Risk Assessment in Work Places - Assignment Example

Risk Assessment Name: Professor: Institution: Course: Date: Risk Assessment It is of great importance to carry out risk assessment in work places as it forms a fundamental aspect in prevention of hazards that are prone to intervene with the normal running of the daily activities that take place in a work place (Ricci, 2006 pp, 49). Risk assessment is vital in protecting workers as well as the business, putting into consideration that proper legislation procedures have to be observed. Risk assessment helps in determining and establishing the main risks that are bound to happen in a workplace especially the ones that are likely to cause harm. Some of the risks that occur in places of work may be prevented by observing simple measures such as wiping and cleaning up spillages to ensure that they do not cause accidents. Other measures may include keeping cupboard drawers closed to avoid causing people to trip. These are basically some of the measures that may be considered cheap and simple but play a great deal as effective measures in protecting the workforce. Employees have the right to be protected against all the hazards that are likely to occur in the course of carrying out their duties. The law does not require an organization to eliminate all the risks that may happen to the workers but it requires employers to protect their workers as far is practically reasonable. Risk assessment is the cautious examination of what may cause harm to people in a workplace. What follows upon a successful risk assessment is a determination of whether enough precautions have been to taken to prevent harm (Ricci, 2006 pp, 52). Accidents and damages in health may affect the lives of the workers and in the long run affect the normal operations of the business. Machines may also be damaged due to accidents and this may lead to increases in insurance costs. Legally, it is a requirement to assess the risks in a workplace so as to employ proper control measures. The risk assessment process should not be complicated because in many organizations the risks are common and known and this makes the control measures to be easy to apply. For instance in factories where workers are involved in moving heavy loads, there is a risk of harming their backs or even falling. Necessary precautions should therefore be taken to avoid such occurrences. In a small establishment risk assessment may be done by an individual who does not have to be a health and safety expert so long as the hazards are well understood but in a large establishment it is crucial to hire the services of an expert. While carrying out a risk assessment it is important to remember that hazard is anything that may cause harm and may either be in the form of chemicals, electricity or even fire. A risk is the chance that a person may be harmed by these hazards. Assessment is carried out in relation to the existing hazards that are taken to be prone to occurrence in an organization and the risks associated with such hazards. Employees have legal responsibility to cooperate with their employers in matters of improving health safety in the workplace for example it is important to put on the protective gear if it’s provided. The first step in risk assessment process is the identification of hazards. One should walk around the workplace to look at what could be a potential hazard. Employees should be involved by being asked what they think about risk assessment and whether they may have noticed anything unusual that may be considered hazardous. Manufacturers’ instructions and data sheets for chemicals should be observed as they spell out the potential hazards. The less obvious hazards are identified in accident and ill-health records. The second step in risk assessment is deciding who might be harmed and how this might happen. The person carrying out the assessment should identify the hazards and the risks involved. For instance people working in the store may be affected by the hazards found in the store. The members of the public are also likely to be affected by the activities carried out in an organization. Other workers such as contractors and the maintenance staff who are not always in the workplace should be considered. The third step involves evaluating the risks and deciding on the precautions to take. The law requires one to do everything that is practical to protect workers form any harm that may be caused by any hazards present in the workplace. If the risks cannot be eliminated altogether, then control measures should be employed to reduce any harm to the workers and any other people that might be affected by the said risks. One of the ways of controlling risks is by trying out less risky options such as using a less hazardous chemical (Ricci, 2006 pp, 73). Guarding is one of the ways of preventing access to hazards and may used to prevent risks. In addition, protective gear such as footwear and goggles may be issued. Welfare facilities such as first aid kit are vital in the removal of contamination. Some of measures to improve safety may not be necessarily expensive. For example reflectors may be placed in the parking places to prevent cars from causing accidents at night. Failing to take simple precautions may eventually lead to huge costs being incurred in the future as a result of accidents of bigger magnitudes happening. Classification of Occupational Health Hazards Hazards are classified into chemical, physical, biological, and ergonomic hazards. Chemical hazards include liquids, fumes, gases, and dusts. Physical hazards include radiation, vibrations, excessive noise, humidity and temperature (Gardiner & Harrington, 2005 pp, 96). Biological hazards include fungi, viruses and bacteria. Ergonomic health hazards are caused by repetitive actions and work pressure. Chemical Hazards They are absorbed into the body through the skin or through inhaling. The absorbed chemicals then attack the body organs and the metabolic processes causing toxic and carcinogenic responses. The body surface may be attacked causing a corrosive response or a sensitization on the skin. Physical Hazards These constitute harmful energy absorbed by the body’s structure. The harmful energy may be derived from mechanical sources such as noise and vibration. It may also be from radiation sources such as ionizing and non-ionizing. Thermal sources may also be a source of physical hazards and these may include extreme temperatures. Ergonomic Hazards These ones concern physical and psychological relationships between people and their work. Areas that may lead to these hazards include fatigue and pressure from work related activities. Measurement The measurement for these hazards includes a continuous control strategy especially where the risk involved is high. Intermittent control involves the initial determination of the hazard and may be combined with routine check measurement. Evaluation This includes careful analysis of the harmful characteristics of the substance or the hazard. In the evaluation consideration should be put o0n the concentration or the level of exposure to the hazard. It is also vital to consider the total duration of exposure to the hazard. Control There are many ways of controlling a health hazard depending on the magnitude or the intensity of the hazard (Gardiner & Harrington, 2005 pp, 98). The hazard may be completely eliminated or substituted. A control measure may also be applied by changing the work pattern or the work method. Isolation is another method that can be used in controlling a hazard. In most instances personal protective equipment are used for controlling some of the hazards especially the physical hazards. Causes of Work Related Accidents Accidents especially in a pub or a restaurant occur due to a number of reasons but in most instances the people involved tend to shift the blame unnecessarily. One of the main causes of accidents in workplaces is the tendencies of people to take shortcuts while executing their duties. In most cases shortcuts taken by workers while carrying out their duties, end up compromising the safety of other members of an organization (Gardiner & Harrington, 2005 pp, 89). In other times workers may be overconfident while carrying out their duties. When handling machines or chemicals being overconfident makes one to be less cautious simply because what is being done seems to be a routine duty. This eventually leads to injuries or accidents such as fire or food poisoning. Poor procedures in housekeeping contribute a great deal to the accidents that are common in workplaces. Proper housekeeping measures ensure that the right safety measures are followed all the time and hence reducing chances of accidents or injuries. Poor housekeeping gives room to all sorts of hazards in an establishment. Good housekeeping leads to all safety measures being observed. At times workers tend to ignore the safety precautions that are in most cases well elaborate. Failure to observe these safety procedures forms a recipe to most of the accidents that are common in workplaces. The company’s safety procedures should be followed strictly and failure to do so may eventually causes fatalities or serious injuries. Mental distractions are also a major cause of accidents in workplaces. These causes the concern people to pay less attention to their work and this may cause accidents if it’s not regulated. Take a case of a cook who puts on a microwave and then forgets about it due to many preoccupations about his home. This may lead to injuries or even fatal fire accidents that may be difficult to contain. Failing to work without a well stipulated plan may lead to some jobs being done carelessly and hence giving poor results where safety precautions are not taken care of. Before any work is done it is necessary to go through Job Hazard Analysis. This ensures that all safety precautions are put in place before any task is undertaken. Rushing to accomplish the assigned task may compromise the safety measures and procedures and this may cause injuries to the staff involved. The occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has in the past been involved in collecting data on the common workplace accidents and injuries and has identified human factors as the main causes of such accidents. According to OSHA’s Management Information System databases there have been more than 50,000 accidents that can be associated to human factors since 1976 (Ricci, 2006 pp, 68). Human factors may include errors from the employees, malfunctions of machines and at times insufficiency in procedure. For a long time employee error has been a major cause of the workplace accidents but that trend is easily being taken over by machine and equipment insufficiencies. Employee errors that lead to accidents in workplaces may be due to the use of defective equipment either knowingly or unknowingly. It is therefore imperative for the staff to receive enough training that is more result oriented with an aim to curb negligence. Staff should be well trained and informed about the safety policies of the organizations that they work for. Employees need to be taught on proper work procedures and such trainings bear fruits if the trainings are based on practical sessions rather than theory lessons. To avoid boredom in the workplaces, employees should be subjected to short breaks and this boosts their concentration levels and subsequently their productivity in their work. Reducing the Equipment Insufficiency The insufficiency of equipment should be dealt with at the task design stage and the employee training stage (Gardiner & Harrington, 2005 pp, 106). At this stage the employees should be made conversant to all the training procedures for effective operation of all the equipment available in their work stations. It is also necessary to empower the employees to be more responsible to their equipment and to be accountable to any misplacement of the safety devices from that equipment. An ergonomic approach to workplace design should be established for the purpose of determining the biological monitoring and respiratory protection for any task. Ergonomic approach also ensures that proper engineering controls are put in place for the safety of the task performance. The type of protective clothing provided to the employees should guarantee them maximum safety for the protection of any hazards that they ar4e likely to encounter as they carry on their duties. Employees should be given a chance to suggest the type of safety measures that they consider appropriate foe effective execution of their work. This in return motivates them and reduces the chances of accidents happening as they feel more responsible for their own safety. Reducing Procedure Insufficiency The increase in the number of accidents in workplaces that are attributed to the insufficiency of the written procedures should be addressed with urgency (Gardiner & Harrington, 2005 pp, 103). The procedures should be addressed to employees and should be well elaborate for effective application. The high labor turnover in the hospitality industry is enough evidence to ensure that all the safety procedures to be observed by the staff should be well documented in a clear language that can be understood even by the new staff for future reference. Practical sessions such as fire drills should be implemented as they harness the need for urgency in responding to fire accidents in an organization. Such programs should be regular and should be updated all the time. All employees should have basic skills in all the departments in a restaurant or a pub. This will eliminate the chances of any staff mishandling any equipment in any section of the department in case they are called upon to sit in for any absent staff. If the workers do not have a common language, then the management should ensure that safety procedures are written in all the languages that are well understood by all the staffs for effective communication. Any ergonomically work environments contribute in reducing the workplace accidents and hence result in higher productivity of the staff. Risk assessment in for Alto Restaurant For the purpose of this project, the risk assessment is carried out in a hospitality establishment, and in this case the selected establishment is Alto Restaurant, situated in Manchester, North-West of England. The main intention of this assessment is to identify the hazards and the risks involved in them. This will in return protect workers from any harm that may be caused by these hazards. Motor vehicles form a health hazard especially while transporting staff or even during deliveries. This is a rare occurrence at Alto Restaurant but it has ever happened and therefore qualifies to be a health hazard. A delivery vehicle hit a service staff when it was reversing causing serious injuries to the said staff member. To control injuries caused by delivery vehicles the management should talk to suppliers and agree on the safety procedures that should be observed by all the suppliers. Designated areas for deliveries should be established and trained staff assigned to be handling the deliveries. Handling of heavy loads was also identified as a health hazard to the staff of the Alto Restaurant. This was mostly identifies in the offloading area for food and other hotel requirements. The workers suffer from back injuries caused by lifting heavy luggage. To avoid these injuries staff should be trained on the proper postures while handling such loads and trolleys should also be introduced for transporting such heavy loads. Gas leaking is another hazard that was identified at Alto Restaurant. Gas especially in the kitchen may cause fire and serious injuries to the staff. Boilers in the kitchen should therefore be checked and serviced regularly by registered engineers. Staff should also report any defect in the boilers or other gas holders in the kitchen. Pressurized equipment especially the keg beer barrels are a health hazard to the staff. Too much pressure may lead to explosion of the beer pump systems. There are instances where a bartender was seriously damaged on his face by a cap from a beer barrel. All the beer barrels should be installed by a qualified person and an installation issued by the liquor licensing body. The certificate should always be displayed at the bar with the dates for the next visit well indicated. Gas cylinders should be obtained and licensed suppliers and should be stored and chained up in cages to avoid the risk of exposure to too much heat. Another major hazard that was identified at Alto Restaurant upon a successful risk assessment was fire. Fire may cause serious damage to staff and property. Fire risk assessments should be done regularly and staff should be trained on the basic fire fighting procedures as well as evacuation procedures. All the burners and ovens should be put off when the restaurant closes and the manager should walk around to ensure that this is done. Asbestos containing hazardous material are also a health risk to the maintenance staff. If fibers from the asbestos are released into the air and then inhaled by the staff members, they may cause a serious health risk. Chemicals from cleaning agents are also quite hazardous and may cause burns and irritations to staff who are involved in housekeeping. Protective devise such as gumboots and gloves should be provided to reduce this risk. If possible the manager should seek alternatives for cleaning chemicals that are corrosive. The above risk assessment at Alto Restaurant adhered to all the legal requirements for a risk assessment (Jayjock, & Lynch, 2000 pp, 210). The Manual Handling Operations Regulations that was amended in 1992. The main areas to be assessed include the loading areas and the magnitude of the loads being handled in relation to the individual capability. Upper limb disorders guidance may be used to identify all the areas that are potential risks to employees. Display Screen Equipment Regulations of 1992 is another legislation that requires employers to carry out risk assessment in their establishments and come up with measures to reduce risks. The management of Alto Restaurant is committed to seeing that safety measures are adhered to, and this also takes into consideration the aspects of food hygiene regulations. Therefore, this confirms that the restaurant has been observing the legal provisions and regulations that guides other restaurants and pubs. References Clarke, S., & Cooper, C., 2005, Managing the risk of workplace stress: health and safety hazards, London: Routledge. Gardiner, K., & Harrington, J., 2005, Occupational Hygiene, New York: Wiley- Blackwell. Hughes, P., & Ferrett, E., 2009, Introduction to Health and Safety at Work, New York: Butterworth- Heinemann. Jayjock M., & Lynch, J., 2000, Risk Assessment Principles for the Industrial Hygienist, Philadelphia: AIHA. Parsloe, P., 1999, Risk assessment in social care and social work, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Ricci, P., 2006, Environmental and Health risk assessment and management: principles and practices, New Delhi: Springer. Robinson, L., & Thorn, I., 2005, Risk assessment and risk management, Brussels: Royal Society of Chemistry. Robinson, L., & Thorn, I., 2005, Toxicology and ecotoxicology in chemical safety assessment, New York: Wiley- Blackwell. Rogers, K., & Chappell, D., 2003, Preventing and responding to violence at work, Melbourne: International Labor Organization. Tyler, M., 2007, Tolley’s Workplace Accident Handbook, New York: Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More