RISK ASSESSMENT

Is an essential part of the planning

stage of any health and safety
management system. HSE, in the
publication HSG (65) Successful
Health and Safety Management,
states that the aim of the planning
WMSU process is to minimize risk.
 Legal Aspects of Risk Assessment
• The general duty of employers to their
employees in Section 2 of the Health and
Safety at Work Act 1974 imply the need of
Risk Assessment. This duty was also
extended by activities of the employer-
contractors, visitors, customers or members
of the public. However, the Management of
Health and Safety at Work Regulations are
much more specific concerning the need for
Risk Assessment
A suitable and sufficient
risk assessment should:

• Identify the significant risks

and ignore the trivial ones.
• Identify and prioritize the
measures required to comply
with any relevant statutory
provisions.
• Remain appropriate to the
nature of the work and valid
over a reasonable period of
time.
 Forms of Risk Assessment

A Quantitative Risk Assessment:

Attempts to measure the risk by relating the probability of the risk
occurring to the possible severity of the outcome and then giving
the risk in numerical value. (e.g. aircraft design and maintenance or
the petrochemical industry).

A Qualitative Risk Assessment:

Are usually satisfactory since the definition (high, medium or low) is
normally used to determine the time frame in which further action is
to be taken.
• Occupational or Work-related ill-
health
Concerned with those illnesses or physical and
mental disorders that are either caused or
triggered by workplace activities (e.g. Asthma
attacks) or (e.g. deafness or cancer).
• Accident
Defined by the Health and Safety Executive as
‘any unplanned event that results in injury or ill-
related of people, or damage or loss of
property, plant, materials or the environment
or a loss of a business opportunity’
• Near miss
Any accident that could have resulted in an
accident. Knowledge of near misses is very
important since research has shown that,
approximately, for every 10 ‘near miss’ events
at a particular location in the workplace, a
minor accident will occur.
• Dangerous occurrence
This is a ‘near miss’ which could have led to
serious injury or loss of life. It is defined in the
Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous
Occurrence Regulations 1995 (e.g. collapsed of
a scaffold or a crane or the failure of any
passenger carrying equipment.
 Objective of Risk Assessment
• Is to determine the measures required by the organization to comply with
relevant health and safety legislation and, thereby, reduced the level of
occupational injuries and ill-health. The purposed is to help the employer or
self-employed person to determined the measures required to comply with
their legal statutory duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 or its
associated Regulations. The risk assessment will need to cover all those
who may be at risk, such as customers, contractors and members of the
public. In the case of shared workplaces, an overall risk assessment may
be needed in partnership with other employers.
• The cost of Accidents at Work HSG96
Direct costs: costs that are directly related to the accident. They may be
insured (claims on employers and public liability insurance, damage to
buildings, equipment or vehicles) or uninsured(fines, sick pay, damage to
product, equipment or process).
Indirect costs: may be insured (business loss, product or process liability) or
uninsured (loss of good-will, extra overtime payments, accident investigation
time, production delays).
 Accidents Categories
 Contact with moving machinery or materials being machined
 Struck by moving, flying or falling object
 Hit by a moving vehicle
 Struck against something fixed or stationary
 Injured while handling, lifting or carrying
 Slips, trips and falls on the same level
 Falls from height
 Trapped by something collapsing
 Drowned or asphyxiated
 Exposed to , or in contact, with a harmful substance
 Exposed to fire
 Exposed to an explosion
 Contact with electricity or an electrical discharged
 Injured by an animal
 Physically assaulted by a person
 Other kind of accident.
 Health risk
• Risk assessment is not only concerned with injuries in the workplace
but also needs to consider the possibility of occupational ill-health.

 Chemical (e.g. paint solvents, exhaust fumes)

 Biological (e.g. bacteria, pathogens)
 Physical (e.g. noise, vibrations)
 Psychological (e.g. occupational stress)

Two types of possible health effects of occupational ill-health:

• Acute: They occur soon after the exposure and are often of short
duration, although in some cases emergency admission to hospital
may be required.
• Chronic: The health effects develop in time. It may take several
years for the associated disease to develop and the effects may be
slight (mild asthma) or severe (cancer).
 The Risk Assessment process
 Hazard identification
Is the crucial first step of risk assessment. Only significant
hazards, which could result in serious harm to people, should be identified.
Trivial hazards should be ignore. (a review of accident, incident and ill-health
records will also help with the identification)
 Persons at risk
Employees and contractors who work full time at the site or
workplace are the most obvious groups at risk and it will be necessary
check that they are competent to perform their particular tasks. Other groups
(young workers, trainees, new and expectant mothers, cleaners etc.,). Public
(visitors, patients, students or customers as well as passerby).
 Evaluation of risk level
The goal is to reduce all residual risks to as low as level as
reasonably practicable. In a relatively complex workplace, this will take time so
that a system of ranking risk is required-the higher the risk level the sooner it
must be address and controlled.

 Risk controls (existing and additional)

In established workplaces, some control of risk will already be in place. The
effectiveness of these controls needs to be assessed so that an estimate of
the residual risk may be made. Many hazards have had specific acts,
regulations or other recognized standards developed to reduced associated
risks. (e.g. fire, electricity, lead and asbestos).the relevant legislation and any
accompanying approved codes of practice or guidance should be consulted
first and any recommendations implemented.
 Hierarchy of Risk Control
The Management of Health and Safety at Work These principles are not exactly a
Regulations 1999 Schedule 1 specifies the general
principles of prevention which are set out in the hierarchy but must be considered:
European Council Directive. These principles are:

1. Avoiding Risk  Elimination

2. Evaluating the risks which cannot be avoided
3. Combating the risk at source  Substitution
4. Adapting the work to the individual, especially
as regards the design of the workplace, the
 Engineering controls (e.g.
choice of work equipment and the choice of isolation, insulation and
working and production methods, with a view, ventilation)
in particular, to alleviating monotonous work
and work at a predetermined work-rate and
to reducing their effects on health.
 Reduced or limited time
5. Adapting to technical progress exposure
6. Replacing the dangerous by the non-
dangerous or the less dangerous.
 Good housekeeping
7. Developing a coherent overall prevention  Safe systems of work
policy which covers technology, organization
of work, working conditions, social  Training and information
relationships and the influence factors
relating to the working environment  Personal protective equipment
8. Giving collective protective measures priority
over individual measures and,  Welfare
9. Giving appropriate instruction to employees.  Monitoring and supervision
 reviews
 Prioritization of Risk Control  Record of Risk Assessment
Findings

The prioritization of the It is very useful to keep a

implementation of risk control written record of the risk
measures will depend on the assessment even if there are
risk rating(high, medium and less than five employees in the
low) but the time scale in organization. For an
which the measures are assessment to be ‘suitable and
introduced will not always sufficient’ only the significant
follow the ratings. It may be hazards and conclusions need
convenient to deal with a low be recorded. The record
level risk at the same time as a should also includes details of
high level risk or before a the groups of people affected
medium level risk. It may be by the hazards and the
also be that work on a high existing control measures and
risk control system is delayed their effectiveness. The
due to a late delivery of an conclusions should identify any
essential component-this new controls required and a
should not halt the overall risk review date.
reduction work.
Monitoring and Review
• this is equally true for the risk assessment as a whole.
Review and Revision may be necessary when conditions
change as a result of the introduction of new machinery,
processes or Hazardz.
• There may be new information on hazardous substances or
new legislation
• There could also be changes in the workforce, for example,
the introduction of trainees the risk assessment only needs to
be revised if significant changes have taken place since the
last assessment was done
• An accident or incident or a series of minor ones provides a
good reason for a review of the risk assessment. This is
known as the post-accident risk assessment
 SPECIAL CASES
• YOUNG PERSONS
• EXPECTANT AND NURSING MOTHERS
• WORKERS WITH DISABILITY
• LONE WORKERS
• CONTRUCTION SITE VISITORS AND TRESSPASSERS