A two-year European campaign to raise awareness of the need for workplace risk assessments is due to start next week (24 June).
The European Campaign on Risk Assessment aims to promote “an integrated management approach that takes into account the different stages of risk assessment” and raise awareness of the legal responsibility to assess risks in the workplace. The UK campaign is being spearheaded by the HSE.
According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA):
“Risk assessment is not an objective in itself but a powerful tool for identifying the need for preventative measures. It is not just a matter of checking off a list of recognised hazards; it has to take into account the less visible ones, and the interactions between different factors.
“Everybody has an interest in an evaluation of the risks and corrective measures to be put in place, and everyone in the workplace has a valuable contribution to make; assessing [health and safety] risks is in the interest of both companies and their workers.
“It is a partnership approach and should be carried out with the active involvement of the whole workforce. Workers have to be involved and consulted in the risk assessment process.”
The OSHA approach to risk assessment and prevention is to:
avoid risks;
evaluate risks which cannot be avoided;
combat risks at the source; adapt the work to the individual;
adapt to technical progress;
replace the dangerous with the non-dangerous or the less dangerous;
develop a coherent overall prevention policy;
give collective protective measures priority over individual protective measures; and
give appropriate instructions, information and training to workers.
The HSE’s Five steps to risk assessment suggests that employers and managers consider the following five steps when putting together a risk assessment:
Identify the hazards.
Decide who might be harmed and how.
Evaluate the risks and decide on precaution.
Record your findings and implement them.
Review your assessment and update if necessary.
More details about the HSE’s campaign will be announced on the launch date.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/campaigns/euroweek/I thought you all may be interested