By Alex (Sandy) Walker
Last issue stirred mixed emotions from our readers then raised eyebrows from the people at the top in many organisations.

This month, we must explore

RISK ASSESSMENT AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Risk management is a five step process for controlling exposure to health and safety risks associated with hazards in the workplace. In many cases risk management is a careful examination of what could cause harm to people including customers in your workplace.

Step 1 in workplace health and safety risk management process is to identify workplace hazards. This means looking for those processes, plant or equipment with potential to cause harm. Workplace hazards are not always obvious. For example, exposure to loud noise over a long period can result in gradual hearing loss.

Step 2 involves assessing the risk associated with the hazards that you have identified. To assess risk, you need to consider both likelihood of an injury and the consequences that may arise from the injury.
The desired outcome of this step is a prioritised list of risks for further action. Various methods can be used to undertake a risk assessment.

One Risk Assessment Method: For each of the risks:

Estimate the likelihood of an incident occurring at your workplace, bearing in mind existing control measures;
Estimate the consequences of an incident occurring at your workplace, bearing in mind existing control measures;
Combine your likelihood and consequence estimates to rate the risk.

Step 3 involves deciding on control measures to manage exposure to identified risks. In many cases, it will be necessary to use more than one control measure to satisfactorily manage exposure to a risk. For example, to minimise exposure to a risk involving a chemical, you could decide to replace the toxic chemical with a less hazardous one, implement safer work procedures and insist and instruct on personal protective equipment.

Some control measures that are of lower priorities might need to be put in place until a permanent measure can be implemented. For example, you may decide that the best way to manage exposure to a risk is to purchase a safer type of machine, with a better safety guard. However, it may be some time before the new machine can be delivered and installed. In the interim, it will be necessary to minimise exposure to the risk by, (a) increasing supervision, (b) providing specific instruction in safer work procedures and (c) erecting a temporary barrier to minimise dangerous access.

The control measures selected should:

adequately control exposure to the risk;
not create another hazard; and
allow workers to do their work without undue discomfort or distress.

Step 4 involves putting selected control measures in place at your workplace. This means undertaking those activities necessary to allow the measures to function or operate effectively.
Implementing control measures involves:

Developing work procedure
Communication
Providing training and instruction
Supervision
Maintenance

Step 5 in the process is to monitor and review the effectiveness of measures.
For this step, it can be useful to ask questions to determine whether:

chosen control measures have been implemented, as planned
chosen control measures are working
there are any new problems

To answer these questions raised from above issues, you can:

consult with workers, supervisors and health and safety representatives;
measure people's exposure (eg, taking noise measurements in the case of isolation of a noise source); and
monitor incident reports.

Have you set a date to review, workplace health and safety risk management in your business?
To find out more information, or receive professional help to comply with the new 2006 regulations, contact a professional in your industry, not just a WHSO consultant.
For professional Automotive industry service, contact..
ALEX WALKER at PROform professional solutions by email on
whso@smartchat.net.au or phone 07 3715 7411.