The Significance of Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Control

In accordance with the Hazwoper training courses, there are primarily, three steps that are used to manage health and safety at work:

1.Spot the Hazard (Hazard Identification);
2.Assess the Risk (Risk Assessment) and
3.Make the Changes (Risk Control)

Furthermore, each term has its own respective definition, they are:

1.A hazard may be defined as anything that has the potential to cause harm to a person or to the natural environment.

2.Risk assessment may be defined as the process of evaluating the likelihood and severity of harm, arising from a hazard.

3.Finally, risk control is usually defined as a process of implementing certain measures, in order to reduce the risk associated with a hazard.

"Hazard" is something that has the potential to cause harm to a person or to nature. The control process, must always follow the control hierarchy, as prescribed by the health and safety legislation. It is important to also make sure that the control measures do not introduce any new forms of hazards.

This risk control hierarchy, measures and ranks the control procedures, in the decreasing order of their effectiveness. More over, one must also note that the risk control measures, that are implemented for the hazards identified, should always aim to be as high in the list as practicable.

1.Elimination of hazard;
2.Substitution of hazardous materials or processes with safer ones;
3.Engineering controls;
4.Administrative controls; and
5.Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

The Hazwoper training courses also provide students with 3 basic think safe steps. They are:

1.Spot the Hazard: During work experience, you must remain alert to anything that may be dangerous. If you see, hear or smell anything odd, take note. If you think it could be a hazard, tell someone. These lurking hazards could be in the form of frayed electrical cords (could result in electrical shock), boxes stacked precariously (they could fall on someone) or even noisy machinery (could result in damage to your hearing).

2.Assess the Risk: Whenever you spot a hazard, always tell someone (your employer, your health and safety representative) about the hazards that you can't fix yourself, especially if the hazard could cause serious harm to anyone. You could also ask yourself two main questions, they are, how likely is it that the hazard could harm me or someone else? And how badly could I or someone else be harmed?

3.Make the Changes: These changes could be made though, Elimination,Substitution, Isolation, Safeguards, instructing workers in the safest way to do something and by using personal protective equipment and clothing (PPE).