Cookstown District Council
Environmental Health
Risk Assessment - What is it?
Risk Assessment is a simple concept which sounds complicated. We all assess risk on a day to day basis, for example every time we cross a road we assess:
• The speed and proximity of oncoming traffic in both directions
• The gap between the traffic
• The width of the road
• Our physical ability to cross the road in the given time
If the risk is too great we may decide to control it, e.g. by going to a pedestrian crossing.
BEFORE starting your risk assessment, there are two words which you mustunderstand:
"Hazard" means anything that can cause harm e.g. fire or electricity.
"Risk" means the chance, great or small, that someone will be harmedby the hazard.
NEXT Carry out a risk assessment by following the five simple steps below:
1. Look for hazards, i.e. what can cause harm. Walk around your workplace and talk to your employees (be realistic and only include those hazards which would result in injury).
2. Decide who might be harmed and how. Consider your employees, visitors,Contractors and members of the public.
3. Evaluate whether the risk associated with each hazard is significant and decide what precautions can be taken to eliminate or reduce the risk.
4. Decide who might be harmed and how. Consider your employees, visitors, contractorsand members of the public.
5. Decide who might be harmed and how. Consider your employees, visitors, contractorsand members of the public.
Example
HAZARD?
Spillage on the floor in a small supermarket.
RISK?
High risk of accident occuring as a result of slips, trips and falls.
WHO MIGHT BE HARMED?
Staff, customers, contractors.
PRECAUTIONS
1. Check the floor every half hour for spillages.
2. Keep floor areas clear at all times.
3. A spillage must be removed immediately and the area dried.
4. A member of staff must stay with the spillage until it is removed.
HAZARDS
When thinking of hazards it may help to think about particular work activities, for example the use of a cooked meat slicing machine.
The HAZARDS could include:
1. The moving blade during operation
2. The exposed blade during cleaning
3. Falls due to a slippery floor
4. Electric shock from a damaged cable
General Categories of Hazard
Mechanical: cutting, crushing, trapping
Access: slips, trips and falls
Electrical: poor damaged wiring, wet conditions
Chemicals: battery acid, bleach
Fire: poor housekeeping
Environmental: noise, light, temperature, humidity.
REMEMBER activities are simply the jobs or operations which your staff carry out and the hazards are those things about the job which have the potential to cause harm.
What About the Risk?
OK, so now you have identified the hazards, how do you decide the extent of the potential harm - the risk - you can do this by considering the severity and likelihood of that harm occurring.
Severity and Likelihood
For severity, think about the injury that could realistically happen. It is likely to be fatal or a major injury, such as an amputation or a broken limb; or serious enough to cause a person to be off work for more than 3 days; or simply a minor injury such as a cut finger. Consider the likelihood of harm occurring in terms of highly likely, likely or unlikely. At this stage is it important to take existing controls into account and to examine the way in which the work is actually done, so that failures to follow procedures or use safety devices are recognised and taken into account.
To go back to the example of the cooked meat slicing machine, existing controls might include, guards fitted, warning notices placed adjacent to the machine and trained operators. Also think about the name and type of people exposed to the hazard.
RISK SCORE
Severity Likelihood
Major 3 Highly likely
Serious 2 Likely
Minor 1 Unlikely
RISK = SEVERITY x LIKELIHOOD
However, it is important to realise that the risk score is not an absolute value, just an indication to help you prioritise the risks that exist in your workplace.If it helps to prioritise the risks or determine how quickly you intend to put further control measures in place you can give severity and likelihood numerical values as shown.