Hazard Recognition and Control Flashcards
What is hazard recognition?
Systematic identification of all potential hazards in a workplace
Broad to capture the range of risks workers face
Employer responsibility to engage in this ongoing process
What is hazard assessment?
analysis of identified risks
Worker and employer joint assessment of what to address
intended to determine what is more urgent but shows tensions
What is hazard control?
preventative and corrective measures implements to reduce hazards
conflict in solution via employer and employee (workers err on caution, employers on profit)
What is a physical hazard?
Injuries caused by objects or equipment, falling, slipping, noise, vibration, electricity, radiation, etc
Most recognized and identified
What is an ergonomic hazard?
Poor workstation or tool design, repetitive injuries, standing or sitting too long, circulation, etc
Due to job design
Political: designed to fit men
What is a chemical hazard?
Short and long-term risks from harmful substances, burns, dizziness and nausea, poisoning, cancers, etc
Ex: miners, cleaners,
What is a biological hazard?
Bacteria, mold, fungi, other biological properties harmful to human health
What is a psycho-social hazard?
Social, environmental and psychological risks, harassment, workplace violence, mental stress, etc
What is the proximate cause of a hazard?
immediate cause
What is the root cause of a hazard?
structural designs and decisions that led to the proximate cause
root cause can be nature of employment relationship
What else should be apart of risk assessment?
nature of employment relationship (precarious?)
social location of workers (gender, race, ability, citizenship)
Organization and control of labour process
What are hazard recognition techniques?
workplace inspections, worker interviews, job inventories, review previous incident data, measure and test risks, research potential risks
What are workplace inspections?
Not government WHS inspections
Joint health and safety committees do inspections to create risk profiles
Involves reviewing equipment, insuring safety manuals exist
What are worker interviews?
Talk with workers to learn the hazards they identify
Hazard recognition plans do not work without interviewing employees
What are job inventories?
Catalog the risks for the job
Regularly update (new tech, new responsibilities, etc)
Mostly identifying proximate causes of risks
What is previous incident data?
Requires workplace to track incidents
Primary objective of health and safety committees
Why and how to measure and test risks?
Must test to ensure adequate recognition of risk
Sometimes requires outside expertise
What does researching potential risks do?
Raise issues to management
They must research and maybe bring in experts to assess
What are the technical assessment tools?
probability, consequences, exposure
risk = probability x consequence x exposure
supplement worker interviews for info
What is the probability assessment tool?
likelihood hazards lead to incident, categorize by priority
What is the consequences assessment tool?
severity of injury or ill-health, create priority based on severity
What is the exposure assessment tool?
how often workers come into contact with the hazard
What are the Manitoba WSH act rules on assessment tools?
mandate workers are involved in inspections and investigations
requires procedure for revising every 3 years minimum
what is the employers legal obligation to control hazards?
unclear when to intervene, makes it political and technical, rule is technically as long as it does not cause undue hardship to the employer
what is the hierarchy of intervention? (top to bottom on effectiveness)
elimination, substitution, engineering control, administrative controls, PPE
What is elimination?
removes hazards from workplace, can work continue without the hazard? ex: covid - do not work
What is substitution?
replaces hazard with something less harmful ex: cleaning - switch products, covid - work from home
What is an engineering control?
modification to design of work process to reduce hazards ex: ergonomics, covid - plexiglass and distance
What are administrative controls?
changes to work rules, policies or training to mitigate hazards. ex: standing for long periods - increase breaks, covid - reduce number of workers on site
What is PPE?
equipment to reduce risk, doesnt control hazards but limits worker exposure. ex covid - masks
What are the hazards of trips, slips and falls?
find root and proximate cause
What are the hazards of noise and vibration?
Noise: frequency, duration, loudness: time weighted average regulations (how much damage in a certain time, does not include fluctuations or people tolerance)
Vibration: less regulated, whole body (nausea, motion sickness, heart risk), and segmental (blood flow restriction, tingling, loss of sensation), WSHA prohibitions but no numerical limits are outlined
What are the hazards of ergonomics?
study of worker and work environment interaction, focus on job design (workstation, tools, characteristics of worker), inherently feminist as focuses on how work does not fit worker
What are the criticisms of ergonomic hazards?
feeds into blame of workers, should examine pace of work as well (political economy context), does not address structure of employment relationship
feminist approach addresses these
What are the routes of entry of chemical hazards?
respiration (breathing in contaminated air), absorption (through the skin), ingestion (orally), through cuts in skin (bloodstream)
What are the toxicity of chemical hazards?
ability to cause injury (level of toxicity), local (point of contact) vs systemic (reaction in body other than point of contact), acute (immediate harm) vs chronic toxicity (harm from long term exposure)
How do we measure toxicity of chemical hazards and what does it lack?
LD50 values from animal tests (lethal dose for 50% of rats)
better for ingestion than chronic toxicity (most common route of entry is respiratory)
What are occupational exposure limits (OELS)?
time weighted average exposure value
short term exposure value
ceiling exposure value
note: each jurisdiction sets their own limits
What is time weighted average exposure value?
max average concetration of a chemical in the air for an 8 hour day or 40 hour week
in practice, inadequate testing and exposure max is too high
What is short term exposure value?
max average concentration for a limited period (15 mins)
typically higher than time weighted exposure v alues
What is ceiling exposure value?
max concentration not to be exceeded
What are the types of biological hazards and how do they affect workers?
bacteria, viruses, fungi
acute or chronic, same 4 routes of entry
What is bacteria?
Microscopic organism in soil, water, organic matter, or the bodies of plants and animals (e.g E coli)
what are viruses?
Groups of pathogens that cause disease (e.g. influenza)
What is fungi?
Plants that lack chlorophyll and may contain toxins or produce toxic chemicals (e.g. black mold)
What are the forms of psycho-social hazards? (by severity)
catastrophic stressors, acute stressors, episodic stressors, chronic stressors
also workload (where would this be?)
What are examples of psycho social hazards?
stress and fatigue
feeds into and worsens physical health
What are acute stressors?
time specific events of high intensity and short duration (car accident)
What are episodic (or daily) stressors?
Similar to acute stressors but occur more frequently, have a longer duration and may be of lower intensity (e.g. repeated overtime work)
like acute but as a regular occurence
What are chronic stressors?
Persists over a sustained period of time (e.g. job insecurity)
What are catastrophic stressors?
Acute stressors with high intensity that maybe threaten life, safety or property (e.g. robbery or physical assault at work)
What are the key risk factors for workplace stress?
Characteristics of the job (workload, pace, working conditions)
Level of responsibility
Job (in)security
Interpersonal work relationships
Structure and climate of the workplace (management style, decision making power, job control
What are Karasek’s Job demands-control model?
graph: low strain, active, passive, high strain
passive and active: contributes to active learning and new behaviour patterns
low strain and high strain: risk of psychological strain and physcial illness
What is fatigue?
acute or short term (inadequate sleep) fatigue, may be due to work, temporariness is key
chronic fatigue syndrome (condition): ongoing severe tiredness with unknown causes (chronic exposure and shift work)
What are the forms of workplace violence affecting H&S?
can be from coweorkers, bosses or customers
can be physical or psychological
health care highest then public facing roles
What is workplace harassment?
Belittling and threatening acts aimed at an individual or group of workers
Employer-employee or coworker relationships
Ex: unwanted touching, jokes and insults
What is bullying?
Repeated actions or verbal comments that lead to mental harm or humiliation
Whats the difference between bullying and harassment?
harassment: human rights leg and protected groups, can be unintentional
bullying: broader, less regulated
both: wielding power over subordinate
What are the employers obligations in case of harassment or bullying?
enact policies: outlines behaviours, process for investigation and resolving complaints
unions: grievance process AND employers policy
Prevention: training, creating safe and supportive environment
