Friday, August 24, 2007

UNIT 407 Assess health and safety risks

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello everyone,

Im after some help with the unit 407.2 (Determine Safety Risks)

"Determine risks to safety in the workplace of your organisation to employees, other persons who may be affected, and to physical assets, taking into account....."

I am having problems translating "physical assets". Does this mean people or does it mean company assets ie. machines, computers, vehicles.

For example would i be right in saying that if there is a safety risk of driving a fork lift truck on uneven ground, would the affect of the physical asset be damage to the fork lift truck? or the individual? or something completely different?

Your best advice and help would make my day.

Thanks

Anonymous said...

company assets.

good evidence suggestion could be a lifting plan or FLT RA, as they would cause quite a bit of damage if the lift went wrong.

Linda

Anonymous said...

http://www.theiet.org/publicaffairs/health/hsb26c.pdf

Fault Tree Analysis information link

Dave Adams GradIOSH

Anonymous said...

Also...

BS 84444 - Guide to risk analysis of technogical systems
Contract Research Report 325/2001 - Root Causes analysis - Literature review
BS 5760-5 1991 - Reliability of systems equipment & components

Anonymous said...

Route cause anaylsis review is the best to buy for the NVQ4 units because it gioves you a good idea of what to recap on and areas to look at.

There are not many books out there however on calculating the risk factors. I think this is a stumbling block for most people on this unit

Dave Adams GradIOSH

Anonymous said...

Human error book HSG48 is a must for this unit !!!

Just finished it last night after 3 weeks of not knowing where to start

Only about £10 from amazon

gary

Anonymous said...

Bought the book a few weeks ago, its good for the occupational illness risk asessment too.....

Anonymous said...

Can anyone give me a web ref for an eta

Anonymous said...

www.eventtreeanalysis.com

loads od things on google

Nige Roberson TechIOSH

Anonymous said...

Can anyone provide me with definitions on:

What is a health risk

What is a safety risk

Can you also give sources.

I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall- I have tried for the last 3 months and I have only found the ones on the HSE website and they are fairly vague.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Anonymous said...

Health: A condition of optimal well being.

Safety: Freedom from risk, danger or injury.

Risk: The possibility of suffering harm or loss.

Health Risk: The possibility of suffering harm or loss which would adversely affect someones well being.

Safety Risk: The act of putting someone at risk, danger or injury.

Anonymous said...

Health Risk in which an adverse event affects human health. If in the workplace, it is Occupational Health risk.

An exposure to a highly toxic chemical, i.e. chlorine is a "health" risk, but with instant effect

An exposure to a carcinogen is also a health risk

It follows that everything covered by COSHH regulations is a health risk.

Explosivity & Flammability woulld give rise to "safety risks" i.e.explosion & fire.

Noise, vibration,(i.e.ohysical agents) give rise to health risks

Machinery hazards generally give rise to safety risks(protection is by various types of guarding

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that- could you give me the sources of your quotes please.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Hi mate,

yeah, googled them and also i find some on another website.

Hope thats ok

Daz

Anonymous said...

it seems funny but the best advice my assessor gave me for this unit was to get a dictionary, open it and look up "health" then "safety"

There are some good books that are onsale through the HSE that have been mentioned on here already.

The health hazard one is good, small red and grey! costs around 6.99.

Nigel

jude said...

Hello,

I am after advice on what "Hierarchial Task Analysis" techniques are. I have discussed this expression with collegues and we aren't getting very far. I have also googled the result which gave me general examples but not any particularly good examples in this field. I pretty much understand fault tree analysis methods and techniques as we work to BS8800 and am assuming it is in some way similiar to those.

Thanks for your help and advice,


Jude

Carl West said...

Hello Jude

Good question. I based my response on the following....

We use task analysis techniques to establish and document safety hazards and their severity for each particular task.
The Task analysis also can also help to identify the following -

• Training requirements
• Skill Levels
• Work Environment (e.g. hazards, attention, physical effort)
• Responsibilities
• Required level of competence
• Check Lists
• Observations
• Communication between the worker and supervisor

The analysis of a particular task is broke down into steps. Each step will indicate the hazard relating to if (if any) and the likelihood and severity connected with the hazard during the particular task.
We use the task analysis as a way of communicating hazard awareness of a particular task to the operator or worker. The analysis also covers control measures for the worker.
The Hierarchical analysis of the hazards are then evaluated using an evaluation chart and 'graded' in terms of severity. With the information from the task analysis we can therefore 'pin-point' key hazard areas and high risks.

So, all in all, the hierachical section means the hierarchy of risks in a task.

Hope this helps

Carl West

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