Risk Assesment is identifying all possible causes of harm and assesing what you need to do to put measures in place to to prevent them.
A Risk assesment must IDENTIFY RISKS and introduce CONTROL MEASURES to MINIMISE OCCURANCES.
HAZARDS are identified and categorised as follows
PHYSICAL HAZARDS
CHEMICAL HAZARDS
BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS
ERGONOMIC HAZARDS
Linking Risks to Identified Hazards
The best way to do this is on one of your own jobs.
To evauate the risk you need to consider the liklehood and the how severe the consequences of the occurance.
Firstly make a list of the hazards you can identify and then a list of the consequences.
With practice you will identify more and more hazards.
RISK ASSESMENT RECORDING
1)IDENTIFY
2)ASSESMENT of the Risk (liklehood x consequences)
3)DEVELOP Preventive Mesures (controls)
4)IMPLEMENT CONTROLS
5)MONITOR and review the controls
CONTROL MEASURES
1)ELIMINATION
2)SUBSTITUTION
3)REDUCTION
4)ISOLATION
5)CONTROL by PROCEDURE
6)PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE)
7)DISCIPLINE
Once you have identified the hazards they can be assesed in the following way and given a score of 1 to 5
the worse scenario having the highest number for example
LIKLEHOOD
CERTAIN TO HAPPEN any moment 5
VERY LIKELY several times a year 4
LIKELY once a year 3
UNLIKELY could happen once in a couple of years 2
REMOTE CHANCE could happen once in five or ten years 1
CONSEQUENCES
MULTIPLE FATALITY 5
FATALITY 4
MAJOR INJURY 3
INCAPACITY TO WORK 2
MINOR INJURY 1
Example: Cleaning a window above entrance door to a busy shop.
HAZARD :- Customer swinging door against ladder.
RISK:- Several customers entering and exiting the shop.
RISK = LIKLEHOOD x CONSEQUENCE
Personally I would rate the risk as follows
LIKLEHOOD 5
CONSEQUENCE 2
5 x 2 = 10
RISK RATINGS:-
RISK SCORE 20 - 25 VERY HIGH- Work should stop until risk has been reduced
15-20 High - URGENT ACTION needs to be taken to reduce risk
10-15 Medium- RISK REDUCTION MEASUREs MUST BE CONSIDERED.
5-10 LOW- Measures to reduce risk should be monitored
1-4 VERY LOW- No Further Action required.
All information above is supplied by Glyn Howard
Andy