Strategies to Identify and Analyze Hazards

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Chapter : Hazard Management 

Safety Article 

Strategies to Identify and Analyze Hazards

1. The Safety Inspection and Audit

Regular safety inspections and occasional audits are important in making sure the workplace remains free of hazards that could cause injury or illness.

• 
  The inspection examines conditions in the workplace to identify hazards. This is what the safety committee typically performs each quarter.
• The audit evaluates the quality of program design and performance to better control hazards. This is what the safety committee needs to perform to ensure continuous improvement. We'll discuss this strategy in the Controlling Hazards section.
  

Develop an effective inspection checklist

• Determine applicable state safety & health rules and organisation safety rules for the workplace.
• Review rules and use those that apply to your workplace. Become familiar with the rules that, if violated, would result in serious physical harm or fatality. 

Everyone should be involvedinvolved in the inspection process where you work

Make the inspection process effective and useful-By making sure adequate observation is conducted. Super-vision! Get employees involved by asking for input. Don’t focus on a condition look beyond and see why the condition exists.

2. Observation

It is important to overcome the inherent weakness in the walkaround inspection process by developing and using informal and formal observation procedures.

Informal Observation

Employees and managers can spot hazardous conditions and unsafe/inappropriate behaviors while they conduct their daily work tasks.

What is the proper response… when an employee observes a hazardous condition or unsafe behavior - "Report the hazard. Warn the employee"

When a safety committee member observes a hazardous condition or unsafe behavior?

• Report the hazard. Warn the employee about the unsafe behavior. 
• Conduct root cause analysis to see if the system is contributing the existence of the hazard or unsafe behavior.

Formal observation

Simple observation programs, plans and procedures can be successful tools for gathering and analyzing data to improve the safety management system. Employees are assigned to make observations and report results for statistical analysis.

• The safety committee.group is well-suited to conduct formal observation
• When the perception that discipline might occur as a result of formal observations - Most formal observation programs fail because management gets involved in making observations. The formal observation program is not effective because employees fear being observed and they get confused about the role supervisors are playing…are they merely observers, or cops? Best to keep formal observations the job of employees only.

3. The Job Hazard Analysis (JHA)

The Job hazard analysis (also called a job safety analysis) is an excellent process that separates a job into its basic steps. Each step is then analyzed to identify actual and potential hazards. Once the hazards are known, safe job procedures are developed.

The JHA can be valuable in helping present on-the-job training (OJT). The JHA is also a opportunity for management to involve employees in developing safe work procedures.

Examples : - 

Basic Job Step : Ensure that trailer is correctly spotted.

Hazards Present : Worker could be caught between backing trailer and dock. Worker could fall from the dock.

Safe Job Procedure : Stay clear of the doorway while the trailer is being backed onto the dock. Keep others away from the area. Remove awareness chain or bar from the front of the dock door once the trailer is properly spotted.

Basic Job Step : Check wheels; place jacks under trailer nose.

Hazards Present : Worker could fall on stairs going to dock well. Worker’s head could be struck against trailer. Worker could slip on ice or snow.

Safe Job Procedure : If the truck driver has not chocked the wheels, go down tile ramp/stairs to the dock well and chock the wheels. Use caution when walking on snow or ice. Hold onto hand rails; use ice-melt chemical if needed. When placing the chock, avoid bumping the head on the underside of the trailer. Place jacks under the nose of the trailer. If the dock is equipped with an automatic trailer restraint, push the button to activate the device.

It is important to involve employees in the JHA process, more involved they are, the more ownership the feel. Employees use their “own” procedures when not being supervised.

4. The Incident/Accident Analysis

All non-injury incidents and injury accidents, no matter how minor should be analyzed to identify and control hazards.

• Incident analysis allows you to identify and control hazards before they cause an injury. It’s always smart business to carefully analyze non-injury incidents.
• Accident analysis is an effective tool for uncovering hazards that either were missed earlier or have managed to slip out of the controls planned for them.

Both processes are most useful when done with the goal of discovering all of the underlying contributing root causes.

The two primary phases in the incident/accident analysis process

• Event analysis. Analyze the event (near-miss, accident) to determine what happened. Identify the events that occurred prior to and including the injury event.
• Cause analysis. Evaluate each event for direct and contributing surface causes. Surface causes are unique hazardous conditions and/or unsafe behaviors that may have directly caused or contributed to the incident or accident.

Next, evaluate the root causes in the safety management system to determine if any failure in its design or performance may have contributed to the incident or accident. Ask if the system is failing to perform in one or more of these areas:

• Training. Was training adequately designed, presented, and documented?
• Resources. Were adequate physical resources and support provided?
• Enforcement. Are safety policies and rules consistently enforced?
• Supervision. Are supervisors identifying hazards before workers get hurt?
• Leadership. Are supervisors and managers meeting obligations to workers?

It is so important to uncover root causes for incidents and accidents to prevent future similar and dissimilar accidents from happening. Fixing a single root cause. Can prevent multiple incidents and accidents!