Hazard Identification Steps

Once the preparation has been done that includes the identification of the facilitator, defining the scope, obtain a mandate, establishing the team, clarifying the method to be used, establishing the resource requirements, identifying the stakeholders and role-players, outlining the communication and consultation process and determining the documentation requirements the next step of the process can be proceeded with.

TheHazard Identification Process

The next step in the process is the identification of the hazards involved in the process, task or activity being assessed.

In order to identify something one needs to know what to look for. A hazard is anything that can cause harm. Should one consider the concept that harm is caused when the energy of the impact or exposure exceeds the absorption capacity of the body it is said that a hazard is an energy source. Energy sources can include chemicals, electricity, gravity (working at heights or falling objects), biological, heat, mechanical and nuclear or radiation energy.

For simplicity sake we will except that a hazard, in the context of health and safety risk assessment, is simply the presence of an energy source that has the potential to cause a loss.

Workers who do the job usually know the most about the related risks and should therefore participate in the hazard identification process. The management team should pay particular attention to ensure that groups who have distinct health and safety issues are involved so that no job that concerns workers are missed.

During this step of the process the team should systematically isolate the hazards that are contained in each step of the process by determining the energy sources that are present in the various steps. This may include any of the energy sources mentioned above.

The hazard identification process is the step that should also be used to assess the adequacy of existing controls developed by previous teams.

The first part of the process to identify the hazards involves that the process, task or activity being assessed are isolated.

TheHazard Identification Steps

In order to systematically isolate the hazards one of the methods that has been successfully utilised is as follows.

• Map the theoretical process step by step in a specific geographical area, tasks in a process or activities making up a task, by utilising the existing company documentation.

• Determine whether or not any deviations exist from the documented procedure by involving a vertical slice of persons from the organisation in the process.

• Determine the energy sources that are present in the various steps. This may include Mechanical, Electrical, Kinetic, Gravitational, Chemical, Biological, Radiation and Noise energy to mention only a few types that may be considered. A more complete list should be developed by the risk assessment team for use during the hazard identification process.

• Make a list the types of energy sources present in each step, by clearly stating what it is that contains the energy source. It is important at this stage not to try and determine whether the energy source poses a risk or not, but to make sure that all the hazards have been identified. The use of an experienced risk assessment facilitator is invaluable during this stage of the process.

Conclusion to Hazard Identification

Identifying the hazards is a critical component of the complete risk assessment process.

Once the hazards have been identified the risks can be isolated. It is normal to want to skip the hazard identification process, as it seems to be a bit of a waste to do it in this way. Most people think that they know the process well enough to skip this part, however experience have shown that, if this part is neglected or skipped, the rest of the process becomes a mockery.

© 2009 Carl Marx