About Hazard Assessment
Hazard Assessment, Elimination and Control is an important part of the overall regulatory approach to workplace safety in many Canadian jurisdictions, and in many countries.
Identify & Assess Hazards
Hazard assessment should be an essential part of your organization’s safety culture and safety management systems. Hazard assessment methods will help reduce injuries and illnesses in your workplace. Employers need to consider their practices relating to hazard assessment and continually review and improve these practices.
Hazard assessment is about identifying and assessing hazards... then dealing with them. That is, taking steps to eliminate the hazards in the first place, or, if they can’t be eliminated, then controlling them to an acceptable degree.
In Alberta, all employers must conduct hazard assessments. Results must be documented and communicated to workers.
Where the hazard assessment identifies an actual or potential hazard to workers, reasonable measures must be taken either to eliminate the hazard or, where elimination is not practicable, to control it.
The employer is expected to implement a “hierarchy of controls,” looking first at elimination, then at engineering controls and administrative controls, and finally at personal protective equipment (PPE). Implementation of control measures will involve documentation, creation of procedures and training.
Putting a Priority on Hazard Assessment
In order to place a higher priority on hazard assessment in your workplace, consider these points:
- find out from regulatory authorities and industry peers what you will have to do to be in compliance with the legislated requirements for Hazard Identification, Assessment, Elimination and Control
- conduct and document hazard assessments regularly
- learn more about practical methods for meeting legislated requirements
- involve your workers in the process of conducting and implementing hazard assessments
Communication on Hazards
Hazard communication should begin with the worker’s orientation when they first start work, and continue through formal training — and on a day-to-day, task-specific and site-specific basis.
Workers must be informed of hazards they will face and the procedures needed to effectively mitigate or control those hazards. This can be done through a variety of means — but the most effective is through pre-job safety planning. Before each shift, or each task, the work team should identify hazards and the specific procedures and measures that will be followed to deal with them.
Example: A worker at a pulp and paper mill was attempting to repair a problem with a pressure cyclone that was plugged. The worker was not informed that approximately 4,500 litres of 90°C water had been pumped into the cyclone a short time earlier. When he opened a manhole cover to get at the problem, he was sprayed with hot water and woodfibre and suffered first and second degree burns to 15% of his body. The company pleaded guilty to one count of failing to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker and was fined $100,000.
It is vital that the employer establish:
- clear lines and divisions of authority (e.g., which person or team is in charge of the job task at hand)
- reporting requirements (e.g., incident and near-miss reporting, worker reporting on job tasks or issues to supervisors), and
- systems to ensure that adequate information is communicated on a timely and effective basis to everyone who needs it to do the work safely
Taking Further Steps – Risk Assessment Practices
OH & S due diligence is essentially risk-based. The employer’s general duty is to “ensure as far as reasonably practicable” the health and safety of its workers. What’s reasonable certainly depends on risk. Greater care must be taken where there is high risk of injury; conversely, less care need be taken where the risk of injury is minimal, e.g., many office environments. (Note: this doesn’t mean that taking reasonable care is unnecessary for office environments, just that greater care is necessary at worksites where there is clearly a higher risk for injury incidents.)
Organizations that have good risk assessment processes are usually in a stronger position to show due diligence. If something goes wrong and a serious injury results, the risk assessment for that task (well-documented, of course) would be the keystone of the due diligence defence.
Risk-Based Hazard Assessment
1. Hazard identification and assessment (Part 2 of OH & S Code) is of its very nature risk-based.
2. Many parts of the Code specifically require hazard assessments, e.g., Chemical Hazards, Biological Hazards and Harmful Substances (Part 4), Confined Spaces (Part 6) and Noise Exposure (Part 16).
3. Following a hierarchy of controls is emphasized. Where hazards cannot be eliminated, controls must be applied in the following order – first engineering controls, second administrative controls and finally, personal protective equipment.
Hazard Assessment Information and Resources from HATSCAN:
Resources: