Hazards in the workplace

Hazard identification and management

To keep a workplace safe and healthy, employers should make sure there are no hazards to which employees and others in the workplace could be exposed. Employers should look for hazards in advance, as part of their risk management and work planning, so that potential hazards are anticipated and prevented.

In all of this employers should get the benefit of their employees' knowledge by talking to them and/or their representatives (including unions) in good faith about the best way to do things.

Employers have to put in place an effective system for identifying existing and emerging (new) hazards.

• Methods of hazard identification include:
• Physical inspections of the workplace, equipment, and work practices;
• Analysis of tasks and how they are carried out by employees in the workplace;
• Analysis of processes carried out in the workplace;
• Analysis of previous 'near miss' incidents.

Employers should then also have an effective system for responding to and managing the hazards that they identify.

How the employer responds to and manages a particular hazard will depend on the circumstances.

The preferred response is to eliminate the hazard; that is, change things so that the hazard no longer exists.

If this can't reasonably be done, the next response should be to isolate the hazard; that is, put in place a process or mechanism that keeps employees away from the hazard.

If this can't reasonably be done, then the hazard must be minimised; that is, do what can reasonably be done to lessen the likelihood of harm being caused by the hazard and to protect employees. This might include:

• providing employees with suitable protective clothing or equipment;
• monitoring employees' exposure to the hazard; and
• with their informed consent, monitoring employees' health in relation to the hazard.

HAZARD

• A hazard is a situation that poses a level of threat to life, health, property, or environment.
• Most hazards are dormant or potential, with only a theoretical risk of harm; however, once a hazard becomes "active", it can create an emergency situation.
• A hazard does not exist when it is not happening. A hazardous situation that has come to pass is called an incident.
• Hazard and vulnerability interact together to create risk.

Hazards are sometimes classified into three modes:

• Dormant
• The situation has the potential to be hazardous, but no people, property, or environment is currently affected by this. For instance, a hillside may be unstable, with the potential for a landslide, but there is nothing below or on the hillside that could be affected.
•  Armed
• People, property, or environment are in potential harm's way.
• Active
• A harmful incident involving the hazard has actually occurred. Often this is referred to not as an "active hazard" but as an accident, emergency, incident, or disaster.

 

There are many causes, but they can broadly be classified as below. See the linked articles for comprehensive lists of each type of hazard.

• Natural hazards include anything that is caused by a natural process, and can include obvious hazards such as volcanoes to smaller scale hazards such as loose rocks on a hillside.
• Man-made hazards are created by humans, whether long-term (such as global warming) or immediate (like the hazards present at a construction site). These include activity related hazards (such as flying) where cessation of the activity will negate the risk.
• Deadly force or retribution is that hazard involving any protective and responsive-ready threat of harm or punishment that becomes active in the event of a breach of security, or violation of a boundary or barrier (physical, legal, moral) intended to prevent unauthorized or unsafe access or entry or exposure to a situation, to something, or to someone. This includes the consequences that follow trespass, breach of covenant, outrage or moral panic