1.

3 Safety Management Systems

The management of safety issues is about the identification and control of the risks presented
by various hazards. There are three essential steps to ensure that hazards in the workplace
are eliminated or controlled:
1. Hazard Identification
2. Risk Assessment
3. Risk Control

1.4 Identification of Hazards

The first step in any safety management plan is the identification of hazards. Methods for
identifying hazards in the workplace include:
 History of Injury or Illness – first aid reports and previous compensation claims
 Job Safety Checks – close observation of all steps in a job, from start to finish
 Employee Consultation – health/safety representatives/committee members
 Safety Audits – written report with recommendations for improvement, conducted by
external safety consultants

Classification of Hazards:
Hazards may fall into various categories which include:
 Mechanical hazards (eg: hands getting caught between moving parts)
 Electrical hazards (eg; hands in contact with bare copper conductors)
 Physico-chemical hazards (eg: flammable vapors present)
 Biological (eg: germs present in a hospital)
 Ergonomic (eg: scaffolding used during painting)

Industrial accidents
When an accident occurs with industrial machinery, the results can be horrendous.
 Person operating an industrial machine
 Person having to carry out work on a machine (eg: fitter, maintenance electrician).
 Happen through work or whilst at a place of work
 Can cause minor to serious injury and even death

Human-related factors:
 Poor grasp of machine design
 Overly familiar with danger through habit and failure to take dangerous situations
seriously
 Under-estimation of hazards – ignoring safety guards
 Fatigue – relaxed attention to supervisory tasks
 Failure to comply with procedures
 Increased stress (noise, work rates, etc)
 Uncertainty of employment - can lead to inadequate training
 Inadequate or poor maintenance – can generate unsuspecting hazards

The Safety Book Page 7 of 31