Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment:  

“A risk assessment is simply a careful examination of what in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm.” 

Steps of Risk Assessment: (IDERR) 

• Step 1: Identify the hazards.  
• Step 2: Decide who might be harmed and how.  
• Step 3: Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions. 
• Step 4: Record your findings and implement them.  
• Step 5: Review your assessment and update if necessary 

Step 1: Identify the hazards

Hazard Detection Techniques 

A. Observation

• It is an analysis of work being done, working conditions and worker’s act to find out working conditions and worker’s act to find out  
• Actual and potential hazards 
• Less obvious 'invisible' hazards Behavioral aspects of workers at the work  place. 

• Rely on observation by the assessor(s) and are dependent on the experience and knowledge of the assessor. 
• Safety Inspection: It is a process of looking for safety hazards, unsafe acts and unsafe conditions at the work place.

B. Failure Tracing Techniques 

• This breaks down a system such as a chemical process into different sections and then systematically asks what could go wrong in that section, what would be the consequences, and what measures could be introduced to reduce the likelihood of the failure occurring or, if it does fail, might mitigate the consequences.

•  Example: Hazard and Operability Study (or HAZOP) 

C. Task Analysis 

•  The process of dividing the task into a   number of steps, considering each step   separately, and analyzing safety aspects of   each of the steps to develop safe working   procedures.

•  Example: JSA( Job Safety Analysis) 

D. Incident Reports 

•  This is a technique of using reactive data. 
•  Rely only on the reported or noticeable incident, accident and incident reports. 

E. Checklists 

•  To ensure a consistent and comprehensive   approach to check all the safety elements   to be covered during an inspection, a   checklist or inspection form is usually   developed which covers the key issues.
•  One helpful method of structuring a   checklist is by using the “4 Ps”, as   recommended by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE): 
• Premises, including: – Access/escape. – Housekeeping. – Working environment. 
• Plant and substances, including: – Machinery guarding. – Local exhaust ventilation. – Use/storage/separation of materials/chemicals.  
• Procedures, including: – Permits-to-work. – Use of personal protective equipment. – Procedures followed. 
• People, including: – Health surveillance. – People's behavior. – Appropriate authorized person 
• Checklists do have some limitations in that although they prompt the assessor when looking for hazards, any hazard not identified in the list is less likely to be noticed. 
• Step 2: Decide Who Might be Harmed and How 
• The categories might include 
• Workers carrying out a task, e.g. operating a lathe 
• Other workers working nearby who might be affected 
• Visitors/members of the public 
• Maintenance staff 
• New/young workers 
• Persons with a disability 
• Persons who work for another employer in a shared workplace 
• Step 3: Evaluate the Risks and Decide On Precautions 
• Risk = Likelihood × Consequence

    Likelihood: measure of frequency at which the hazardous event occur. 

    Severity: measure of adverse effect/ outcomes of the event.

Risk Estimation:

Risk estimation is determining the magnitude of the size of the risk. This may range from being a relatively crude estimation, e.g. high, medium or low, to a more accurate estimation based on data. “Estimation” is used because  

• risk deals with uncertainty and even the most detailed risk assessments have to make a number of assumptions.  

Evaluation: Evaluation is the decision-making process whereby we decide, on the basis of the risk we have estimated, as to whether it is acceptable or otherwise. 

• Evaluating the risk is done by comparing one’s practices with recognized guidance.     

Decide on Precautions:  When deciding on what action to be taken always follow the hierarchy of controls. 

• Elimination -Hazard elimination is a hazard control strategy based on completely removing a material or process C). 
• Substitution-Hazard substitution is a hazard control strategy in which a material or process is replaced 

with another that is less hazardous. Ex- Replacing silica sand or coal slag with alternative less toxic blasting material like sodium bi carbonate, Dry ice etc.

• Engineering Control – Engineering controls are strategies designed to protect workers from hazardous conditions by placing a barrier between the worker and the hazard or by removing a hazardous substance through air ventilation. Ex- machine guards, positive ventilation system etc.  
• Administrative Control – Administrative controls are training, procedure, policy, or shift designs that lessen 

the threat of a hazard to an individual. Ex- job rotation, safe system of work etc. 

• Discipline- rely on the competence of the individual. 
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) – The purpose of PPE is to reduce employee exposure to hazards. It is used in combination with other more effective control measures. PPE does not eliminate the hazard and may result in employees being exposed to hazards if the equipment fails.

•  Welfare arrangements - provide washing facilities to remove contamination and first aid facilities. 

Step 4: Record your findings and implement them.  

It is good practice to record the details of risk assessment. The significant findings should include:  

•  A record of the preventive and protective measures in place to control the risks 
•  What further action, if any, needs to be taken to reduce risk sufficient level? 

Timing/Review of Risk Assessment: 

• Performing a non-routine task 
• Performing a new task 
• When new people are involved 
• When third party people are involved 
• When significant changes in process or system.  

Examples of Risk Assessment: 

1. HAZID (Hazard identification) 

2. HAZOP (Hazard operability ) 

3. FMEA (Failure mode and effect analysis) 

4. FTA (Fault tree analysis) 

5. TRA (Task Risk Assessment)  

6. What-if Analysis 

7. Checklist 

Risk assessment should be Suitable and sufficient: 

A suitable and sufficient risk assessment needs, 

• Identification of the significant risks arising from or in connection with the work. Hazard record should be straightforward based on informed judgment and reference to relevant guidance. Responsible persons should be competent and know legislation and guidance, manufacturers’ instructions. 

• The risk assessment should indicate the period of time for which it is likely to be valid. 

Types of Risk Assessment 

1. Qualitative 

2. Quantitative  

3. Semi-Quantitative 

Qualitative risk assessment 

 “A qualitative risk assessment is the comprehensive identification and description of hazards from a specified 

activity, to people or the environment. The range of possible events may be represented by broad categories, with 

classification of the likelihood and consequences, to facilitate their comparison and the identification of priorities.” 

Example: HAZOP Studies 

Quantitative risk assessment  

“A quantitative risk assessment is the application (use) of methodology to produce a numerical representation of the frequency and extent of (consequences) a specified level of exposure or harm, to specified people or the environment, from a specified activity. This will facilitate comparison of the results with specified criteria.”

Example: Fault tree analysis and event tree analysis

• This is sometimes referred to as QRA or Probabilistic Risk Analysis (PRA). 
• This may use advanced simulation or modelling techniques to investigate possible accidents and will utilize plant component reliability data.
• Quantitative methods are also used in setting workplace exposure limits (WEL) for airborne contaminants.

Semi-Quantitative risk assessment 

Semi-quantitative risk assessments uses a simple matrix to combine estimates of likelihood and consequence in order to place risks in rank order.

• This may involve measuring the exposure of a worker to a hazardous substance or noise which can then be used to assess whether the risks to the workers are acceptable or not.

• The semi-quantitative approach depends on a select team of experienced personnel who have access to accident, historical and failure data to make “professional” probability decisions. 

Risk Management/ Risk Assessment Process 

It is a systematic process of identifying potential hazardous event occurring and their potential consequences, evaluating the hazard, manage the risk to medium level of ALARP risk level and review the finding on regular basis.

ALARP: 

“As Low As is Reasonably Practicable” 

This is the risk that can be endured on the following assumptions:

• They are properly assessed to determine adequate control measures. 
• The residual risk (after the implementation of control measures) is not unduly high. 
• The risks are periodically reviewed to ensure they remain ALARP.

TRA: 

It is a type of risk assessment specified to a unique task consisting of 6 key steps. 

1. Task identification 

2. Hazard identification 

3. Decide who might be harmed 

4. Evaluate the Risk (Quantifying the risk)  

5. Applying control measure 

6. Re-appraising the residual risk

People involved in performing 

TRA:

1. TRA Team leader 

2. JO (Job Originator) 

3. JP (job performer) 

4. AA (Area Authority) 

5. Specialists