Safety management systems risk assessment

The EU Risk Assessment ( Council Regulation [EEC] 793/93 of 23 March 1993 )39 is well recognized as being the leading independent, transparent, and science-based system for assessing chemicals and substances in everyday use.40 The Consumer Products Safety Quality (CPS Q) Unit, formerly known as European Chemicals Bureau (ECB), is part of the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP), which is one of the seven scientific institutes in the European Commission s Joint Research Center (JRC).41 The CPS Q is responsible for managing the risk assessment process. As will be discussed in further detail in Section 22.2.2.4.4, the EU Risk Assessment process was revoked on June 1, 2008 and replaced by the REACH Directive. 

The polarised safe/unsafe of the legislative lexicon has unsurprisingly become embedded in organisational safety management practices and safety management systems. Binary evaluations of safety are therefore also found at the heart of various safety management activities, such as risk assessments and site inspections, and so have considerable influence on the construction of safety in practice. 

Risk and risk assessment are one of the fundamental ways safety and unsafety is managed on UK construction sites, and are prescribed by law. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) require that risks associated with any work activity are assessed before work starts. Risk assessments form the basis of many Health and Safety Regulations, and a standardised format and prescribed approach to the process often forms part of the safety management system toolkit in the establishment of safe systems of work. ... 

In relation to previous BCSP publications about its examinations, these terms now appear more prominently environmental controls safety through design design of hazard control systems risk management and risk assessment techniques. 

Safety forecasting is the activity a manager carries out to estimate the probability, frequency, and severity of accidents that may occur in a future time span. Safety forecasting is risk assessment. This is usually done by means of physical risk assessment, critical task identification, and task risk assessment. It also entails estimating the effects of risk reduction brought about by a stable safety management system. Hazard and operability studies are part of this function. 

Based on this risk assessment, managanent lists and schedules the work needed to be done to create a safe and healthy work environment and 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. This could include having to guard machinery, demarcate walkways and work areas, purchase correct tools and equipment, and set up maintenance systems for equipment, etc. 

It should be kept in mind, that besides providing a comprehensive systemized risk assessment report, many other factors to gain a successliil safety performance in an enterprise in order to diminish accidents are also important such as management coimnitment to safety, workers active participation, safety training, good communication and feedback etc (Vredenburgh 2001). 

The regulatory principles developed on the NCS are in line with the recommendations in the Lord Cullen report after the Piper Alpha disaster. Cullen largely abandoned any faith in the abihty of the law, even in the form of more adaptable secondary legislation. Instead, the report placed more responsibility on means as a Quantified Risk Assessment to speak to the industry in a language that it could understand and to shift the role of the regulator fiwm one of physical inspection to one of reviewing the safety management system of the operator (Paterson, 2007, p. 58). 

The second important part of safety management system is the stochastic model of navigational safety. The model could be used for risk assessment and in case when risk reduction measures are necessary. The model is capable to predict navigational safety... 

Hazard risk assessment is an essential part of any health and safety management system. 

Most commercial airlines have introduced and use safety management systems, SMS (see Chapter 35). The concept helps ensure that aU elements of an organization understand and apply risk assessment methods and make decisions that reduce the potential for errors, accidents, injuries, and death. 

A discussion of risk assessment and risk management is part of this chapter. Recently there has been a significant expansion of these concepts for managing safety and health. Many industries and organizations have adopted safety management systems, discussed further in Chapter 35. Safety management systems (SMS) incorporate risk assessment and risk management. 

The Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems Standard, ANSI/ AIHA ZIO-2005, was approved in July 2005. Much is written in this book about its risk assessment and prioritization provisions. 

Risk assessment procedures in health and safety are legal requirements in most countries and also essential elements of the safety management systems, being they certified or not. In formal risk assessments, the risks are fisted based on their priority in terms of severity and likelihood of the possible accident. In spite of the fact that there is a subjective element involved in such estimation, the process will yield a rational basis for decisions to act on hazards encountered. Further, the follow-up assessments are giving estimates of residual risks for those risks counteracted, to complete the prevention with additional measures where needed. 

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