OSHA requires employers to conduct a hazard assessment of the workplace/assigned task and to document these hazard evaluations as well as the corrective actions taken to reduce or control these “known or suspected hazards”.
This process is a Job Hazard Analysis or commonly referred to as J.H.A. (or J.S.A) The J.H.A. is a formal process, usually accomplished with the support of the Project Engineer, Superintendent (field supervisor), Competent Person and often one or more of the employees who perform the task.
The process generally involves reviewing the scope of work, project drawings, As-Built’s” and often a pre-job site walk. The pre-job site walk (if conducted) is a critical time for the project manager and superintendent to review the work-site and conduct a J.H.A. and develop a “Site Specific Safety Plan” (S.S.S.P.) and other basic tools such J.H.A. checklist and or a Safe Work Permit. A Job Packet with key documenting (Permit to Proceed, USA Ticket, Traffic Control Plan & other permits and procedures) is usually assembled and made ready to accompany the Site Foremen on the first day of the project.
§1511. General Safety Precautions.(a) No worker shall be required or knowingly permitted to work in an unsafe place, unless for the purpose of making it safe and then only after proper precautions have been taken to protect the employee while doing such work.(b) Prior to the presence of its employees, the employer shall make a thorough survey of the conditions of the site to determine, so far as practicable, the predictable hazards to employees and the kind and extent of safeguards necessary to prosecute the work in a safe manner in accordance with the relevant parts of Plate A-2-a and b of the Appendix.
Note: Many company safety policies state that a hazard assessment shall be conducted prior to conducting any activity that would or may have negative consequences should an incident occur. A policy statement such as this afford Cal/OSHA to issue a “Willful” enhancement to a citation, should one be issued if a hazard assessment was not conducted. Proper documentation is a critical component to help demonstrate that you adhered to the appropriate safety-compliance standards.
Hazard Assessment
A Hazard Assessment is the process (required by law) of identifying the hazards associated with the defined task, prescribing control measure such as barriers/ guards, administrative methods such as policies and work-procedures, personal protective equipment (P.P.E.) and other relevant protection measures which must be adhered to in order to reduce the risk from the hazards.
What is the difference between a Hazard and a Risk?
Hazards: A hazard is generally defined as something that can cause you physical harm. Workplace hazards are generally conditions that would exposure an employee to harm (injury or death) such as a potential fall, struck-by, caught-between, electrical shock, chemical injuries, engulfment, loud noise (85 dba) and other physical exposures that could pose a realistic potential hazard for an exposed employee.
Risks: Risk is the chance, high or low, that an occurrence with negative consequences will occur. Considering the “risk”, an assessment is based on exposure and measured expectation (chance), high or low, that a hazard will/could likely cause harm to an exposed worker should an incident occur.
The terms “risk” and “hazard” are often misused, used interchangeably during a hazard assessment. Generally speaking, risk factors would be: employee training and experience, specifications of the equipment (type-condition-use) and the specific task.
Climbing a ladder from the ground level to access a roof is a known or suspected hazard. An employee trained in ladder safety, using a Type III extension ladder, which was set at a 1 to 4 ratio, extended “3 feet” past the landing and is secured from falling, tipping of otherwise creating a hazard, the “risk” level is low.
An open trench on a job site would be considered a “hazard”. If the open trench was partitioned off with “cones and caution tape” the “risk” (chance) of an employee inadvertently falling into the trench is reduced. The hazard still exists but the risk could be considered “minimal” or at least reduced. Of course other factors such as experience, training, lighting/visibility surface conditions must also be considered, but I believe you get the idea. To eliminate (the ultimate goal) the hazard, a physical barrier would be needed to prevent employee exposure (contact) from the hazard. Keep in mind; “cones & caution tape” are not considered a valid physical barrier. A physical barrier would be of type and construction to prevent access-exposure to the actual hazard. To eliminate the hazard of an open trench, the action plan would be to guard, such as with guardrails, fencing or a trench plate. Again, the construction of the materials is the factor to valid if the barrier is appropriate. An Inch and a 1/8 sheet of plywood (4ftX8ft) may serve to cover (protect) a trench 18 inches wide, 4 feet long. If the trench was 40 inches wide, 8 feet long, probably not. A steel plate (“trench plate”) would be more appropriate. If the same (40”x 4Ft) trench was un-shored and “C” soil, it’s likely that neither the 1 1/8 plywood nor steel trench plate would be appropriate. Guarding or fencing, installed at a proper set-back would probably be a more appropriate form of protection. These are reasons why a hazard analyze must be conducted on-site, viewing the current-actual conditions.
J.H.A. Documentation Documenting your hazard assessment can be as simple as a predetermined checklist of a more elaborate procedural based format including a detailed itemized explanation of the tasks, the known-suspect hazards and the potential harm that may occur and a detailed list of mitigation and abatement controls. Most of the time, a simple bullet point format, addressing the prominent tasks and hazards is used to document that a (basic) hazard assessment was conducted and that the employee who may be exposed to these potential hazards have been informed of these hazards and the safety precautions needed to ensure that the area will be a relative safe work area. A J.H.A. consists of three parts:· A breakdown of a job into specific individual tasks.· The identification of the hazards associated with each task.· The methods of controlling/managing the identified hazards.
When developing your J.H.A. for a specific task, the detail can be as general or specific as the competent person has determined necessary to properly communicate the hazard and the control measures needed to complete the task safely and within compliance.
Terms and phases such as “use caution”, “be alert”, and “watch out” are general considered not effective verbiage. Abbreviations and slang should be avoid when describing a task of safety measure.
