What is Hazard 

 Any existing or potential condition in the workplace that by itself or interacting with other
variables, can result in death, injuries, property damage and other losses.  
 2 broad categories: 
 Those dealing with safety and injuries 
 Those dealing with health and illnesses 
 
Examples 
 
Acceleration 
 Speeds up or slow down too quickly  
Exposure to Vibration 
 Repeated exposure to high levels of vibration is known to cause injury to workers over
time.  
Exposure to excessive noise 
 Noise is one of the most common physical hazards present in the occupational setting.
Inadequate hearing protection or pro-longed exposure to noise can result to either
temporary or permanent hearing loss 
Exposure to radiation 
 Exposure to very high levels of radiation can cause acute health effects such as skin burns,
and acute radiation syndrome 
 It can result in along-term health effects such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases.  
Pressure 
 Increase pressure in hydraulic and systems and continued exposure to high pressures will
result in confusion, convulsion, injuries, and eventual death.  
Mechanical Hazards 
 Created as a result of either powered, or manual use of tools, equipment, or machinery and
plants.  
Examples: 
 Contact or entanglement with unguarded moving parts on a machine  
Exposure to heat or extreme temperature 
 High environmental temperatures can be dangerous to our bodies. We can experience heat
cramps, Heat exhaustion, Heat stress, and worse, heat stroke.  
Exposure to Flammable materials 
 Flammable materials give up a lot of heat and often clouds of thick black toxic smoke.  
 Combustible liquids at temperature above their flash point also releases enough vapor to
form a burnable mixtures in air. 
 Hot combustible liquids can be a serious fire hazards as flammable liquid  
Electrical Hazards 
 This is a dangerous condition where worker can make electrical contact with energized
equipment or a conductor and from which a person may sustain an injury from shock, and
there is a potential for the worker to receive an arc flash burn, thermal burn, or blast injury 
Chemical Hazards 
 A chemical hazard is a type of occupational hazards that caused by exposure to chemicals in
the workplace and exposure to chemicals in the workplace can cause acute or long-term
deplemental health effects.  
Biological hazards 
 Bio Hazards 
  Refers to biological substance that post a threat to the health of living organisms 
 This can include medical waste or samples of microorganisms, viruses, or toxins that can
affect human health  
Ergonomic Hazard 
 Physical Factors in the environment that may cause MS injuries, These are injuries that are
caused by strain placed on the body from ergonomic hazards and are always immediately
obvious.  
 Making this hazards difficult to detect.  
 
Steps in Hazard Identification and Control 
 
1. Identifying the hazard 
 It takes a hazard exposed from someone to cause and accident  
 Evaluate any particular situation, condition, equipment, or material may have the potential
to cause harm  
 To find and record possible hazards that may be present in your workplace. Identifying
workplace hazards involves many processes. It is more than simply inspecting the hazards.
Before we can effectively control hazards, we need to be familiar with their characteristics
and necessary processes to make sure they are properly identified and analyzed.  
 
2. Hazard Assessment 
 Systematic use of available information to assess hazards in order to determine its effect on
people, property and the environment 
 Best way to assess hazards is to evaluate its risk.  
 Its extremely bowable to includes estimate of the risks a hazards imposes on its employees
through risk rating. Risk rating may be thought as a sum of  probability, consequence, and
exposure of a potential hazard  
 The rating will determine whether or not its safe enough to continue with the work or
whether you need to adapt additional control measures to reduce or eliminate the risk still
further.  
Probability rating 
 Describe the likelihood hat injuries or accidents will occur if an employee is exposed to the
danger point. 
 
 
Consequence Rating 
 The consequence rating of an accident should be based on the degree of the injury or illness
that is reasonably predictable  
 Consequence may also be expressed as a rating. 

 
Exposure Rating 
 Number of persons regularly exposed to the hazards that must be evaluated to determine
how many workers would ordinarily exposed to the hazards. 
 
 
To calculate the risk rating 
 
RR = CR+ + PR+ ER 
 Afterwards classify the hazards 

 
  This provide a consistent guide for corrective action specifying which hazardous condition,
warrant immediate action which has secondary priority and which it can be addressed in the
future.   
 
Where do we begin the assessment 
 Review the accident or illness report in the workplace 
 This will guide us in what areas that seem to have more accidents and injuries. The time of
injuries at which it occurs more frequently  
 Then perform a walkthrough of the area and start looking for hazards  
Sources o Workplace Hazard Information  
 Those who are familiar with the plant operation and the hazard associated with them 
 Hazard information from manufacturers, industrial equipment, tools, and machinery
acquired by the company  
 Accident and old inspection reports either internal or external  
 Material Data Sheets 
 Technical and Professional associations 
 
3. Hazard Control 
 Measures taken to eliminate or reduced the risk of hazards in the workplace since the
hazards assessment process establishes the probability the hazards could lead to an
accident and how serious it could be the assessment team must choose and appropriate
solution for each hazard to eliminate or reduced the risk of injuries and damage  
 5 basic ways to control hazards  

 
 
Summary 
 Hazard assessment thorough check of the work environment 
 Purpose is to identify potential risks and hazards in the area 
  Identify appropriate safety measures to be used to mitigate the identified hazards  
 
Accident 
 Unplanned and unexpected occurrence that may result to injury or death to a person and/or
damage to properties. 
Categories of Accident 
 Unsafe Conditions 
 Physical environment 
 Unsafe Acts  
 Related to employee activities  
 
" Safety of the worker against accident and injury and health of a person against illnesses and diseases." 
 
Workers to be safe 
 Minimize direct contact  
Workers to be healthy 
 Exposure to environmental hazards 
 
Accident Investigation 
 A systematic effort to collect and interpret the facts of accident 
 An inquiry as to how and why the accident occurred in order to explore actions that should
be taken to prevent or minimize recurrence of the accident 
Types of accidents that need investigation 
 Fatal 
 Injury 
 Disease 
 Dangerous Occurrence 
 Near Mis 
 
Fatal Accidents 
 
Injury 
 Any injury that causes minor or first-aid treatment to serious , to permanently/totally
incapacitate workers should be reported  
Diseases 
All work-related diseases/illnesses due to exposure to unsafe working environment should

also be reported.  
Dangerous Occurrence 

 
Near Miss 
 Near miss in an incident where no injury or property damage has occurred but where a
slight difference in position or timing could mean the occurrence of damage or injury 
 
Why perform Accident Investigation  
 To establish all facts 
 To draw conclusion 
 To make recommendations 
 To prevent recurrence 
 
Steps in Accident Investigation 
1. Control the Scene 
 To manage accident scene through the following: 
 Treat the injured 
 Accident investigators should be very sure that steps has been taken to ensure prompt and
effective measure of injured 
 Planning should address the provision for quick first aid treatment for the victims 
 Control the remaining hazards 
 Immediate or temporary actions should be taken to control the risk of any further injuries or
damage 
 There should be an established procedure for the stoppage of any additional work to
prevent possible occurrence of another or similar accidents  
 Isolate the site to protect people 
 In many cases the accident scene is a dangerous place, the accident may have damaged
electrical equipment, wicked structural supports or may have released radioactive or toxic
materials. Isolating or barricading the accident scene must be particularly implemented to
prevent the entry of the workers  
 Preserve the evidence 
 Immediate action should be made for the protection of the evidence  
 Physical evidences are so important for the success of every accident investigation  
 Each investigation should be conducted as soon as possible after the accident. 
 Preservation technique should include photograph, sketches, maps, notes, and witness
statements 
 Depending upon the nature of the accident , preservation of evidence may also require
additional action to ensure its security  
 
2. Gather Information 
 Sources can be obtained in the following 
 Time and Location 
 Time of the day and the place where accident happens. More or less you can get an idea of
the possible causes of incidences or accidents whether if you know if it happened in the
morning, afternoon, or evening  
 Likewise you can also identify causes if you have the idea where the accidents happened 
 Environment 
 Identify the environmental factors that might influence the accidents such as weather
conditions, illumination, temperature, noise or ventilation  
 Physical Evidence 
  Exercise extreme care in handling, collecting, retrieving, or otherwise identifying physical
evidence  
 Investigators not familiar with the fragility of evidence might destroy it during the
investigation process. 
 Examples of physical evidence are equipment, tools and materials involve in the accident  
 Witnesses 
 Any person who has information relating to the accident  
 This includes anyone from those persons principally involve in the accidents to those who
have seen or heard about the accidents or observed the work environment at the time the
accident occurred.  
 Someone who has knowledge about the events occurring during any of the three stages of
the accidents namely the pre-contact, contact, and post-contact 
 Existing Records 
 This could be employee, equipment, job or task, and previous accident investigation records 
 
3. Analyze Accident 
 In accident investigation it is commonly understood that the combination of factors or
causes must usually come together under just the right circumstances to bring about
accidents  
 Information on accident causes have led management to conclude that accidents are cause
they just don't happened and cause can be determined and controlled.  
 People 
 The people of any successful organizations are greatest resource but unfortunately statistic
shows that the high percentage of accidents have been attributed to human element.
Factors that affect human behaviors must be examined and evaluated for cause  
 Equipment 
 Tools and machine employees must work with in order to accomplished their assigned
works. In more recent years the improper design of controls and displace the power
machines and equipment has been cited frequently as the primary source and cause of
accidents  
 The improper use of hand tools, calibrating instruments, gauges or even a ladder to
accomplish the given task can also adversely affect the outcome of the job to the point of
accident  
 People can and often interact with the equipment or vice versa to have an accident  
 Material  
 The materials people use or work with or make provide another major source of accidents
and causes. Materials can be sharp, heavy, hot, cold, toxic or defective  
 Materials can be a major source of energy contact that result in accidents  
 Environment 
 Physical surrounding in which work must be performed  
 Includes the buildings that house the people and the air they breathe  
 Associated with lighting , noise level, and atmospheric  
 Work environment represents the sources of causes of every increasing number of diseases
and health related conditions  
4. Write Report 
 All information gathered during the  course of the investigation should be properly reported
and formally recoded in an accident investigation report  
 OSH standard provide a report using prescribed form: 
DOLE/BWC/OHSD/IP-6a 
 Which can be used by the companies on devising their company's accident report form 
 
Summary 
 Accident Investigation Reporting is an important tool in the prevention of recurrence of
accidents  
 All accidents, whether it is a near miss or injury/ damage causing accident, should be
reported 
 To effective, we should always be at the scene of the accidents as soon as possible and
follow the basic methods of accident investigation  
 Given the proper training, employees can conduct an accident investigation effectively