Risk and Safety Work to Be Done

Based on risk assessments, a manager lists and schedules the work needed to be done to create a safe and healthy work environment and to eliminate high risk acts of people. This would mean the introduction of a suitable structured SMS based on world s best practice. All safety management systems should be based on the nature of the business and be risk-based, management-led, and audit-driven. A NEMIRR process should be one element of the structured system. 

A safety management system is defined as ongoing activities and efforts directed to control accidental losses by monitoring critical safety elements on an ongoing basis.  

The monitoring includes the promotion, improvement, and auditing of the critical elements regularly. 

A good guideline for what elements a safety management system should contain is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), ANSI/AIH AZlO-2005—Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems. A similar standard exists for the construction and demolition industry ANSI/ASSE AIO.38-2000 (R2007) Basic Elements of an Employer s Program to Provide a Safe and Healthful Work Environment. 

Other international guidelines and safety accreditation systems include the British Standards Institute (BSI), Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Systems (OHSAS 18,001). 

Management, in conjunction with the workforce, should go to the point of action, carry out inspections, hold discussions, and determine exactly what work needs to be done to make the work environment safer and healthier (by identifying and mitigating the identified risks). Listening to the workers is invalnable in this regard. A baseline safety audit would assist this process. The identification of work to be done to train, guide, educate, and motivate workers toward safe work practices should also be considered. 

The Health and Safety Executive (2001) refers to determining the hazard burden as follows  

The range of activities undertaken by an organization will create hazards, which will vary in nature and significance. The range, nature, distribution and significance of the hazards (the hazard burden) will determine the risks which need to be controlled. 

Ideally the hazard should be eliminated altogether, either by the introduction of inherently safer processes or by no longer carrying out a particular activity, but this 

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Step 1. Identification of the Risk and Safety Work TO Be Done to Change a Safety Culture... 

A safety and health audit will help prioritize work to be done to further reduce the risks of the business. A systematic and thorough audit will indicate the development of a viable improvement plan, which can then be effectively communicated to all levels. 

This Field Work Review and Hazard Analysis system is encompassed within two pages. It was provided by a safety professional employed by a specialty construction contractor that has several crews active in various places at the same time. Note that the names of employees on a job are to be recorded as having been briefed on the work to be done. The checklist included in the form pertains to occupational, public, and environmental risks. 

In treating the risk, loss control, loss prevention, and safety and health management systems are implemented. This includes the safety management function of control, which will ensure that all potential hazards are identified, the work to be done is identified, standards are incorporated, and a system initiated. 

It is clear that this book has only made a modest beginning in trying to make sense of the regulation of risk from the perspective of safety science. There is a long way to go and much interesting work to be done both by researchers and practitioners in this field. We hope that this book stimulates many studies and perhaps helps to give them a coherent direction. 

The directive imposes several obligations on employers, which have to be observed when young people are working under a working contract. As with all other directives in the field of occupational safety, the employer has to perform a risk assessment and then implement the measures necessary to provide protection against a variety of risks. Of course, the risk assessment has to be done before work is started and has to be adjusted in case of major changes of the working conditions. 

For many noncomplex, nonroutine jobs, it is sufficient if applying the concepts presented in the following pre-job planning and safety review outline results only from brief discussions by the people who are to do the work, it is sufficient to arrive at a go or no-go conclusion. If it became the accepted practice that the workers think through the job to be done, plan for the methods to be used, discuss the hazards and risks, and determine whether the risks are or are not acceptable, that would be a highly favorable accomplishment. Of course, if they conclude that the risks are not acceptable, help will be needed and a more thorough review and risk assessment will be necessary. 

For as long as the behavior-based safety literature ignores injury causal factors that derive from (as cited above) work methods designed and prescribed (that) put employees at risk, it can be expected that Mr. Howe and other union representatives will continue to make the case that behavior-based safety is not what some of the practitioners make it out to be. One of Mr. Howe s concerns is the presentations by speakers, of which there have been many, who would have the audience believe that behavior-based safety is all that needs to be done. 

These regulations illustrate a trend that is occurring in safety legislation, which is now starting to move from a prescriptive approach with definitions of what has to be done in specific situations to a more risk-based approach where the precautions and actions taken are left to the individual user provided they meet certain risk-based criteria. A proposed European Directive concerning minimum requirements for improving the safety and health of workers potentially at risk from explosive atmospheres extends this concept to all work places where flammable atmospheres may be formed. When adopted, this will require all employers to carry out a hazard assessment to identify whether a flammable atmosphere is likely to exist and, where so, to demonstrate that appropriate technical, organisational and other measures appropriate to the nature of the operation have been taken to minimise the risk. 

The expression a calculated risk is often used as a catchall for any case when work is to be done without proper safety measures being taken. But usually such work is done without any actual calculation. By means of this formula, the risk is calculated. The seriousness of the risk due to a hazard is evaluated by considering the potential consequences of an accident, the exposure or frequency of occurrence of the hazard-event that could lead to the accident, and the probability that the hazard-event will result in the accident and consequences. 

For moderate-sized locations, I strongly recommend that safety professionals consider drafting and proposing the implementation of a pre-job planning and safety analysis system as the implementation method to fulfill the Management of Change Policy and Procedures drafted to meet the requirements in ZIO. The purpose of a pre-job planning and safety analysis system is to provide a means for supervisors and their staffs to determine how the work is to be done and to study the hazards and risks that may be encountered—before the work commerces. 

When work is to be done in areas which remain occupied, the risk assessment must cieariy define the perimeter around the construction work area and detaii the methods used to maintain the security of the site and the safety of members of the pubiic passing around, under or over the site. 

Where work is necessary directly beneath the lines, or blasting or other unusual activity has to be done adjacent to the lines, the lines may need to be made dead and a permit to work system operated. In certain situations, capacitated or induced AC voltages and even arcing can be created in fences and pipelines which run parallel to overhead lines. When there are concerns about nearby structures the advice of the safety adviser and/or the electrical supply company must be sought. Risk assessments should also be made and suitably recorded, the information being made available to all workers on the site. 

In the cases of high voltage equipment, and some higher risk low voltage systems, applying earths to the conductors on which work is to be done enhances safety. This is to ensure that all dangerous electrical energy is dissipated and to maintain the conductors at earth potential. 

The work activity includes operation, use and maintenance. Those responsible for the work, and those engaged in it, need to be competent to appreciate the electrical hazards and the control measures needed to minimise the risks to an acceptable level these issues are addressed in Regulations 14 and 16. To this end, the person responsible for managing the work should consider the work activities, the risks that arise, the measures that should be taken to control them, and who should be allowed to perform them. If, for example, work has to be done on a low voltage system which necessitates it being made dead , the supply to it needs to be isolated, the isolator locked off and a test made to prove that the isolated part is indeed dead and therefore safe to work on. Anyone authorised to carry out these safety precautions has to be familiar with the system, knowing which isolator or isolators to open and lock off and how to apply the test. The responsible person should also ensure that those who do the work have appropriate technical knowledge to do it properly and, on completion, to test it to prove its safety. 

Moral reasons stem from a developing public awareness that something needs to be done to raise the quality of life at work. Attention is focusing on the ability of employers and project managers in the industry to handle a wide variety of issues, previously seen only as marginally relevant to the business. Environmental affairs, pollution, design safety, maintainability and other matters are now commonly discussed. There is a growing belief that it is morally unacceptable to put the safety and health of others (inside or outside the construction site) at risk, for profit or any other reason. 

Once a task has been identified as hazardous, controls need to be applied. For complex tasks, analysis may be required to sort out the component parts of what is actually going to be done. This can result in task improvements and risk reduction. A formal technique for doing this is known as job safety analysis, which has developed from work study practices. Essentially, the task is observed, and broken down into steps or stages which are then examined for the level of risk involved (Table 6.1). Control measures are then worked out, and the paperwork is then used to generate a written safe system of work. Naturally, the tasks selected need to be reviewed at intervals to make sure that the analysis and solutions remain valid over time. 

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