Safety Talk Box 05- Introducing Managing Safely (b)-"ASSESSING RISK"

Greetings of the day!

Hope all are working in a safe and healthy manner.

This is in continuation to the e-mail “Safety Talk Box 04- Introducing Managing Safely (b)- “Assessing Risk” dt. 24^th June, 2018.

This is a topic introduced by Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Institute of Occupational Safety and Health is registered in England and Wales. IOSH is a charted body for Health and safety professionals.

With the studies given by IOSH, we being the members of organization can set standards and support, develop and connect our team workers with resources, guidance, events and training. We can be the voice of our team workers and campaign on issues that affect millions of working people.

1)      How the risk assessments are carried out?

We’ve learned that almost anything can be a hazard in some circumstances. So when preparing to carry out a risk assessment of your workplace, it’s essential that you first make list of all the tasks you manage, including:

a)      The location where the activities are taking place

b)      The people involved in these activities

c)       The equipment being used

d)      The activities being performed

You might find it useful to draw rough sketches or take photos of the area.

When your list is complete and you have a full picture of work tasks, you’re ready to use step 1 of your risk assessment and identify which of the things you’ve listed are hazards.

Risk assessment doesn’t have to be complicated- what’s important is that you concentrate on significant hazardous which could result in serious harm or affect a number of people.

When carrying out a risk assessment, you need to:

Step 1:                  identify the hazard

Once you’ve recorded this information you can then:

Step 2:                  estimate the risk

Step 3:                  evaluate the risk

Finally, you should:

Step 4:                  record your findings

Step 5:                  review your findings

Step 1: IDENTIFY THE RISK

Here’s your chance to do a bit detective work! Walk around your workplace to see what’s going on. Look for anything that could reasonably be expected to cause harm to anyone. Examine the location or work setting or tools & equipment being used and the activities carried out. You should pay specific attention to how these activities are being carried out and whether workers are doing things as the should (in prescribed way). By doing this walk around, you’ll be more confident that you haven’t overlooked any hazards that might need to be risk assessed.

a)      Observe the location(s) you manage, check physical layout at each location and activities being carried out.

b)      Assess the activities being carried out, while start and while execution.

c)       Assess permanent (hardware fittings, OPGW) and temporary (tools, equipment) material pieces used at the location(s).

Speak to your team leader and workers (as appropriate) to find out if they consider anything in the workplace to be a hazard- they may have noticed something that isn’t obvious to you.

STEP 2: ESTIMATE THE RISK

After listing down the hazards, you need to know who might be harmed and how.

·         Who might be harmed and how?

·         How likely it is that someone could go wrong?

·         How serious would the outcome be?

It can be calculated at any scale such as Low, Medium, High.

Low(1): minor injuries, required first aid.

Medium(2): An injury required further medical assistance

High(3): Major injuries, such as amputations, dislocation of bones, or death.

Now you can estimate the level of risk involved- whether something is going to be a low risk or high risk.

Remember: Risk= likelihood × consequence.

STEP 3: EVELUATE THE RISK

So now you have estimated the risk and worked out your risk level- what are you going to do about it? International occupational safety and health or labour laws expect all engineers to do every thing “reasonably practicable” to protect people from harm.

Usually the higher the risk level, the more serious the risk is and the more likely you’ll need to take action. To make it easier to decide on the urgency of the action, you can allocate an action level to each level of risk. This way of estimating and evaluating risk is called ‘risk matrix’ approach- it’s a commonly used tool in risk assessment.

Let’s take an example to understand it properly-

Take a scenario, a worker(Name: WD) is working under the tower to lift the tools up to the worker(Name: WT) working on top of the tower. Here, WD working under the tower is in itself a hazard. You have to evaluate the risk of WD and likewise other workers working under the tower.

Likelihood:

1 means: WD is standing/ working outside the tower body and wearing helmet. (1 in 1000 chances of hazardous event to happen)   

2 means: WD is standing/ working inside the tower body and wearing helmet. (1 in 100 chances of hazardous event to happen)

3 means: WD is standing/ working inside/ outside tower body without helmet. (1 in 10 chances of hazardous event to happen)

And by mistake if a lever block (chain pulley) falls from top of the tower with what WT was working.

Consequences:

Low(1): minor injuries, required first aid.

Medium(2): An injury required further medical assistance

High(3): Major injuries, such as amputations, dislocation of bones, or death.

                                                                                  RISK MATRIX (3×3 MATRIX)

3    2   1	3	6	9
	2	4	6
	1	2	3
	1         2            3

                           Increasing Consiquence↑                  Increasing Likelihood→

In this case:     1 (in green colour) means: If lever block (chain pulley) falls from top of the tower, WD will get minor injury (consequence) because (likelihood) WD is standing/working outside the tower body by wearing helmet then in this case, proper control measures need to be taken and reviewed.

Results evaluation:

            Results 1-2: No action required (No further action, but ensure controls are maintained and reviewed)

                            Results 3-4: Action required (Look to improve)

                            Results 5-9: STOP (IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED) (Either lower down the likelihood or consiquences level)

STEP 4: RECORD YOUR FINDINGS

Now that you have assesed all the risks, you’ll need to record your findings. In general, it’s helpful to record:

·         Details of the person carrying out the risk assesment

·         The date and time of the assesment

·         Details of the location(s), equipment and activity they are assessing

·         The hazards they’ve identified, together with the risk level.

·         Existing control measures and how well they

·         Additional control measures and the residual risk

·         The date for review of the assesment.

STEP 5: REVIEW YOUR FINDINGS

As we all know, things change- for example, work procedure upgrades, we buy new equipment and workers come & go. The same applies when new information comes to light such as instrument and hardware you use at site. When changes like these are identified, you’ll need to review your risk assesment. Make sure your risk assesments are up-to-date, taking of any changes or any new information. Where risk ratings are low, you still need to review assesments to make sure they stay low.

Getting It Right

Risk assesment is a simple process, there are some basic rules to follw-

·         Make sure your assesment is suitable and sufficient to cover all risk assesment.

·         Risk assesment involves making a judgment about risk. Better data helps in better judgment.

·         It’s essential to involve the people whose activities you are assessing.

·         Make sure that your risk assesments are relevant to the local situation at your site.

·         Where people work alone or encounter an unpredicticable event, you should consider how competient your workers are to undertake such roles and these risks.  

Research carried out in Europe found that the average cost for a minor accident in 16 times higher than the cost the related preventive measure.  

Always remember that accidents and ill health at workplace can have devastating effect- it can cause small or a serious injury, can ruin lives and your name and fame.  

!! You can prevent workers from being unsafe by accessing the risks !!

So manage your site Safely !!!

THINK SAFETY WORK SAFELY