Workplace Health and Safety Inspections Principles

The aim of an inspection is to perform a systematic examination of the physical conditions and behaviors of the workers in a particular work area with the aim of discovering deviations from a prescribed set of conditions or standards and then recommending corrective actions on the discovery of these deviations.

After the developing of a suitable inspection checklist it will be possible to identify a variety of at risk conditions and practices. It is important to remember that the root causes needs to be identified during the inspection to reduce the risk of defects and, future accidents.

The discovery of safety hazards during inspections are generally easier than discovering health hazards because they are usually more obvious and visible as a result of the fact that they normally will have an immediate result where health hazards would mostly result in delayed consequences.

Inspection Principles

When conducting inspections, following basic inspection principles should guide the activities:

1. The presence of any immediate risk should be pointed out to the supervisor on the spot for corrective action. Items with a lower risk exposure can await the final report for action. In some cases it may even be necessary to obtain a signature from the supervisor in charge that the risk was pointed out.
2. The inspector should not attempt to operate equipment, even if he is capable of doing so. The operator should be requested to demonstrate the equipment if needed. The inspector should also establish the knowledge of the operator of the dangers may be present when operating a particular machine.
3. Inspectors should not ignore any item because of a lack of personal knowledge to make an accurate judgement of safety. Asking the operator or technical specialist about this may be the trigger needed to rectify the at risk condition or practice.
4. It is important to look in all directions, including up, down, around and inside the equipment and the areas. The key to successful inspections is to be inquisitive, methodical and thorough.
5. Note all at risk conditions and practices and its accurate position in the inspection notes. Make a record of what have been included and excluded the examination to ensure that the exclusions can be covered in subsequent inspections.
6. Ask lots of questions and wait for the answer. Be alert to the habit of asking questions and not waiting for an answer, as the answer may appear to be obvious to the inspector. The answer received could reveal more than just the desired facts.
7. When inspecting equipment and machinery it is important to assess both the static and the dynamic conditions of the items being inspected. If a critical machine is shut down during the inspection, consider postponing the inspection until it is operational again.
8. Detecting at risk conditions or practices by simply relying on senses or by examination it during the inspection may not be the appropriate means to discover all risks. It may be necessary to monitor equipment and exposure over time by measuring the levels of vibration, exposure to chemicals, noise, radiation or biological agents to correctly identify the risks.
9. The inspection team should utilize different inspection techniques to ensure that all the objectives of the inspection are achieved. These include talking to workers and supervisors to establish their concerns and views. The inspector should use all his senses including the most under utilized sense, common sense, during inspections.
10. The taking of pictures is a good practice if it is possible to do so without endangering anybody. Take note that in some places there may be explosives gasses present that could be ignited by the electronics of the camera and in other areas some machines may start automatically crushing anybody that may be in the way. No picture is worth an injury to the photographer.

Following the basic inspection principles should provide a trained health and safety inspector with a very good foundation to ensure that a significant reduction in the risk profile of the inspected workplace can result from the corrective actions identified during the inspection.

© 2009 Carl Marx