Territorial Safety Officer (TSO) - Initial

Risk Assessment and

Accident Prevention

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Terminology
• Accident
• Near miss
• Dangerous Situation
• Occupational illness
• Exposure
• Hazard
• Risk
• Probability, Likelihood
• Severity

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What exactly is an accident ?
An accident is an unplanned event resulting in:
• injury or ill-health of people,
• or damage or loss to property, plant,
materials or the environment
• or a loss of a business opportunity

(UK Health & Safety Executive)

A personal accident is an unplanned event

that results in injury or ill-health of people.

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Not quite an accident
A near miss is an incident that could have
resulted in an accident.
It is believed that for every 10 ‘near miss’ events at a
particular location, a minor accident may occur under
similar circumstances.

A dangerous occurrence is a ‘near miss’ which

could have led to serious injury or loss of life.
Examples:
- Collapse of scaffolding
- Failure of vehicle brakes

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 r
one fo
G h
Lunc
Lion

Near Miss Dangerous occurrence

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Hazard and Risk
Hazard is the potential of a substance, activity or
process to cause harm.

Risk is the likelihood (probability) of a substance,

activity or process to cause harm.
The level of risk is also linked to the severity of its
consequences

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Hazard 100 % Hazard 100 %
Risk depends on how close you Risk 0% as long as the
get (and if the lion is hungry) cage remains closed

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Don’t confuse !
• Hazards take many forms, e.g.
• Electricity, dangerous chemicals, work at height

• For a risk to be present,

• A person must be exposed to the hazard
(likelihood)
• The potential of the hazardous substance or
activity to cause more or les severe injury or ill-
health determines the level of risk

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Hazard: The Lion Exposed Persons, if the lion is let loose

Severity: irreversible or fatal injury

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Why Risk Assessment ?
• At the workplace, many hazards are present:
• Electricity, dangerous chemicals, work at height,
tools, machines, …
• Risk Assessment allows to estimate the
accident potential of every identified hazard
• Allows to set priorities in treatment of
hazards / risk reduction

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Five Steps to Risk Assessment*
1. Identify the hazards
2. Decide who might be harmed and how
3. Evaluate the risks and decide on the
precautions
4. Record your findings and implement them
5. Review your assessment and update if
necessary

* UK Health and Safety Executive, INDG163(rev3)

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Identify the Hazards
• Walk around the workplace
• Use a hazard register (OHS-0-0-2,
EDMS 1114759 v.2)
• Ask the employees and other workers
• Check manuals, labels, documentations,
Material safety data sheets etc.
• Team up with your Safety Officers

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Decide who might be harmed and how
• For each identified hazard:
• Who can be harmed ?
e.g. “ people working on the shop floor” , “mechanics
using the lathe” …
• How can they be harmed?
What injury or type of ill health might occur ?
• Special categories of people:
• Workers with particular requirements (young, disabled,
expectant mothers …)
• Public (visitors)
• Shared workplace
• Persons only occasionally at this workplace

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Evaluate the risks
• “Guesstimate” the frequency and the
severity of the accidents or ill-health
• You can use OHS-0-0-2 or any other method
that suits you
• Muster the help of your Safety Officers

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Risk Matrix (Example)
Risk Level
1/day l
tro High
n
Co
1/month =
t ion
d uc
Re Medium
1/year i sk
Likelihood

1/10 years
? Low

Injury Injury Minor Irreversible

reversible reversible irreversible or fatal
without if the work injury injury
stopping is stopped
work
Severity

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Simplification
• In simple cases, you can also apply controls
to hazards without explicitly evaluating the
risk

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Principles of Control
• Risk Control = Reduction of Risk
• Reduce the exposure
• Reduce the probability
• Reduce the severity of effects
• By (in order of precedence)
• Elimination
• Substitution
• Collective Protection
• Administrative Measures
• Personal Safety Training
• Individual Protection

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Hazard Elimination
If possible, get rid of the hazardous substance / activity / process altogether

Hazard 0 %

Hazard 100 %

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Substitution
Exchange hazardous substance / activity / process against less hazardous one

Low Hazard

Hazard 100 %

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Collective Protection

Hazard 100 % Risk

Risk 0 %%
100

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Administrative Measures

Warning signs
Authorisations
Access controls
“ Habilitations”
Permits (e.g. Fire permit)

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Safety Training

rt if ica
Ce r
te Fo
Safe lin
d
Han
g n s
io
of L

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 Individual Protection

Risk 0 %
Hazard 100 %

Attention: individual protection does most of the times not reduce the likelihood of
an accident, but its severity.

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Lunch Break

Have a good meal

!

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