Safety Management Concepts

Assignment 5

1. Briefly outline the concepts behind Hazard Analysis and its application in OHS practice.

Hazard Analysis is concerned with determining the probability of a particular hazard giving rise to an unwanted outcome such as an injury or damage. This involves the degree of exposure and the severity of possible outcomes. After determining these factors, likely countermeasures which can prevent or dampen the effects of unwanted outcomes are considered. Countermeasures are assessed in terms of their effectiveness and the cost relative to the outcome cost and cost of alternative countermeasures (Laird, 2011).

Brown (1976) describes Hazard Analysis in this same way and breaks the process into three parts. First, the process of hazard identification. Second, undergoing logical procedures for formulating countermeasures and third, selection of the best countermeasures to implement. This order intends to allow a qualitative technique to precede any quantitative analysis.

The first step of this process, hazard identification, involves the recognition of a hazard. Historical data and accident records may help identify hazards but the judgment of the experienced safety analyst is the most important ingredient in hazard identification who utilises the data and inspection to determine locations with high accident potential, look for hazard indicators (such as unusual delays, damaged goods, cost overruns, customer complaints and employee complaints) and make judgements of the importance of a hazard, in terms of severity and probability.

The severity and probability considerations and comparison of hazards allows the establishment of a plan of action to lead to further analysis and quantification. The hazard identification process should explore the entire work area and the full range of activities which are carried out. The output will be a list of hazards in order of priority which will be used to guide the next step of hazard analysis.

The objective now is to...