Work Health & Safety
4. Hazard Identification
Authors: Staff Legal Eagle
Firm / Chambers:
Last updated: 31 Aug 2015
- Workers and others may be exposed to a range of hazards or risks in the course of their daily work activities. Potential hazards must first be appropriately identified in order to manage the risks effectively.
- The PCBU must identify all reasonably foreseeable hazards that could give rise to a risk to health and safety. Foreseeable hazards include:
- manual handling hazards such as muscle strain from heavy lifting or repetitive strain syndrome from prolonged use of computers;
- chemical hazards such as the use of cleaning agents;
- slips, trips and falls;
- falls from ladders or lifting equipment;
- electrical hazards; and
- psychological hazards such as from bullying in the workplace or regular exposure to stressful situations.
- Hazards to which workers may be exposed can be identified through regular workplace inspections to observe and detect new hazards as they emerge. While the law does not state how often such inspections should occur due diligence would require these to be undertaken monthly.
- Hazard identification can also be achieved through:
- consultation with workers about new and existing hazards;
- gathering and reviewing data such as:
- incident reports;
- safe work method statements; and
- safety data sheets.
- It is important to remember that hazard identification is an ongoing process as new hazards may present themselves at any given time.
- Sometimes controls put into place to reduce risks from identified hazards can give rise to new hazards:
- for example a company might purchase trolleys to move heavy items to reduce workers’ risk of back strain; and
- using trolleys on a regular basis can give rise to other hazards such as losing control of the trolley or getting fingers jammed.
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