributors are:

Unnatural posture, force on joints, repeated activity, pre-existing physical conditions

Awkward Working Positions

Injuries can result from:

Bending, twisting, reaching too far, working overhead, working in restricted spaces

Workstations should therefore be designed so employees can work in comfortable and natural positions

Workplace Illness

These can develop from exposure to:

Chemicals, bacteria, viruses, dust, psychosocial hazards

Substitution

The replacement must still be checked because the substitute could introduce different hazards

Administrative Controls

They do not normally remove the hazard

Instead, they reduce how workers are exposed to it