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Day two of Safety & Health Expo began with a seminar looking at the bread and butter of OSH, risk assessment.
Mary Ogungbeje delved into the topic exploring the best and worst practice regularly seen during her research of the risk assessment process.
Risk assessment is the second most common task undertaken by OSH professionals yet there isn’t huge amounts of research on how people are doing it, and what they are doing wrong, said Mary. “It’s important to look at not only the common things people are doing wrong, but share best practice too.”
Mary listed some of the most common errors as:
Not involving a team
Not designating a competent person
Involving experts unfamiliar with the company
Overlooking possible risk categories
Not thinking about long-term hazards to health (only looking at the short term)
Strictly following a checklist – which may lead to missing the dynamics of the working environment
Trivialising significant hazards
Overlooking second jobs
Not considering 3rd parties
Lack of coordination between employers and sub-contractors
Not including people who may be particularly at risk
Not recording equipment used only on special occasions
Not utilising accident and ill health data records
Not fully assessing the risk
Creating a false sense of safety
Moving from one scenario to another without completing the process
Not taking account of preventative hierarchy
Not prioritising the implementation of preventative measures
Transferring the risk (making a new risk)
Not consulting with workers about decisions of preventative action
Seeing process as a one off
Not supervising efficiency of measures
Not recording the assessment
And some of the best practice as:
Defining the scope
Defining the approach
Deciding who should be involved
Identifying hazards
Identifying possible consequences
Estimating likelihood of possible consequences
Estimating the risk
Recording findings
Ensuring transparency
Ensuring consideration of human factors
Handling uncertainty
Acting on findings
Reviewing the assessment
Mary looked in detail at some of the more complex risk assessments OSH practitioners are now undertaking, including a worker returning to work after cancer, road traffic accidents and work related upper limb disorders (WRULD) in healthcare professionals.
When risk assessing someone returning to work after cancer treatment Mary listed many considerations including workload, barriers – such as medication, information and training, potential long-term impact, limitations to physical ability, psychological demands, travelling to and from work, emergency planning, and fatigue.
Remember: be flexible, it’s all about the individual
Mary also explored the risk assessment process for driving at work after showing some startling fatal road traffic accident statistics, such as the fact that of 833 road traffic fatalities, 23% involved a worker.
Road risk assessment considerations included the recognition of cars and vans as mobile workplaces, training and information, work vehicle design factors eg blind spot mirrors and cameras, and developing safe driving policies.