The control of selected hazard risks. There are various types of hazards to which an organization may be exposed to. These hazards are classified as health and safety-related hazards. All organizations are required to comply with health and safety-related laws and regulations.
Control Of Selected Hazard Risks
It is the employer’s responsibility to provide a good working environment to the employees and staff to ensure that they work in a peaceful environment without being exposed to risks related to health problems.
Organizations engaging in construction, technical work, electrical work, or similar sectors are more vulnerable to health and safety issues. Employees working in workplaces must be supplied with the required training, tools, and equipment to execute their duties safely.
Risks In Workplace
Fire dangers, workplace accidents, falls from great heights, and electrocution are all possibilities. All hazards pose dangers to companies and must be detected and controlled as soon as possible. These hazards are accompanied by financial, reputational, and regulatory threats.
Poor working conditions can lead to employee unhappiness, which can lead to infrastructure damage. Strikes by dissatisfied employees interrupt corporate operations, resulting in financial and operational losses for the organization.
Things To Do To Avoid Accidents
To avoid such situations, an employer must periodically arrange appropriate training and provide a better work environment and tools.
Training related to avoidance of health and safety hazards aim to develop expertise in the application of scientific, engineering, and technological principles and tools to perform technical jobs. Training will provide the underpinning Science and Technology knowledge related to fire safety and enable employees to assess risks and devise protection strategies as they relate to possible hazards. It will also produce a resourceful and competent workforce with a range of skills and experience relevant to modern industry and commerce and in particular to develop a range of competencies and underpinning knowledge for practicing professionals in the field of health and safety.
Organizations must guarantee that employees’ health and safety practices and procedures are cost-effective. When addressing health and safety hazards, cost-cutting should not be a priority. Any occurrence involving an employee’s accident at work may expose the firm to various hazards, including reputational risk, financial risk, operational risk, and regulatory risk.
What Is Reputational Risk?
A reputational risk emerges in a health and safety event when an employee’s injury or death at work owing to poor working conditions or a poor work environment may become public news, resulting in unpleasant statements and comments against the business. Similarly, owing to workplace dangers, the business may be obliged to pay large penalties, resulting in financial losses.
Organizations with a high number of reported health and safety problems may lose market share as customers lose faith in them. Customers cease purchasing products and services from such firms that have weak health and safety practices and do not conduct risk management. Employee turnover is also common in such firms due to the dangers of the job, a lack of proper resources and tools, and strategies to minimize potential accidents and related risks.
As a result, it is critical for firms to recognize health and safety concerns and include them into their entire risk management framework. To guarantee that all identified health and safety risks are effectively mitigated with robust controls, such risks must be reviewed regularly, and the operational efficacy of the controls must be verified.
As part of health and safety hazard risk management, organizations must consolidate incident data which serves as a reference point for the organization to ensure that such events are not repeated in the future. Acquiring loss data may help managers to assess the existing hazardous risks and devise the appropriate mitigation strategies accordingly.
Categorizing Risk
The level of risk is frequently classified based on the potential harm or adverse health effect that the hazard may cause, the number of times people are exposed, and the number of people exposed. Exposure to airborne asbestos fibers, for example, will always be classified as high because a single exposure can result in potentially fatal lung disease, whereas the risk associated with using a display screen for a short period of time may be considered very low because the potential harm or adverse health effects are minimal.
What Are Control Measures?
Control measures include actions that can be taken to reduce the potential of exposure to the hazard, or the control measure could be to remove the hazard or reduce the likelihood of that risk being realized. A simple control measure would be to secure the moving parts of machinery to eliminate the possibility of contact. When discussing control measures, we frequently refer to the control measure hierarchy.
Eliminate The hazard
Elimination of the hazard is not always possible, but it completely eliminates the hazard and thus eliminates the risk of exposure. As an example, since the removal of lead from petrol products sold at forecourts in Ireland, petrol station attendants are no longer at risk of chronic lead poisoning.
Substitute The Hazard With A Lesser Risk
Substituting the hazard may not eliminate all of the risks associated with the process or activity and may introduce new risks, but the overall harm or health effects will be reduced. Toluene is now frequently used as a benzene substitute in laboratory research. Although the solvent properties of the two are similar, toluene is less toxic and is not classified as a carcinogen, despite the fact that toluene can cause severe neurological harm.
Final Thoughts
The severity of the Hazard and its potential outcomes are considered in conjunction with other factors such as the level of exposure and the number of people exposed, as well as the risk of that hazard being realized. There are a variety of formulae used to calculate overall risk, ranging from simple calculations using high, medium, and low risk categories to complex algorithms used to calculate risks at nuclear power plants and other high risk work locations.
