Hazards exist in every workplace. Identifying hazards in your workplace enables you can take steps to control or eliminate them and prevent accidents, injuries, property damage, and downtime. A key step in any safety protocol is performing a thorough hazard assessment of all work areas and equipment. The risk assessment methodology is aimed at identifying hazards as well as mitigating the associated risks to hazards by the application of control necessary to reduce such risk.
Risk management looks at the holistic approach towards making sure that the workplace is safe for all. Risk assessment is a part of such risk management processes where hazards are identified, risks are identified, and control measures are identified for application within the risk management process. This process is not only regulatory but is also a proactive approach towards ensuring a safe workplace for all. So let’s begin to understand the different types of hazards.
What are the Different Types of Hazards?
1- Biological hazards: Biological waste from hospitals and research facilities may contain disease-causing organisms that could infect site personnel. Like chemical hazards, etiologic agents can spread through the environment via water and wind.
Other biological hazards at hazardous waste sites may include poisonous plants, insects, animals, and local pathogens. Wearing protective clothing and respiratory equipment can help reduce the risk of exposure. Thoroughly washing any exposed body parts and equipment is essential to prevent infection. Types of things you may be exposed to include blood and other body fluids, fungi and mould, bacteria and viruses, plants, insect bites, animals, and bird droppings.
2- Chemical hazards: Chemical hazards arise when workers are exposed to any chemical preparation in the workplace in any form whether solid, liquid, or gas. Some of the chemicals are relatively safe, while some chemicals are less harmful. Others can cause health issues, illnesses, skin irritation, or breathing problems, particularly for more sensitive workers. Be beware around liquids like cleaning products, acids, paints, and solvents, especially if they are in an unlabeled containers. Be cautious of vapours and fumes that come from welding or exposure to solvents. Such as gases like propane, acetylene, carbon monoxide, and helium. Flammable materials like gasoline and solvents, explosive chemicals and pesticides.
3- Physical hazards: Among all the hazards in your organization, physical hazards might be the most difficult to recognize. Despite their name, physical hazards aren’t always something that you can see or touch. Common physical hazards include radiation, including ionizing, EMFs, microwaves, and radio waves. High exposure to sunlight and ultraviolet rays. Exposure to hot and cold temperature extremes. Constant loud noises. Accidents involving physical hazards can cause direct injuries to workers and may also lead to the creation of additional hazards.
4- Psychological hazards: Good work is good for people’s mental health and well-being. It offers structure and purpose, a sense of identity, and opportunities to develop skills and boosts feelings of self-worth. There are some circumstances, however, where work has undesirable impacts on health and well-being. Psychological hazards can involve bullying, mental stress, fatigue, overseas work, remote or isolated work, changes in the workplace, violence at work, or aggression from customers.
5- Ergonomic hazards: Ergonomic hazards occur when the nature of the work, body positions, and working conditions place strain on your body. These hazards are often hard to recognize because the effects of the strain or harm may not be immediately noticed. Short-term exposure can lead to sore muscles while long-term exposure can result in serious long-term health issues.
Ergonomic hazards consist of improperly adjusted workstations and chairs, frequent lifting, poor posture, awkward movements, especially if they are repetitive, repeating the same movements over and over, using excessive force, especially if done repeatedly, and exposure to vibration.
6- Safety hazards: Safety hazards are the most common and can be found in most workplaces at one time or another. They involve unsafe conditions that pose a risk of injury, illness, or death. Examples of safety hazards in the workpace include spills on the floor, tripping hazards like blocked aisles or cords, running across the floor, and working from heights, including ladders, scaffolds, roofs, or any raised work area. Unguarded machinery and moving machinery parts, removed guards, or moving parts that workers can accidentally come into contact with, electrical hazards, missing ground pins, improper wiring, confined spaces, and machinery-related risk such as lockout-tagout, boiler safety, and powered industrial trucks.
How to Manage Health and Safety Risks Effectively?
For managing health and safety risks effectively, risk assessment is a must to identify hazards and minimize risks. Risk assessment is a systematic investigation and analysis of potential risks combined with the assignment of severities of possibilities and consequences. These are used to rate the risk in order to prioritize the mitigation of high risks. A simple six-step approach to risk assessment involves identifying the hazards, identifying the risks, assessing the risks, controlling the risks, documenting the process and monitoring and reviewing.
- Identify The Hazards– Examine the work area or consider the task or process and identify any hazards or potential threats to health and safety. Some of the examples of workplace hazards are mechanical, trapping which means crushing, drawing in and shearing injuries.
- Identify The Risk– Risk is the potential consequence of a hazard relating to the possibility of injury, illness, damage or loss as a result of the hazard. Identify factors that may be contributing to the risk.
- Assess the Risk- Once a hazard has been identified, the likelihood and possible severity of injury or harm must be assessed before determining how best to minimize the risk. High-risk hazards must be addressed more urgently than low-risk situations.
- Control The Risk- Risk control involves implementing several measures drawn from various options. The hierarchy prioritizes control measures in decreasing order of effectiveness, to eliminate entire hazards and move towards that rely on personal protection.
- Monitor and Review– Continue to review and monitor the risk management process to identify new hazards and continuously review the effectiveness of controls through physical workplace inspections, exposure assessments, injury and illness tracking, medical assessments, accidental or incident investigation reports, employee feedback and input. The risk assessment is best carried out by people working in the area as they know the problems and dangers they face.
Bottom-Line
Risk management strategies help companies be prepared for unexpected events and surprises and that can include creating a healthy, safe and secure work environment, increasing operational excellence in your business, protecting your supply chain, protecting your critical assets and establishing prevention strategies and contingency plans. This methodology is vital for identifying specific workplace hazards and establishing effective control measures to mitigate risks, ensuring employee safety and compliance with health and safety regulations.
