Safety Committee Basic Training

MODULE 6: HAZARD IDENTIFICATION AND CONTROL

Murphy's middle name is Gotcha!

In Module Four we studied about communication and how it can be used to improve employee involvement in the company's safety and health program. In this module, we'll take a look at how employees can get involved in proactive hazard identification (uh-hem...that should be hazard analysis) to help eliminate hazards in the workplace. So, let's get hopping!

OK...so what's a hazard?

Before we study identifying, analyzing and controlling hazards in the workplace, it's important to know how OR-OSHA defines the term. A hazard is:

A hazard is an..."unsafe workplace condition or practice that could cause an injury or illness to an employee."

I'll bet if you look around your workplace, you'll be able to locate a few hazardous conditions or work practices without too much trouble. Did you know that at any time an Oregon OSHA inspector could announce his or her presence at your corporate front door to begin a comprehensive inspection. What would they find? What do they look for? Now, if you used the same inspection strategy as an inspector, wouldn't that be smart? Well, that's what we're going to discuss in this module.

The Four Hazard Areas

All workplace hazards exist in four general areas:

• Materials
• Equipment, machinery, tools
• Environment
• Employees

When you conduct a walkaround inspection you're usually looking for hazardous materials, equipment, and environmental factors. These first three categories represent hazardous physical conditions in the workplace. The last category, People, refers to employees at any level of the company who may be using unsafe work behaviors/practices. Management, then, has some degree of control over workplace conditions and behaviors that cause 98% of the accidents that occur in the workplace!

Hazardous Materials

Hazardous materials include hazardous:

• Liquid and solid chemicals such as acids, bases, solvents, explosives, etc. The hazard communication program is designed to communicate the hazards of chemicals to employees, and to make sure they use safe work practices when working with them.

  
  

• Solids like metal, wood, plastics. Raw materials used to manufacture products are usually bought in large quantities, and can cause injuries or fatalities in many ways.

  
  

• Gases like hydrogen sulfide, methane, etc. Gas may be extremely hazardous if leaked into the atmosphere. Employees should know the signs and symptoms related to hazardous gases in the workplace.

Hazardous Equipment

Hazardous equipment includes machinery and tools.

• Hazardous equipment should be properly guarded so that it's virtually impossible for a worker to be placed in a danger zone around moving parts that could cause injury or death. A preventive maintenance program should be in place to make sure equipment operates properly. A corrective maintenance program is needed to make sure equipment that is broken, causing a safety hazard, is fixed immediately.

  
  

• Tools need to be in good working order, properly repaired, and used for their intended purpose only. Any maintenance person will tell you that accident can easily occur if tools are not used correctly. Tools that are used while broken are also very dangerous.

Hazardous Work Environments

Are there areas in your workplace that are too hot, cold, dusty, dirty, messy, wet, etc. Is it too noisy, or are dangerous gases, vapors, liquids, fumes, etc., present? Do you see short people working at workstations designed for tall people? Such factors all contribute to an unsafe environment. You can bet a messy workplace is NOT a safe workplace!

Hazardous Work Practices

• Workers who take unsafe short cuts, or who are using established procedures that are unsafe, are increasing the likelihood of accident happening.

  
  

• Management may unintentionally promote unsafe work practices by establishing policies, procedures and rules (written and unwritten) that ignore or actually direct unsafe work practices. These safety policies, plans, programs, processes, procedures and practices are called "system controls" and ultimately represent the causes of about 98% of all workplace accidents.

Two Basic Strategies

To identify and control hazards in the workplace before an incident or accident occurs, two basic strategies are used. First, and most common is the walkaround inspection. You've probably participated in a safety inspection, or at least have watched others conduct one, so this isn't something really new. But, I'll wager that most walkaround could be conducted in a more "profitable" manner.

Who's doing the inspecting around here?

• Most organizations conduct quarterly safety committee inspections in compliance with Oregon OSHA rule requirements. But, is that good enough? Safety committee inspections may be effective, but only if the safety committee is properly educated and trained in hazard identification and control concepts and principles specific to your company. In high hazard industries that experience change on a daily basis, it takes more to keep the workplace safe from hazards.

  
  

• In supportive safety cultures supervisors, as well as all employees inspect their areas of responsibility as often as the hazards of the materials, equipment, tools, environment, and tasks demand. It's really a judgment call, but if safety is involved, it's better to inspect often. A good policy is to inspect at the beginning and end of each shift.

  
  

• Employees should inspect the materials, equipment, and tools they use. They should examine their workarea or workstation for hazardous conditions at the start of each workday. They should inspect equipment such as forklifts, trucks, and other vehicles before using them at the start of each shift. Again, it's better to inspect closely and often: How about prior to and after each shift.

Inspection checklists...write them and use them!

Use the following steps if you are asked to write questions for a safety inspection.

• Determine the area to be inspected.

  
  

• Ask workers in the area what tasks/jobs they do.

  
  

• Call OR-OSHA Technical Services (1-800-922-2689) and ask one of their representatives to help you determine which rules apply to your workplace.

  
  

• Ask them to send you a copy of applicable rules.

  
  

• When you receive the rules (don't panic) read through the applicable sections and mark those rules that you feel might result in serious injury if violated.

  
  

• Change each marked rule into a simple question. Questions will start with the words: Do, does, is, are.

  
  

• Construct your checklist using the questions you have developed.

  
  

• Show your boss. He or she will be surprised! (You will probably become a safety director!)

Using the procedures above, you'll be identifying most of the same hazardous conditions that OR-OSHA cites during their compliance inspections. That's smart, however it's not the total solution.

What's the major weakness of the safety inspection?

By it's very nature, the walkaround inspection can be ineffective in uncovering unsafe work practices because most inspectors do not take enough time to effectively analyze individual task procedures. Usually the inspectors walk into an area, look up...look down...look all around...possibly ask a few questions, and then move on to the next area. Consequently, the safety inspection is may be quite effective in uncovering some causes for workplace accidents, yet not effective in discovering unsafe activities that when combined to the unsafe conditions cause a majority of all workplace accidents. Isn't it possible to inspect a workplace on a Monday, and then experience a fatality on Tuesday as a result of an unsafe work practice which was not uncovered the day before?

So, what's the solution?

A walkaround inspection of this job site was completed just 30 minutes prior to this picture being taken. Did it catch this unsafe practice? This illustrates the major weakness of the inspection process. The Job Hazard Analysis can be the answer to this weakness. It uncovers unsafe work procedures as well as hazardous conditions because sufficient time is given to the analysis of one unique task. A joint supervisor/employee JHA uses the following steps: While the employee accomplishes several cycles of the task, the supervisor observes. The task is divided into a number of unique steps which are listed sequentially. Each step is analyzed to see if hazardous materials, equipment, tools, or other hazards are involved. Each step is then analyzed to determine safe work procedures that will eliminate or at least reduce any hazards present. This might include the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), using new or redesigned equipment, or changing the procedure itself. A written safe work procedure is developed for the entire task.

Dig up the roots! When investigating hazards discovered in a walkaround inspection or JHA, it's important that you uncover the root causes that have allowed those hazards to exist in the workplace. Taking this approach to hazard investigation is called root cause analysis. Check out the well-known "accident weed" to the left. The flower represents the direct cause of an injury. It's always the result of the transfer of a harmful level of energy from an outside source to the body.

The leaves of the weed represent hazardous conditions and unsafe work practices in the workplace. Conditions and/or practices are typically called the surface causes of an accident.

The roots of the weed represent management's effort to maintain a safe and healthful workplace, safety policies, safety supervision, safety training, and enforcement of safety rules. Think of these as management controls which pre-exist every hazardous condition, unsafe work practice, and accident. Inadequate or missing management controls represent the root causes for accidents in the workplace. They feed and nurture hazardous conditions and unsafe work practices.

Controlling Hazards

The Hierarchy of Controls

When the supervisor or safety professional identifies a hazard, it's important that one or more strategies be used to eliminate or reduce the risk of injury. Hazardous conditions include unsafe materials, machinery, equipment, tools, and the environment. Unsafe work practices include: allowing untrained workers to perform hazardous tasks, taking unsafe shortcuts, horseplay, or long work schedules. To combat these hazardous conditions and unsafe work practices, control strategies, called the "Hierarchy of Controls" have been developed. The terminology for the different strategies varies in the literature, but generally, it describes two general strategies:

1. Engineering Controls
2. Management Controls
3. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
4. Interim measures

Engineering Controls These controls focus on the source of the hazard, unlike the other two control strategies that generally focus on the employee exposed to the hazard. The basic concept behind engineering controls is that, to the extent feasible, the work environment and the job itself should be designed to eliminate hazards or reduce exposure to hazards. While this approach is called engineering controls, it does not necessarily mean that an engineer is required to design the control.

Why engineering controls?

Engineering controls are considered top priority because they may effectively employ redesign, enclosure, substitution or replacement to completely eliminate the hazard, itself. The effective use of engineering controls not only eliminates the hazard, it also eliminates the need to manage human behavior using administrative controls to reduce exposure. No hazard...no exposure...no accident.

Engineering controls can be very simple in some cases. They are based on the following broad principles:

1. If feasible, design the facility, equipment, or process to remove the hazard and/or substitute something that is not hazardous or is less hazardous;

2. If removal is not feasible, enclose the hazard to prevent exposure in normal operations; and

3. If complete enclosure is not feasible, establish barriers or local ventilation to reduce exposure to the hazard in normal operations.

Management Controls This second strategy describes control measures aimed at reducing employee exposure to hazards, generally by designing safe work practices and procedures and through scheduling and job enrichment. Management controls should be used in conjunction with, and not as a substitute for, more effective or reliable engineering controls. This is because they are susceptible to human error. The controls first must be designed from a base of solid hazard analysis. While management controls are a necessity and can work very well, they are only as good as the management systems that support them. Safe procedures and practices must be accompanied by good worker training and effective consequences.

Safe Procedures Work procedures that are conducted in a safe manner are extremely important in preventing injuries. Job hazard analysis is an excellent tool to make sure job tasks and procedures are free from the risk of exposure to hazards. Safe procedures include:

• lockout/tagout procedures
• chemical spill procedures
• retooling procedures
• confined space entry procedures
• maintenance procedures
• vehicle inspection procedures

Safe Practices Some of these practices are very general in their applicability. They may be a very important part of a single job procedure or applicable to many jobs in the workplace. Safe practices include general activities such as:

• Removal of tripping, blocking, and slipping hazards
• Removal of accumulated toxic dust on surfaces
• Wetting down surfaces to keep toxic dust out of the air
• Using personal protective equipment
• Using safe lifting techniques
• Maintaining equipment and tools in good repair

Other safe work practices apply to specific jobs in the workplace and involve specific procedures for accomplishing a job. To develop safe procedures, you conduct a job hazard analysis (JHA). If, during the JHA, you determine that a procedure presents hazards to the worker, you would decide that a training program is needed. We recommend using the JHA as a tool for training your workers in the new procedures. A training program may be essential if your employees are working with highly toxic substances or in dangerous situations.

Scheduling and job enrichment

These strategies use control measures that reduce employee exposure to hazards by manipulating work schedules. Examples include: lengthened rest breaks exercise breaks to vary body motions job rotation limit work shifts

Personal Protective Equipment

Personal protective equipment is used in conjunction with management controls to limit exposure to a hazard in the workplace. Because PPE doesn't actually reduce or eliminate the hazard, its use may actually be considered as another management control.

Interim measures

Interim measures or controls are merely temporary uses engineering or management controls. In most instance, temporary measures can be taken to reduce or eliminate the hazard, or exposure to a hazard until a permanent solution can be applied.

Let's Review!

46. Which cause category is ultimately most responsible for accidents in the workplace?

a. Surface causes
b. Root causes
c. Personal causes
d. Uncontrollable causes

47. According to the text, what are the four areas within which all hazards exist?

a. Materials, evaluations, evolution, preparation
b. Materials, equipment, exits, personnel
c. Materials, equipment, environment, protocol
d. Materials, equipment, environment, employees

48. What is a major weakness inherent in the walkaround safety inspection process?

a. Only uncovers hidden behaviors
b. Does not take enough time
c. Does not uncover hazardous conditions
d. Only looks at observable, measurable behaviors

49. Which root causes below might indicate inadequate supervision in a workarea?

a. Workers violating company safety rules
b. Workers using unsafe procedures
c. Hazards existing in the workarea.
d. All of the above

Answers to the quiz.

Congratulations on completing module five! Now that you're expert at identifying hazards and how to eliminate them, let's take a look in the next module at how to analyze incidents and accidents so that we can turn what might be considered a "reactive" process into a very "proactive" process. If you have any questions or comments, just drop me an email at email.