Health and safety risk assessment in civil engineering projects - Essay Example

Health and safety risk assessment in civil engineering projects The welfare of people operating or working within the confines of any manufacturing or engineering environment is of main importance. Every worker should expect to be capable of carrying out their task in a safe manner that has no negative effect on their health and wellbeing. In fact, many organizations not only reduce risks and make improvements to the working environment but try to make their own working environment superior to others, making it a competitive aspect when recruiting staff. Health and safety in the field is about measures designed to protect the health and safety of workers, visitors and the general public who may be affected by workplace activities. Safety measures about controlling and reducing risks to anyone who might be affected by these activities (Melchers, 2002). Health and safety is controlled largely by legislation and regulations and the law is continually being revised and updated. It is important that organizations are aware of these changes and keep up to date with developments (Melchers, 2002). This unit provides an understanding of hazards and risks associated with health, safety and welfare in an engineering workplace. Learners will develop an understanding of the requirements of health, safety and welfare legislation and regulations and of their roles in complying with the related legal obligations. Ideally this unit would form a key component within the program, as the content is applicable to many engineering situations. Learners will be required to undertake full risk assessments and to appreciate the significant risks encountered in the workplace and the measures taken to deal with them (Melchers, 2002). They will also study the principles of reporting and recording accidents and incidents, again within a legal context. The main aim in civil engineering is to manage risk, eliminating or reducing it to acceptable levels (Melchers, 2002). Risk is the combination of the possibility of a failure event, and the risks resulting from the failure. For example, the extent of a particular failure may result in risks fatalities, injuries, property damage, or nothing more than annoyance. It may be regular, occasional, or rare happenings. The acceptability of the failure depends on the combination of the two. Probability is often more difficult to predict than severity due to the many things that could cause a failure, such as mechanical failure, environmental effects, and operator error. Any specialist in the field should be able to assess and comprehensively report on any environmental principle, from aquatic to marine science, air, soil, geology, geo-hydrology, archaeology, ecology, rehabilitation, or any such science connected to the environment. Safety engineering tries to lower the occurrence of failures, and make sure that when failures do happen, the results are not life-threatening. For instance, bridges are designed to carry loads well in excess of the heaviest truck likely to use them. This reduces the possibility of being overloaded. Most bridges are designed with back up load paths, so that if any one structural member fails, the structure will remain standing. This reduces the severity if the bridge happens to be overloaded. Safety should starts during the early design of a system. Engineers should consider what bad events can happen under what conditions, and predict the related accident risk. They should propose safety mitigation requirements in specifications at the start of development or changes to existing designs to make a system safer. These may be done by fully getting rid of any type of hazards or by lowering accident risk. More often, instead of engineers influencing the design, they should prove that an existing, completed design is safe. If the engineer discovers significant safety problems late in the development process, correcting them can be very costly (Great Britain, 2003). This type of error has the potential to waste large sums of money and likely more important, human lives and environmental damage. Identify Hazards Identifying hazards is the first step in risk assessment. To find hazards, look for anything in the workplace that could cause injury. Review methods, procedures, handling, storage, equipment, work spaces, organization and previous injury or near-miss records. Include non-routine activities such as maintenance or cleaning. Ask "What if?" questions for scenarios in which an injury may occur, such as, "What if the power goes out?" Include human behaviors and employee characteristics that could put employees at risk, such as experience level or disability (Great Britain, 2003). Do not exclude visitors or off-site employees. Analyze Risk Determine which of these hazards pose serious risk through review of past injuries, manufacturer information or material safety data sheets (MSDSs). Evaluate factors that contribute to risk, such as work environment, employee skill, work practices or range of foreseeable conditions. Prioritize the risk, and rank it on an action list. When analyzing the risk, determine the percentage of employees exposed to the risk, frequency of exposure, degree of injury that could result and probability of injury. Control Hazards Controlling hazards should be completed in order or priority on the risk analysis action list. Controlling hazards involves one or more of a few measures, including elimination, substitution, engineering, administrative or personal protective equipment (PPE) (Verma, Srividya, & Kapur, 2008). Elimination or substitution removes the hazard from the workplace. Engineering controls includes designs or modifications to plants, equipment, ventilation system and procedures that reduce hazard exposure. Administrative controls alter the way work is done, such as timing, rules, operating procedures and maintenance. PPE is worn by employees to risk exposure. Employees must determine if the hazard can be controlled immediately, how it will be controlled and who will control it (Verma, Srividya, & Kapur, 2008). In some cases, a temporary fix must be put in place before work begins. OSHA governs that employers must provide safe workplaces for employees, so controlling hazards permanently is the best solution. However, hazard control can be complex and permanent solutions may take time to determine. If the calculated risk level is HIGH further controls will definately be necessary before the activity can commence.  In many cases this will apply to MEDIUM risks as well. Consider what those necessary additional controls e.g. more safety guarding, information, training etc, inplement them and monitor their usage.Make sure that all who need to know the necessary controls identified are informed about them. The risk assessment should be reviewed annually or earlier if a material change takes place such as new staff or equipment, new amounts used etc. References MELCHERS, R. E. (2002). Safety and risk in structural engineering. Progress in Structural Engineering and Materials. 4, 193-202. BEA, R. (2001). Risk assessment and management of offshore structures. Progress in Structural Engineering and Materials. 3, 180-187. VERMA, A. K., SRIVIDYA, A., & KAPUR, P. K. (2008). Reliability and safety engineering. GREAT BRITAIN. (2003). Introduction to the Safety Health of Maintenance Engineering (SHoMe) tool. PINTO A, RIBEIRO RA, & NUNES IL. (2013). Ensuring the quality of occupational safety risk assessment. Risk Analysis : an Official Publication of the Society for Risk Analysis. 33, Read More