Hazard Recognition and Assessment

A hazard is a condition, situation, practice or a combination of all these that causes injury or illness to people or damage to property. Hazards that are uncontrolled could cause issues that range from minor illness to hazardous consequences or even death to some individuals.

Business owners must pay serious attention to hazards as it could harm workers. Identifying, assessing and controlling hazards are vital part of a quality safety program. Hazards could be classified into two: Health hazards and safety hazards. Health Hazards could be further classified to 1) Chemical hazards — any form of chemical such as compressed gases, lead, solvents and others. 2) Physical Hazards-- Noise, heat, vibration, radiation and cold. 3) Ergonomic Hazards -- Design of the jobs that involve repetition, force and posture. 4) Biological—Toxins produced by living things that could cause diseases or illness in humans (e.g., viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites and insects). 

Safety Hazards could be further classified into 1) Machine: Hazards from machines include injury from a moving part of a machine like rotating shafts, pulleys, belts, blades and saws. 2) Energy: energy hazards could include hydraulic pressure, steam, pneumatic, and electricity. 3) Material Handling: Material handling hazard includes mechanical and manual handling like lift trucks, lifting, and conveyors. 4) Work Practices: includes not following the safe work practice guidelines.

The only solution to avoid such mishaps are to follow the hazards recognition techniques. The more hazard recognition techniques that we know, the more are our chances to recognize all hazards that exist in workplaces. A hazard may not be recognized by a certain method, but it could be detected by another method. Principally, we need to ascertain that hazard recognition is performed completely.

Here are a few useful hazard recognition methods:

• Pre-Use Analysis
• Multi-Step Planning Process
• Work Permitting
• Equipment Inspections
• Suggestion Method
• Walk through Safety and Health Audits
• Safety Patrol

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