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Key Issues & Common Hazards

Preventing accidents is good for your business. It saves money and increases employee morale. An important part of preventing accidents is identifying the hazards that are in your workplace, and understanding the risks they present.

R-A-C

A common approach to hazard analysis is called R-A-C, which stands for Recognize, Assess and Control. This simple, yet effective, approach helps you develop plans to prevent human, material and property loss. It helps you identify or recognize hazards in your workplace, assess or evaluate those hazards and then implement controls to help prevent accidents.

Although your business may not appear to be particularly hazardous, every business has some potential hazards. Ask the following questions:

• Do people complain of pain, discomfort or fatigue when doing certain tasks?
• Do your employees use tools that vibrate?
• Are your employees required to do heavy lifting?
• Do you have chemicals (cleaning fluids for example) in your workplace?
• Are there slippery floors or stairways?
• Are there areas of excessive heat or cold, or is there outdoor work?
• Are electrical wires or plugs frayed?
• Do your employees work at a computer station?
• Are your employees exposed to sharps, such as needles?
• If you answered "yes" to any of these questions then you do have potential hazards in your workplace.

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Types of Health & Safety Hazards

The charts below tell you about the various Health & Safety hazards. It also gives an example of an injury or illness that might occur, and where you might look for these hazards in your workplace.

Hazard	About the Hazard
Ergonomic	These occur when the work processes are poorly designed for the employee. Look for activities that require bending, reaching, lifting, twisting, pushing or pulling. Example of Injury or Illness: Sprained or strained muscles, ligaments, tendons, joints or other soft tissue. Look for ergonomic hazards in: Tool and equipment design, organization of work, physical demands of the job, design of the work environment.
Chemical	These occur when chemicals or designated substances are present in the workplace. For example, cleaning fluids and photocopier toner are chemical hazards found in just about any workplace. Example of Injury or Illness: Skin rashes, nausea, faintness Look for chemical hazards in: Supply and storage areas, machinery and equipment (fire extinguishers, battery and combustion motors), the work environment (ventilation, spill control and disposal).
Physical	Physical hazards include noise, vibration, temperature, radiation and energy sources. Example of Injury or Illness: Deafness, stress,hyper- or hypo-thermia Look for physical hazards in: Physical demands of the job, tool and equipment design, organization of work, design of work environment.
Biological	These include living things such as bacteria, viruses, spores, fungus, parasites and plants that may become health risks when they enter the body. Example of Injury or Illness: Food poisoning, HIV, Hepatitis B Look for biological hazards in: Food and material handling, kitchens and washrooms, waste disposal.
Machine	There are different types of safety hazards such as: Materials handling - which occur when occur when people transport,move, lift, carry, push or pull objects, Energy - occur when people come into direct contact with sources of energy including reactive and stored chemicals, electricity, hydraulics (water powered), pneumatics (air powered), thermal (heat or steam) and kinetic (motion) Mechanical - which occur when people work directly with machines or work near machinery Work practices - which occur when the work routines, processes and practices are poorly designed and exceed the individuals abilities. Example of Injury or Illness: Burn, bruising, crushing, skin loss, amputation, sprained or strained muscles, ligaments, tendons joints or other soft tissue. Look for these hazards in: Physical demands of work; tools and equipment; design of work environment; organization of work, energy sources; missing, damaged or disabled guarding devices.

Starting R-A-C

Start recognizing, assessing and controlling your workplace hazards so that you can plan to prevent workplace accidents and illness.

Recognizing

Take a look around your workplace for obvious hazards. A good way to do this is by following the flow of work. Start where supplies, products or people enter the workplace. As you go through each area of your business write down the area and a list of potential hazards. The employees in the work area should be able to help. Your OSSA consultant can recommend tools for you to use for this process.

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Assessing

Now that you have the hazard list, assess it!

How serious is the problem? Gather as much information as possible. Is this a hazard that your employees have exposure to every day, once a week, once a month? What might happen as a result of this real or potential hazard? Can this hazard create other possible hazards? Can current controls be improved? Speak to your employees, and make notes.

Controlling

When a real hazard exists it needs to be controlled. You can control a hazard in three places:

• At the source - This is the best place to control a hazard. Remove the source of the hazard, and replace it with something that is safe and healthy.
• Along the path - Create a barrier to prevent employees from coming in contact with the hazard.
• At the employee - Make sure that employees have the right Personal Protective Equipment and are using it correctly, and are aware of the hazard. Please remember controlling a hazard at the employee is a last resort.

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