Environmental Unit V Article Review

SAFETY COMPLIANCE LETTER 7

A ccording to OSHA, a hazard is the potential for harm. A hazard often is associated with

a condition or activity that, if left uncontrolled, can result in an injury or illness. Job hazards abound in just about every workplace. Some of the most common job hazards that OSHA finds are the following:

■ Slippery floors, poor housekeeping, uneven walking surfaces, exposed ledges, and other conditions that result in falls from heights or on walking surfaces

■ Falling objects or projectiles that strike the body and cause injury or death

■ Tools or other implements that, when handled improperly, result in self-inflicted injury

■ Lack of lighting or obstructed vision that results in an error or other hazard

■ Overexertion or repetitive mo- tion, possibly due to faulty system design, procedures, or equipment, which leads to strains and sprains

■ Temperatures that can cause burns to the skin or damage to other organs

■ Temperatures that result in ex- treme exhaustion, heat stress, or hypothermia

■ Toxic chemicals that, by absorption through the skin, inhalation, or through the bloodstream, cause ill- ness, disease, or death

■ Flammable chemicals that, when exposed to a heat ignition source, combust.

■ Corrosive chemicals that, when they come into contact with skin, metal, or other materials, cause damage

■ Chemical reactions that result in pressurization and explosions

■ Exposed conductors or devices that are incorrectly or inadvertently grounded, causing short circuits and electrical shocks

■ Overheating or arcing of electric- ity that results in combustion or ignition of flammables or electrical component damage

■ Static electricity from the moving or rubbing of wool, nylon, other synthetic fibers, or flowing, result- ing in the ignition of flammables or damage to electronics or the body’s nervous system

■ Loss of power that causes critical equipment failure

■ Inadequate maintenance or ex- ceeding the design capacity of machines, leading to mechanical failure

■ Machines or equipment that cause crushing, cutting, tearing, or shear- ing injuries to skin, muscle, or body parts

■ Vibration or material fatigue that results in a critical safety failure

■ Vibration that can cause damage to nerve endings

■ Noise levels that result in hearing damage or inability to communi- cate critical safety information

■ Improper or inadequate shoring of soil, leading to collapse in a trench or excavation

■ Alpha, Beta, Gamma, neutral par- ticles, and X-rays that cause tissue damage by ionization of cellular components

■ Ultraviolet, visible light, infrared, and microwaves that cause injury to tissue by thermal or photochem- ical means

Identifying these, and other, haz- ards and eliminating or controlling them as early as possible will help pre- vent injuries and illnesses.

A job hazard analysis focuses on job tasks as a way to identify hazards before they occur. It considers the relationship between the worker, the task, the tools, and the work environ- ment. By identifying uncontrolled hazards, you will be able to take steps to eliminate or reduce such hazards to an acceptable risk level. The analysis also can be a valuable tool for training new employees in the steps required to perform their jobs safely.

The Hazard Analysis Process It is very important to involve em-

ployees in the hazard analysis process.

They have a unique understanding of the job, and this knowledge is invalu- able for finding hazards. Involving em- ployees will help minimize oversights, ensure a quality analysis, and get workers to “buy in” to the solutions because they will share ownership in their safety and health program. With employee input, you are ready to be- ing the process.

Review your accident history. Review with your employees your worksite’s history of accidents and occupational illnesses that needed treatment, losses that required re- pair or replacement, and any “near misses”—events in which an accident or loss did not occur but could have. These events are indicators that the existing hazard controls may not be adequate and deserve more scrutiny.

Conduct a preliminary job review. Discuss with your employees the haz- ards they know exist in their current work and surroundings. Brainstorm with them for ideas to eliminate or control those hazards. If any hazards exist that pose an immediate danger to an employee’s life or health, take im- mediate action to protect the worker. Any problems that can be corrected easily should be corrected as soon as possible. Do not wait to complete your job hazard analysis. For those hazards determined to present unacceptable risks, evaluate types of hazard controls.

List, rank, and set priorities for hazardous jobs. List jobs with hazards that present unacceptable risks, based on those most likely to occur and with the most severe consequences. These jobs should be your first priority for analysis.

Outline the steps or tasks. Nearly every job can be broken down into job tasks or steps. When beginning a job hazard analysis, watch the em- ployee perform the job and list each step as the worker takes it. it may be helpful to photograph or videotape the worker performing the job. Be sure to record enough information to describe each job action without get- ting overly detailed. Avoid making the breakdown of steps so detailed that it becomes unnecessarily long or so broad that it does not include basic steps. You may find it valuable to get

Safety Management Clinic

The Basics of Job Hazard Analysis

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10 SAFETY COMPLIANCE LETTER

input from other workers who have performed the same job.

Your goal is to discover the following:

■ What can go wrong? ■ What are the consequences? ■ How could it arise? ■ What are other contributing

factors? ■ How likely is it that the hazard will

occur?

Document the answers to these questions in a consistent manner. Good hazard scenarios describe…

■ Where it is happening (environment),

■ Who or what it is happening to (exposure),

■ What precipitates the hazard (trigger),

■ The outcome that would occur should it happen (consequence), and

■ Any other contributing factors.

Later, review the job steps with the employee to make sure you have not omitted something. Point out that you are evaluating the job itself, not the employee’s job performance. Include the employee in all phases of the anal- ysis—from reviewing the job steps and procedures to discussing uncontrolled hazards and recommended solutions.

Rarely is a hazard a simple case of one singular cause resulting in one singular effect. More frequently, many contributing factors tend to line up in a certain way to create the hazard.

When conducting your own job safety analysis, be sure to consult the OSHA standards for your industry. Compliance with these standards is mandatory, and by incorporating their requirements in your job hazard anal- ysis, you can be sure that your health and safety program meets federal standards. If you are in a state that operates an OSHA-approved safety and health programs, be sure to check state standards.

Putting Your Analysis to Use After reviewing your list of haz-

ards with the employee or employees, consider what control methods will eliminate or reduce them. Information obtained from a job hazard analysis is

useless unless hazard control measures are incorporated into the tasks.

Not all hazard controls are equal. Some are more effective than others at reducing the risk.

Engineering controls are the most effective means of abating hazards. Engineering controls include the following:

■ Elimination/minimization of the hazard: designing the facility, equipment, or process to remove the hazard, or substituting process- es, equipment, materials, or other factors to lessen the hazard

■ Enclosure of the hazard using enclosed cabs, enclosures for noisy equipment, or other means

■ Isolation of the hazard with inter- locks, machine guards, blast shields, welding curtains, or other means

■ Removal or redirection of the haz- ard, such as with local and exhaust ventilation

Administrative controls are the next step to consider in cases where engineering controls are impossible or infeasible. Administrative controls include the following:

■ Written operating procedures, work permits, and safe work practices

■ Exposure time limitations (used most commonly to control tem- perature extremes and ergonomic hazards)

■ Monitoring the use of highly haz- ardous materials

■ Alarms, signs, and warnings ■ Buddy system ■ Training

Personal protective equipment, such as respirators, hearing protection, protective clothing, safety glasses, and hardhats, is acceptable as a control method in the following circumstances:

■ When engineering controls are not feasible or do not totally eliminate the hazard

■ While engineering controls are be- ing developed

■ When safe work practices do not provide sufficient additional protection

■ During emergencies when engineer- ing controls may not be feasible

In reality, if the hazard cannot be eliminated entirely, the adopted

control measures will likely be a com- bination of all three items instituted simultaneously.

Discuss your recommendations with all employees who perform the job and consider their responses care- fully. If you plan to introduce new or modified job procedures, be sure they understand what they are required to do and the reasons for the changes.

Once you conduct a job hazard analysis, don’t assume the job is com- pleted forever. Periodically review- ing your job hazard analysis ensures that it remains current and continues to help reduce workplace accidents and injuries. Even if the job has not changed, it is possible that during the review process you will identify hazards that were not identified in the initial analysis. It is particularly important to review your job hazard analysis if an illness or injury occurs on a specific job. Based on the circum- stances, you may determine that you need to change the job procedure to prevent similar incidents in the future.

If an employee’s failure to follow proper job procedures results in a “close call,” discuss the situation with all employees who perform the job and remind them of proper procedures.

Any time you revise a job hazard analysis, it is important to train all employees affected by the changes in the new job methods and procedures.

Should You Hire a Professional? If your employees are involved in

many different or complex processes, you may need professional help con- ducting your job hazard analyses. Sources to turn to include your insur- ance company, the local fire depart- ment, and private consultants with safety and health expertise. In addi- tion, OSHA offers assistance through its regional and area offices and con- sultation services.

Even when you receive outside help, it is important that you and your employees remain involved in the pro- cess of identifying and correcting haz- ards because you are on the worksite every day and most likely to encoun- ter these hazards. New circumstances and a recombination of existing cir- cumstances may cause old hazards to reappear and new hazards to appear. In addition, you and your employees must be ready and able to implement whatever hazard elimination or con- trol measures a professional consul- tant recommends. ■

➤ Safety Management Clinic Continued from page 7