What are hazards and why is it so difficult for us as SHEQ Practitioners worldwide to identify them correctly in our workplaces?
Clause 6.1.2 of ISO 45001 states that “Hazard identification should aim to determine proactively all sources, situations or acts (or a combination of these), arising from an organization’s activities, with a potential for harm in terms of injury or ill health”.
As a result, many SHEQ Practitioners “assume” that all sources, situations and acts that poses health or safety risk to people or the environment, are indeed hazards.
To be clear, ISO 45001 does not state that all sources, situations or acts that poses health or safety risk, are hazards. Clause 6.1.2 merely states that all “sources, situations or acts” arising from an organization’s activities, must be evaluated during the risk assessment process to determine their potential for harm.
Now, it would be very easy for us as SHEQ Practitioners to blame the International Organization for Standardization and in some cases, even our very own legislatures, for such ambiguous “hazard” descriptions. However, part of the blame will always remain with us if we don’t educate ourselves properly and if we are complacent in the performance of our tasks. Complacency is after all the “kiss of death” for any SHEQ professional.
Further to this, part of the problem may also be the way in which we conduct or SHEQ risk assessments. Let me explain. How many of you refer to your workplace risk assessments as your “HIRA” where you follow a two-step process namely “Hazard Identification” and “Risk Assessment” only? You see, there is actually a crucial third step that often gets ignored during the so-called HIRA process namely “Hazard Analysis” or “Hazard Evaluation”. Hazards constantly interact with each other and it is through this constant interaction of hazards that different levels of risk are created. You will therefore only be able to accurately predict such risk if you understand the unique characteristics of hazards and how they interact with each other.
So, without further delay, let’s look at the characteristics of hazards:
- Firstly, all hazards consist of matter in the form of a solid, liquid, gas or plasma. Can you think of anything that exists and that comes in the form of a solid, a liquid, gas or plasma that does not have the potential to harm you?
- All hazards are governed by natural laws such as Einstein’s theory of relativity or Newton’s laws of gravity and motion.
- Firstly, all hazards consist of matter in the form of a solid, liquid, gas or plasma. Can you think of anything that exists and that comes in the form of a solid, a liquid, gas or plasma that does not have the potential to harm you?
- All hazards have symmetry
- All hazards have weight
- All hazards have volume & size
- All hazards have density
- All hazards have a shape
- All hazards have a surface or texture
- All hazards have potential or kinetic energy. When hazards come into contact with one another, they usually interact and when they interact, some form of energy exchange occurs. In actual fact, it is the energy of a hazard that creates “risk” in any given situation
- And lastly, all hazards interact with other hazards. Let me repeat, hazards are not “exposed” to other hazards, they interact with other hazards and when they interact, some form of reciprocal energy exchange occurs. “Interaction” usually refers to something that is given, felt or done in return whereas “exposure” usually refers to a one-sided vulnerability which is not necessarily always true in the case of hazards
Simply put, a workplace hazard is therefore any tangible object that has the potential to cause harm due to its ability to move on its own or to be moved by another force.
The ability of a hazard to move on its own or to be moved by another force, is also often referred to as the “closing and collision” potential of a hazard.
If you are ever unsure whether any natural element, object or substance is a hazard, benchmark it against the characteristics of hazards that I explained in the previous paragraphs. If it is tangible, if it can move on its own or be moved by another force and if it can harm you, it is a hazard.
So where does this leave us as human beings?
In short, we as human beings have all the inherent characteristics of hazards that I explained previously. We have mass, symmetry, density, surface, shape and energy. We are undoubtedly governed by natural laws and above all, we interact with other hazards and therefore pose risk to other hazards. Human beings are therefore hazards. Our “acts” on the other hand are not hazards as not all our acts have the potential to cause harm.
What sets us apart from all the other hazards is the fact that we have minds of our own. Due to this unique characteristic, human behavior is often inconsistent and unpredictable with high levels of health and safety risk.
As a result, human beings and their interactions with other hazards should always be at the heart of all your risk assessments.
Now that you know what hazards are, let’s wrap the lesson up with what hazards are not:
- As already stated, human acts are not hazards as not all human acts have the potential to cause harm.
- Situations are also not hazards as situations are merely abstract creations of the human mind. Situations can only be classified as “hazardous” when tangible objects, with the potential to cause harm, are present in them.
- And last but not least, “departures from the normal” are also not hazards. “Not wearing PPE” for example can therefore not be classified as a hazard either.
Remember the following saying as it always applies to hazards: “ONCE A HAZARD, ALWAYS A HAZARD”
Something cannot be classified “a hazard” the one day and then “not a hazard” the next day due to ever-changing human behavior or circumstances.
