IOSH Managing Safely: A Comprehensive Risk Assessment Report

This report provides a detailed risk assessment of a workplace, following the IOSH Managing Safely guidelines. It identifies four key hazards: safety, biological, physical, and ergonomic, and analyzes their potential harm to various individuals including laborers, doctors, scientists, housekeeping staff, desk workers, and drivers. The report outlines existing risk controls, calculates risk ratings using a 5x5 matrix, and suggests additional controls needed to mitigate risks further. It also specifies who will action or monitor these controls and the timeline for implementation, emphasizing the importance of proactive safety management in maintaining a healthy and productive work environment. Desklib offers a variety of solved assignments and past papers to aid students in their studies.

IOSH MANAGING SAFELY
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1. A brief description of the work area being assessed....................................................................4
2. A brief description of the tasks being performed in the work area.............................................6
3. A listing of four (4) hazards in the work area, with each one, followed through the risk
assessment process...........................................................................................................................7
4. List who may be harmed by the hazard.......................................................................................9
5. State how they may be harmed..................................................................................................11
6. Describe the risk controls already in place................................................................................12
7. Calculate a risk rating – using the IOSH 5 x 5 matrixes or an appropriate company-specific
system............................................................................................................................................13
8. Describe any additional controls needed...................................................................................17
9. Calculate a risk rating for the new controls (Residual risk)......................................................18
10. State who will action or monitor any further controls.............................................................19
11. State when the actions or monitoring needs to take place.......................................................20
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
In every business organisation whether small, medium or large risk factors arise that can
influence performance and position in the large marketplace. It is very much important for every
company to use risk assessment process to achieve better outcomes in certain time. In today’s
time, it becomes essential for management to take appropriate action to overcome several risk
hazards to improve performance and productivity of employees. Risk hazards can impact
negatively on the image as well as the profitability of the company thus it is very much important
for the management to identify and take the required action to overcome them. This report is
based on HSQE Ltd that committed to the effective provisions of great as well as active safety,
environment, quality dedicated health, and leadership. In this assignment brief description of the
work, areas have been analysed with a brief description of the activities which is performed in
the workplace. Apart from this, there have been examined four hazards in the work area through
risk assessment process. Risk hazards affect lots of people within the work area which has been
determined in this assignment.
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1. A brief description of the work area being assessed
In this report, the focus will upon the potential hazards that the employees of different
organizations face during work and staying in the environment. According to HSQE there are
certain areas on which the workers are exposed to threats, the potential places are exposure to
air, exposure to land, toxins released in air, the material waste disposal in the grounds and other
places, some built-in heritage that has been affecting the environment and the people living in
such places(Viswanathan, et. al. 2012)
The report will discuss all the major hazards, their major sources and the effects of the same,
thus there are certain measurement techniques by HSQE that have been helping the auditors to
calculate the same in the system (Viswanathan, et. al. 2012). The measuring factors will help in
understanding the most hazardous risks and the major people affected by the same. HSQE has
been studying the same from approximately 2009; they have been focussing on the environment
and the effect of the same in different sections of the society.
To study the same there has been certain risk assessment techniques used by the team to check
the different risky areas in the environment, some assessment areas are
Figure 1- Steps of risk assessment
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(Source-Tavistock and Portman, 2018)
The assessment starts from assessing the potential places with hazards and then analyzing those
using techniques such as chemical, natural, physical techniques to see the ranking of the same
like, what is more, likely to affect the people badly, what is less likely to affect the environment
(Storycontracting, 2018). Then it is decided what further actions are needed to be taken in the
system. The major people involved in the system and the people affected by the same. All the
major findings are recorded by conducting different studies lie doing qualitative and quantities
analysis to see the severity of the same in the system. The qualitative analysis will also help in
determining the same in various activities. These will further be discussed with the responsible
officials and then managed to see the process, climbing the hierarchy to escalate the same to the
officials (Storycontracting, 2018).
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2. A brief description of the tasks being performed in the work area
In the work area selected by HSQE, there was a certain activity that was performed in order to
check the risk assessments in that area. The activity was conducted to basically see the potential
risky areas in the stream and then studying the same in the process as under. The steps that were
followed are as under-
 Check the potential hazards in the place will help in determining the types of hazards
that have been into the place and then studying the same. This will help in making
accurate measures to see the places being affected and risk sources. The same will help
in managing the risk in future.
 Check the potentially affected people in the environment studied above. This will help in
making accurate responsive measures to check the people. There may be cases where
the people are lightly affected and can be easily cured with the protective measure.
There may be cases where people are damaged beyond cure.
 How much they are affected with mentioned hazard as above based upon that there are
certain levels to check the severity in the system. These indicators are further cross-
checked and then officials make appropriate measures to see the cure in the same.
 Rating the hazard as per the severity level is the key to check the measure that can be
taken in order to avoid such situations. There are certain training and professional help
that has been used in order to check the situations in some places.
 Measures to control the same has been made with the help of required professionals
and then helping them in making curative measures to check the places in which more
cures are required (Sexton, 2012).
 Monitoring the measures by the senior members of the hierarchy, this will help in
making other plans in future to check each level of the society.
 Time lap calculation to check how much time has been taken in each step in order to
reduce the time lap between the different features.
 Review and implementation after the review is done the implementation of the
modified plans are then applied in the risk assessment process (Sexton, 2012).
3. A listing of four (4) hazards in the work area, with each one, followed through the risk
assessment process
In order to apply the risk assessment policy in the system, the audit team has identified below
mentioned four hazards in the workplace that are explained as under-
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 Safety hazards- They include hazards that can happen in day to day level, even if the
workplace is indoor and the work is not that of physical effort, then below mentioned hazards
can still persist-
 Wet floor or any fall and spill on the floors or on the tables or the electrical equipment;
this will create a unannounced accident in the place.
 There are certain hazards that can cause anything that will tend to fall in the place. This
may include ladders, stools, and high chairs. They can be dangerous at times.
 Any unattended or unguarded machinery that as potential exposure to people around, this
will create the scope of something highly vulnerable to risk(Safetylineloneworker, 2018)
 Biological Hazards- Certain biological hazards that are very common in the system are
due to certain chemicals in the industry people are working on, there can be other things like
some air born virus in the industry, or there can be some sort of harsh chemical in the system.
Some hazards are due to animals and plans also. Some are-
 Body fluids
 Fungus and other infections
 Bacteria and viruses in the system
 Plants that are not known sometimes medicated plants also affect.
 Physical hazards- Certain physical hazards are the ones that are caused due to exposure
to certain radiation, sometimes high exposure to sunlight is there or some poisonous animal
(Safetylineloneworker, 2018).
 Ergonomic hazards – They are usually happening due to long working hours and wrong
postures to work in. They may affect the following
 Blood pressure
 Cervical issues
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 Sore muscle issues
 Fractures
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4. List who may be harmed by the hazard
Based on the above-mentioned hazards and also certain hazards that affect the environment,
these hazards basically affects these following people who are at maximum potential risks-
 Labors – The most potential exposure anyone can have is due to the constant exposure to
the machinery and the working environment of the factories. The same has been the reason for
the hazards that happen to them. These labors are always in the situation to have all types of
expositions like an explosion to heavy machinery, exposure to strong radiations and ultraviolet
rays. They are many of the time at high risk to heights and heavy materials that can cause issues
at times.
 Doctors – Doctors are mostly exposed to biological hazards and other chemical hazards
that may be due to the working environment in the workplace or the working environment in the
hospitals or the labs. HSQE has identified certain cases in which doctors caught some sort of
virus and bacteria due to working in infected areas. Other cases depict the areas with dangerous
and poisonous animals that have affected the health and well-being of the doctors (Kamal, et, al.
2012).
 Scientists- As much as doctors, scientists are also exposed to certain such radiation that
has been very fatal to the health of the people working there (Kamal, et, al. 2012).
 Housekeeping – Housekeeping staff has been more prone to the all kind of small hazards
that have been into the system. They can be exposed to radiation, heights, heavy machinery, and
electrical equipment. etc, Housekeeping has been everywhere in the entire working area thus the
touch points are more. There were many instances where a housekeeping staff got injured
through small wire opening or glass breaking in the company. This needs a constant watch over
the basic security well-being.
 Desk workers- People who are more into sitting work and constant working on the
laptop are prone to more health issues rather than chemical issues. They may have muscle
problems and bone problems that can be due to the wrong posture, adverse sitting effects, long
sitting and less movement of the body.
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 Drives and transporters – in some places where there is constant use of transportation
and driving, their drivers and transporters are also prone to certain accidents and health issues
(Kamal, et, al. 2012).
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5. State how they may be harmed
Depending upon the certain working conditions and the style of working there can be different
ways in which the potential hazards can affect the health and safety of the employees and the
people surrounding these places and live around them. They can get harmed in different ways
some of them are-
Physical Issues- There are certain issues that can happen to people working in the hazardous
environments, they are mostly those people who are directly dealing with the heavy and
dangerous instruments. People working in the factories are always working near metal; they can
be situations when they might get caught in the machine, resulting in damaging the body parts of
the worker. Apart from that, there are always electrical appliances so there is always scope for
the electrical tragedy in the system resulting in permanent damage (Bender, et. al, 2012).
Medical Issues- There are certain points when the team or the workers are exposed to the certain
environment for a very long time, thus they affect the worker's health internally for a very long
time thus degrading the health eventually. There have been the certain case in which the workers
suffer from severe respiratory issues and some faces severe issues in their bones and muscles.
Many industries have been facing issues cancerous problems faced by the people and resulting in
massive deaths. In a case, there was huge gas leakage in the industry that has resulted in the
severe blast and thus resulting in massive deaths in the whole town.
Social Issues- Due to work pressure and continuous work engagement there has been a new kind
of issue faced by the workers these days that is social issues. They are not able to spend time
with the friends and family and thus getting away from all the social issues and the relations
(Bender, et. al, 2012).
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6. Describe the risk controls already in place
The industry has been itself working upon many features to maintain and check the issues in the
system. There has been a team of professional individuals that have been working on the
potential risks that have been there in the industry and the most effective measures to deal with
them. There has been a technology in the industry to check the potential leakage in the
machinery; it checks the leakage of gas in the machines along with the chemical emission done
by the industry. Moreover, the waste management has also been done to check the toxic level in
the waste and there are certain measures taken to eliminate the toxins in the system. Waste
management gadgets have been installed in all the parts of the factory as per the guidelines of
HSQE (Schulte, et. al. 2012).
Apart from that, the team has been focussing upon the radiation and chemical exposures the
workers have always been into. These exposures have made it difficult for the workers to work
and have been resulting in serious health problems leading to physical deformity in some cases
(Schulte, et. al. 2012). The team has been putting filters to stop the radiations and treating the
chemical before using it. Moreover, the count of people has been kept limited to work there.
There is a limited access to people and not everyone is allowed to enter certain premises, only
professionals are allowed.
The company has been doing regular health and safety checks to see the current health of the
workers and to see any problem faced by them in future. These checkups consider full check-up
including the blood tests and the blood pressure of all. If there is any health issue found then the
root cause is studied to avoid the same with other workers and the worker is heavily
compensated and the company takes full responsibility of the whole medical treatment and the
worker’s family is also taken care of. But these cases are one in a million but still, the company
is ready to take protective as well as defensive measures to avoid such issues in future (Schulte,
et. al. 2012).
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