Risk assessment involves accurately identifying the potential hazards in your workplace.

One

can start by simply taking a stroll around their work place and identifying hazards that they may

have assumed or not seen before in their workplace. One can also think of the hazards in their

workplace and notice that many of these dangers may have gone unnoticed for a very long time.

Some of these hazards may have been overlooked by the management and the employees

working at that station and they may be posing fatal risks to the health of those working there

and can even cause fatal accidents. There many types of hazards present in our workstations such

as chemical, ergonomic, physical, and psychosocial which can cause harm and even adverse

effects in the workplace. However, physical hazards are the most prevalent type of hazards

present in various workplaces. These hazards end up causing injury, disease and illness, and at

times even result in the death of the affected employee. This paper provides information on risk

assessment on our business following a checkup that was made in the business taking into

concern all its entities i.e. workers and the management.

Most of the employees work in very harsh conditions and environments and sometimes they

don't notice it or maybe they get used to working in such conditions. Others just have to tolerate

these conditions as they do not have any other alternative. Each and every workplace has

chemicals and in one way or the other an employee might encounter a chemical product in their

line of duty. Some of the chemicals that are overlooked are cleaning products. Employees tend to

think that because the company they are working for is not a full-scale chemical production

company they do not handle any chemicals and thus they ignore the manufacturer's instructions

even on the products that they handle daily. In such places, storage instructions by the

manufacturer are ignored by the workers and one can find the chemicals stored and handled
improperly. Such mishandled chemicals, later on, haunt the same employees by causing injuries,

illnesses and diseases, fire and explosions and even property damage.

The chemicals that some of the employees are exposed to have long-term effects on their health.

This is however also caused by long-term exposure to these chemicals. For example, long-term

exposure to asbestos causes lung cancer and mesothelioma. This is because asbestos fibers are

easily inhaled and they settle in the lower regions of the lung where they inhibit breathing and

cause respiratory diseases apart from lung cancer and eventually lead to death of the victim.

Other effects as a result of lung cancer also start emerging. Such are effects such as the dilation

of the heart muscles as an effect due to the increased resistance of blood flow in the lungs. Such

diseases also lead to the weakening of a person's immune system and they eventually lead to the

death of the victim.

Most of the manufacturing and heavily industrialized workplaces are filled with machines.

Machines are not only found in heavily industrialized workplaces but also in farms and in the

countryside. Employees that work with machines mainly face permanent hearing loss after

spending most of their youthful days working themselves off for employers who do not really

care about their well- being. Machines also produce heat when working and thus when the indoor

ventilation is poor, the workers often end up with dry skin and irritated eyes. Most of these

employees also suffer from headaches due to inadequate air supply in their work stations mainly

associated with an overheated workplace.

Our industrial activities not only end up affecting those of us working in the industries and

factories but also affect the public, innocent people who have no part to play in the industry and

whose only wrong was their proximity to the industrial area. For these people, it is a matter of
being at the wrong place and thus most of the time they end up being the victims of something

that they were not part of. Members of the public especially those in residential areas that

neighbor industrial areas mostly complain of headaches mainly due to noise from the machines.

People in such areas also suffer from cracked and dry skin and irritation of the eyes. Most of

them battle with having to keep their skin and eyes moisturized. In extreme cases, some of the

people cannot sleep and eventually this leads up to fatigue and dizziness due to inadequate sleep.

Risk is a part of everyday life and we are not expected to be a hundred percent risk-free. Nothing

is perfect and thus, we cannot eliminate all threats in our workplace no matter all the safety

measures and controls that we take into account. What we strive to do is make sure that we know

about the main risks and the things we need to do to manage them responsibly. Generally, this

means doing everything 'reasonably practicable' to protect people from harm. This means

balancing the level of risk against the measures needed to control the real risk in terms of money,

time or trouble. However, it does not make sense to take action if it would be grossly

disproportionate to the level of risk.

Risk can be gotten rid of and by doing so the probability of harm happening can be greatly

reduced. Machines make work easier and mainly get the job done in a simplified and good

manner. However, these machines are the ones responsible for many injuries and accidents in the

workplace. These risks are not beyond our scope of control and safety and thus, we try our best

to control these risks. Wielders, for example, are provided with protection glasses to protect their

eyes from harmful radiation and light. Those employees working in noisy environments are also

provided with ear muffs and trained on how to use it. This helps in avoiding permanent and

sometimes disabled hearing and thus helps in preventing such harm from occurring. We should

strive to eradicate such a risk by using screens, barriers, enclosures and absorbent materials to
reduce the noise on its path to the people exposed. The design of the work station can also be

changed to change and make the place a quitter and calmer place to live in. Employers should

also mind the health of their workers by limiting the time an employee should work in a noisy

station. There should be at least rotation of workers from one station to another or from one

machine to another, or extreme measures can also be applied such as dismissing a worker no

matter how good they are at their work. After all, an employer should feel good that they did

such a deed in good faith and knowing that they care about their employees' health. Employees

are also equipped with gas masks to protect them from dangerous fumes. This will soon be

upgraded to the use of a hazmat mask to protect better all employees. A training program will

also be started to equip all employees with the skills they need to handle machines and chemicals

better.
References

Collins, L. and Schneid, T. (2001). Physical hazards of the workplace. Boca Raton: Lewis

Publishers.

Proctor, N., Hughes, J. and Hathaway, G. (2004). Proctor and Hughes' Chemical hazards of the

workplace. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Interscience.

Health and Safety Executive (2014). Risk assessment: a brief guide to controlling risks in the

workplace. http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg163.htm