5 ways to identify hazards in the workplace

The best way to prevent injuries or illness in your workplace is to find the hazards that could cause injury or illness, and fix them. Do this by following four simple steps:

Spot the Hazard

Assess the Risk

Fix the Problem

Evaluate Results

This process is often called risk assessment.

Involve your workers

The workers using the equipment or chemicals, performing the tasks and being in the work environment every day are essential to help you identify hazards.

Don’t underestimate your workers’ input: they often have first-hand knowledge, experience and ideas about how to reduce safety risks, make improvements and find solutions.

When introducing any changes, make sure everyone knows what’s being done and how you are controlling the hazards. Involving your workers in these ways reinforces the idea that safety is everyone’s responsibility, and ensures you meet your requirements to consult with your workforce.

Spot the hazard

A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause injury, illness or damage to your health. Hazards at work may include:

• manual tasks
• untidy workplaces
• bullying and violence
• working at heights
• faulty or unguarded machinery
• chemicals
• noise
• poor work design (for example, tasks involving repetitive movements)
• inadequate management systems (for example, no procedures for performing tasks safely or for using personal protective equipment).

The first step in ensuring a safe workplace is to identify hazards. There are a number of ways to find hazards in your workplace:

• ask workers and contractors in your workplace about any hazards they may have noticed
• look at the physical structure of your workplace: for example, stairs, desks, floor surfaces, exits, driveways
• check all machinery, appliances and vehicles used for work
• examine how substances are stored, used and moved from one place to another
• review your injury records, including ‘near misses’
• review information from designers, manufacturers or suppliers of the equipment and substances in your workplace.

Use a checklist

A checklist can help you examine your work environment, the tasks your workers do, and the machinery/equipment used in your workplace.

You can use a checklists for regular/ frequent tasks; for example, a maintenance checklist or a daily pre-start checklist for equipment to make sure it’s in safe working order.

See Resources below for samples. Print them off, grab a pen and do a walkabout, talking to the workers involved in the environment, task or equipment you’re checking.

Assess the risk

A risk is the likelihood of a hazard causing injury, illness or damage to your health.

Your list of hazards may be long, with some hazards posing more safety risks than others.

So you need to work out which hazards are more serious than other and deal with those first.

To assess the risk associated with each hazard, ask these questions:

What is the potential impact of the hazard?

• How severe could an injury or illness be?
• What's the worst possible damage the hazard could cause to someone’s health?
• Would it require simple first aid only? Or cause permanent ill health or disability? Or could it kill?

How likely is the hazard to cause someone harm?

• Could it happen at any time or would it be a rare event?
• How often are workers exposed to the hazard?

You should also consider how many people are exposed to the hazards, and remember that everyone is different. A hazard may pose more risk to some people than others because of differences in physical strength, experience and training.

Fix the problem

You should always aim to remove a hazard completely from your workplace. Where this isn’t practical, you should work through the other alternatives systematically.

Some problems may be fixed easily and straight away, while others will need more effort and planning. Concentrate on the most urgent hazards without neglecting the simpler ones that could be easily and immediately fixed.

Some solutions are more effective than others. Make sure your solution does not introduce new hazards.

Hierarchy of controls

Use the hierarchy of controls to remove or reduce risk in your workplace. It starts with the most effective control method (removing the hazard from your workplace completely) and finishes with the least effective (wearing personal protective equipment/PPE).

You must use the highest-ranked control that is practical for controlling the risk. Only use lower-ranked controls as a last resort or until a more effective way of controlling risk can be used.

Sometimes using more than one control measure could be the most effective way to reduce the exposure to hazards.

1 Eliminate the hazard

Remove it completely from your workplace. For example: repair damaged equipment; outsource processes involving hazardous chemicals or equipment to a company set up to manage them safely. If this is not practical, then…

2 Substitute the hazard

Replace it with a safer alternative. For example: use a less toxic chemical; lift smaller packages. If this is not practical, then…

3 Isolate the hazard

Keep it away from workers as much as possible. For example: relocate photocopiers to separate, ventilated rooms; install barriers to restrict access to hazardous work areas. If this is not practical, then…

4 Use engineering controls

Adapt tools or equipment to reduce the risk. For example: place guards on dangerous parts of machinery; use a trolley for moving heavy loads. If this is not practical, then…

5 Use administrative controls

Change work practices and organisation. For example, rotate jobs to reduce the time spent on any single work task; train staff in safe work procedures; carry out routine maintenance of equipment. If this is not practical, then…

6 Use personal protective equipment (PPE)

For example: use hearing/eye protection equipment, hard hats, gloves and masks; train staff to use PPE correctly.

Evaluate results

After you think you’ve fixed the problem, find out whether the changes have been effective. Get feedback from those affected by the changes and include them in any modifications to their workplace or work routines. Look at your incident records to see if numbers are going down.

Make sure your solution does not introduce new hazards. Maybe you and your workers can even see more ways to make further improvements. Set a date to re-assess the risk. Choose a timeframe appropriate to the task and the risk involved. If the work process changes, or new equipment is introduced to a task, then the risk assessment must be reviewed.

During each of these four steps, employers, managers, contractors and workers need to communicate with each other and work together.

Hazard management is not a one-off event — it’s an ongoing process.

Resources

Sample checklists, forms and registers

Safety management toolkit (PDF, 2.5 MB)

How to manage work health and safety risks code of practice

There are many definitions for hazard but the most common definition when talking about workplace health and safety is “A hazard is any source of potential damage, harm or adverse health effects on something or someone.”

The CSA Z1002 Standard "Occupational health and safety - Hazard identification and elimination and risk assessment and control" uses the following terms:

• Harm – physical injury or damage to health.
• Hazard – a potential source of harm to a worker.

Basically, a hazard is the potential for harm or an adverse effect (for example, to people as health effects, to organizations as property or equipment losses, or to the environment).

Please see the OSH Answers on Hazard and Risk for more information.

Hazard identification is part of the process used to evaluate if any particular situation, item, thing, etc. may have the potential to cause harm. The term often used to describe the full process is risk assessment:

• Identify hazards and risk factors that have the potential to cause harm (hazard identification).
• Analyze and evaluate the risk associated with that hazard (risk analysis, and risk evaluation).
• Determine appropriate ways to eliminate the hazard, or control the risk when the hazard cannot be eliminated (risk control).

Overall, the goal of hazard identification is to find and record possible hazards that may be present in your workplace. It may help to work as a team and include both people familiar with the work area, as well as people who are not – this way you have both the experienced and fresh eye to conduct the inspection.

Hazard identification can be done:

• During design and implementation
  • Designing a new process or procedure
  • Purchasing and installing new machinery
• Before tasks are done
  • Checking equipment or following processes
  • Reviewing surroundings before each shift
• While tasks are being done
  • Be aware of changes, abnormal conditions, or sudden emissions
• During inspections
  • Formal, informal, supervisor, health and safety committee
• After incidents
  • Near misses or minor events
  • Injuries

To be sure that all hazards are found:

• Look at all aspects of the work and include non-routine activities such as maintenance, repair, or cleaning.
• Look at the physical work environment, equipment, materials, products, etc. that are used.
• Include how the tasks are done.
• Look at injury and incident records.
• Talk to the workers: they know their job and its hazards best.
• Include all shifts, and people who work off site either at home, on other job sites, drivers, teleworkers, with clients, etc.
• Look at the way the work is organized or done (include experience of people doing the work, systems being used, etc).
• Look at foreseeable unusual conditions (for example: possible impact on hazard control procedures that may be unavailable in an emergency situation, power outage, etc.).
• Determine whether a product, machine or equipment can be intentionally or unintentionally changed (e.g., a safety guard that could be removed).
• Review all of the phases of the lifecycle.
• Examine risks to visitors or the public.
• Consider the groups of people that may have a different level of risk such as young or inexperienced workers, persons with disabilities, or new or expectant mothers.

A common way to classify hazards is by category:

• biological – bacteria, viruses, insects, plants, birds, animals, and humans, etc.,
• chemical – depends on the physical, chemical and toxic properties of the chemical,
• ergonomic – repetitive movements, improper set up of workstation, etc.,
• physical – radiation, magnetic fields, temperature extremes, pressure extremes (high pressure or vacuum), noise, etc.,
• psychosocial – stress, violence, etc.,
• safety – slipping/tripping hazards, inappropriate machine guarding, equipment malfunctions or breakdowns.

Another way to look at health and safety in your workplace is to ask yourself the following questions. These are examples only. You may find other items or situations that can be a hazard. List any item that should be examined. During the risk assessment process, the level of harm will be assessed.

What materials or situations do I come into contact with? Possibilities could include:

• electricity
• chemicals (liquids, gases, solids, mists, vapours, etc.)
• temperature extremes of heat or cold (e.g., bakeries, foundries, meat processing)
• ionizing/non-ionizing radiation (e.g., x-rays, ultraviolet (sun) rays)
• oxygen deficiency
• water

What materials or equipment could I be struck by?

• moving objects (e.g., forklifts, overhead cranes, vehicles)
• flying objects (e.g., sparks or shards from grinding)
• falling material (e.g., equipment from above)

What objects or equipment could I strike or hit my body upon, or that part of my body might be caught in, on, or between?

• stationary or moving objects
• protruding objects
• sharp or jagged edges
• pinch points on machines (places where parts are very close together)
• objects that stick out (protrude)
• moving objects (conveyors, chains, belts, ropes, etc.)

What could I fall from? (e.g., falls to lower levels)

• objects, structures, tanks, silos, lofts
• ladders, overhead walkways
• roofs
• trees, cliffs

What could I slip or trip on? (e.g., falls on same level)

• obstructions on floor, stairs
• surface issues (wet, oily, icy)
• footwear that is in poor condition

How could I overexert myself?

• lifting
• pulling
• pushing
• carrying
• repetitive motions

What other situations could I come across?

It may be necessary to research about what might be a hazard as well as how much harm that hazard might cause. Sources of information include:

• Safety Data Sheets (SDSs).
• Manufacturer’s operating instructions, manuals, etc.
• Test or monitor for exposure (occupational hygiene testing such as chemical or noise exposure).
• Results of any job safety analysis.
• Experiences of other organizations similar to yours.
• Trade or safety associations.
• Information, publications, alerts, etc. as published by reputable organizations, labour unions, or government agencies.

If you are new to your workplace, to learn about the hazards of your job, you can:

• ask your supervisor
• ask a member of the health and safety committee or your health and safety representative
• ask about standard operating procedures and precautions for your job
• check product labels and safety data sheets
• pay attention to signs and other warnings in your work
• watch for posters or instructions at the entrance of a chemical storage room to warn of hazardous products
• ask about operating instructions, safe work procedures, processes, etc.

Document last updated on May 4, 2018

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