Health and Safety: Risk Assessment in Surfboard Manufacturing Business

This report analyzes health and safety measures within the surfboard manufacturing industry, addressing key aspects of workplace safety. It begins by identifying hazards associated with the manufacturing process, including exposure to hazardous substances like fiberglass, resins, and solvents, as well as risks related to manual handling and machinery operation. The report emphasizes the importance of risk assessment, outlining a systematic approach to identify, evaluate, and control risks, referencing the Australian Health and Safety Act. It details various control measures, including elimination, substitution, isolation, engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment. The report also addresses noise risks, discussing assessment methods, control measures (e.g., barriers, machine damping), and the impact of noise on workers, referencing the Workplace Australian Health and Safety regulations. A risk severity assessment table is provided to evaluate the effectiveness of control measures. This comprehensive analysis highlights the importance of proactive safety management to protect workers from harm.

Health and Safety Measures 1
Surfboard manufacture
Surfboard the Australian company has started a surfboard making business which does not
offer health protection of its workers. This is because the work is undertaken in a single-storey
building without ventilation, the employees are not qualified I their work. The surfboards are
made from hazardous substances like wooden stringers which are used in the making of the
surfboard. The workers are also handling machines without protective gears which they may be
exposed to substances like fibreglass, resins, solvents and paints used in manufacture. The safety
and control measures are not sufficient for the workers in the organization (Fung,2010).
The Australian Health and Safety Act under sect.19 of the WHS Act) the management is
mandated to provide measures that will safeguard the safety and health of workers. This entails
nature of work to be carried, risks that are connected to the work and also the measures taken to
control the risk that should be fulfilled (Erbe,2012.) The risks associated with employees
working in the manufacturing industry especially in the making of surfboards involves; manual
handing of materials, musculoskeletal disorder, falls, dangerous machines and hazardous
chemicals and fumes.
According to Gillani.2012 the codes of safety to be followed to ensure that the workers are
prevented from any harm or hazard involves; the management should make sure that the workers
are shown how to do their work safely or to even instruct someone to show them how to work
safely in the organization. The management should ensure that the workers have the right safety
equipment and for this case they should have gloves, dust masks and protective gears to prevent
them form the hazardous materials in the work environment (Mahdevari,2014.)
Identify hazards
First the management should assess and determine the risks that are involved in the work
environment of the industry. The hazards are more common in industries while others are
different depending the type of industry. Some hazards may are not easily identified and one has
to work closely with the workers to identify the risks.

Health and Safety Measures 2
A hazard can be identified when it affects one of the workers if he is injured in a given task. The
incidents in workplace should be assessed to identify the risks associated with the workplace and
how they can be controlled.
Assess the risk
Risk assessment needs to be considered so that it can help in the identification of severity of the
risk involved, whether the control measured implemented are effective and also the actions that
should be undertaken to control the risks and lastly urgency of completion of the actions.
Risk assessment is important for activities that are risky like construction work, manufacturing
works that are conducted in a space. Assessment of risk should be conducted in areas which are
prone to injury or illness, changes in the workplace that will impact on the control measure of the
risks. In this situation of the industry the risks affecting the employees need to be assessed by
working closely with the employees to identify the different risks and how they impact on the
employees and finally how they can be controlled (Erbe,2012.)
Control the risks
It is important to manage the risks in the industry by try to eliminate the identified risks up to
a given extent. The legislation of Australia PCBU requires the management to try and eliminate
risk in work environment in this case the risk must be minimized to a practicable extent. This
means substituting of risk with roughly with something that will pose a lesser risk. The company
making the surfboards should employ the following risk controls.
Hierarchy of Control Risks
Elimination, Substitution and Isolation
In this case the workers are exposed to hazardous substances and it will be important to
elimination process in which the substances are physically removed completely from the site .In
the case of substitution then the substances should be replaced with less harmful substances like
the compounds of those substances to minimize risk. Isolation on the other hand may involve the
creation or employment of barriers to prevent the employees from exposure by putting the
substances in bags or fumes chambers.

Health and Safety Measures 3
Engineering controls
Engineering Controls refers to the industrial processes, plant or even system which minimizes
the production of harmful substances from the making of surfboards. This method is the most
effective method since it uses chemical processes and temperature in a controlled chamber with
ventillation to control the amount of harmful substances produced in the atmosphere which can
be harmful.
Administrative
This refers to the measure in which changes the way people work. This measure of control
should be executed together with other measures, when making the boards it is not safe to rely on
the measures to determine the harmful materials exposure, the administrative controls helps to
reduce the duration and level of exposure of the harmful substances in the workshop. It can be
achieved through organization of the work at the company, job rotation and the limit of overtime.
The management should also make sure there is a supervisor to oversee the work is done safely.
The workers undertaking the work should also be skilled and should have a special licence for
the operations of the machines. In this case the workers conducting the work had no skill and any
licence to help make the surfboards and this was a health and safety challenge. The employees
should also practise safe work practices.
Personal Protective Equipment
This control involves the provision of safety equipment that will protect the workers from any
harm that may arise while making the surfboards. One of the major safety controls that need to
be implemented in the manufacturing industry that specializes in the making of surfboards is the
installation and provision of safety equipment in the industry. The safety materials will involve
the safety eye glasses, boots, visible clothes, hats, respirators gloves and ear muffs. This will
prevent any hazardous materials from affecting the employees. The materials need to be in good
condition and should be comfortable to the workers. According to the codes of practice set by the
Australian government the employees should ensure that they are fit and well enough to do their
job in an organized manner, the workers should also do the work if it is only safe to them, and

Health and Safety Measures 4
they should be qualified and they should do their work without any influence of alcohol or drugs
(Patterson,2010).
Question 2.
Assessing and controlling noise risks
According to workplace Australian Health and Safety regulations of 1992 which is concerned
with the working environment, every employee is entitled to work in a safe and suitable
environment and should not present any risk in the work place. Employees and management of
the Airline workshop should assess and control the level of noise in the workshop. Noise
assessment need to be done to prevent eliminate exposure to noise by other means other than
hearing protection as it is the case in the workshop (Zhou,2015.)
Assessing the risks Under the WHS Regulations, a risk assessment is important for noise from
planes or blasting materials especially when working in a confined space. It helps in the
determination of control measures to be implemented, workers who may seem to be at risk of
exposure, sources of the risks , impact of the risk and lastly the effectiveness of the control measure
used to mitigate the risk.
Assessment of Risk Control Measures
Noise and vibration in work place can cause long-
term damage to senses of the employees.
Noise also affects the hearing and touch due to
excess involvement with noise.
If people are having difficulty in communication
due to shouting because of excessive noise which
are likely to be damaging.
In the workshop noise is excessive and there not
adequate control measures to protect the
employees from the noise pollution. The hearing
aids will not help mitigate the risks that the
employees face in their line of duty.
Limiting the time spent in noisy areas
Erecting barriers around the noisy machines
Damping of noisy and vibrating machines and
fitting them with non-vibrating ones.
Adding sound vibrating panels to the machines
and in the workshop
Management try to enclose the noisy machines
Installation of silencers to exhaust of machines
and planes
Limiting access of employees and customers to
noisy environment(Thai,2016.)

Health and Safety Measures 5
Risk Severity
Assessment Risk Index Control
Not used
Assessment of risk when ear
muffs are used
Risks
5iii 4ii 4iv 3i 2iii 3ii 3iii 2iv Noise and vibration in work
place can cause long-term
damage to senses of the
employees
4iv 3ii 5iii 3iv 2iii 1iii 3iv 3v Noise also affects the hearing
and touch due to excess
exposure to levels of noise and
vibration.
3iii 4ii 4iii 5iv 3iii 4ii 2iv 3v If people are having difficulty in
communication due to shouting
because of high noise levels are
likely to be damaging.
4iv 4ii 4iv 4ii 2iv 2v 3iii 3iv In the airline workshop the
noise is excessive and there not
adequate control measures to
protect the employees from the
noise pollution. The hearing
aids will not help mitigate the
risks that the employees face in
their line of duty
Risk
Probability
Catastrophic I Critical II Moderate III Minor IV Negligible V
5-Frequent 5i 5ii 5iii 5iv 5v
4-Likely 4i 4ii 4iii 4iv 4v
3-Occasional 3i 3ii 3iii 3iv 3v

Health and Safety Measures 6
2-Seldom 2i 2ii 2iii 2iv 2v
1-Improbable 1i 1ii 1iii 1iv 1v
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