How to manage the risk of

Hazardous Chemicals
in the workplace
How to manage the risk of 01

Hazardous Chemicals
in the workplace

Hazardous chemicals are substances, mixtures or articles that pose a significant threat to the health and well-being
of workers if they are not managed in a safe and compliant manner.

Under the Australian WHS regulation, hazardous chemicals are substances that satisfy the criteria of either the:
Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labeling Chemicals
Classification in Schedule 6 of the Australian WHS regulations.

Most substances that are classified as dangerous goods under the Australian Dangerous Goods Code are also
classified as hazardous chemicals, except for those substances that are only classified as:

Class 7 Radioactive substances

Class 6.2 Infectious substances
Class 9 Miscellaneous Dangerous Goods

In regards to chemicals, a hazard is a set of properties that are associated with the chemical that may cause
adverse effects to organisms or the environment. There are two main types of hazards associated with hazardous
chemicals. These two main types of hazards are defined as health hazards and physicochemical hazards. These
hazards may present immediate or long term illness or injury to people. These two types of hazards are defined
below:

Health hazards: These are the properties that have the potential to cause harm to human health. Exposure to
hazardous chemical can cause harm to human health. There are three main routes of exposure. These route of
exposure include inhalation, ingestion and skin contact. Exposure to hazardous chemicals can lead to
short-term(acute) and long-term(chronic) effects. Some short term effects include nausea, skin corrosion and
vomiting, while long-term effects can include skinesses such asthma, nerve-damage and cancer.

Physicochemical hazards: Physiochemical hazards are the chemical and physical properties of hazardous chemicals
that pose risks upon workers other than health risks. These hazards are not the result of the biological interaction
of the hazardous chemical with people. Physicochemical hazards arise as a result of incorrect handling, storage and
use of hazardous chemicals. Some of the physicochemical hazards include explosive, flammable, corrosive,
spontaneously combustible, oxidising and water reactive chemicals.

As hazardous chemicals pose many risks upon the people and property of your workplace, it is very important that
you manage them in a safe and compliant manner. The effective management of hazardous chemicals requires
knowledge, discipline and a lot of method.
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Hazardous Chemicals
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A methodology for managing risk

Hazardous chemicals pose many risks upon the people, property and environment of your workplace and it is very
important that you have a methodical risk management process in place to mitigate the risks associated with
hazardous chemicals. STOREMASTA developed a risk management methodology that can be used to manage the
risks associated with hazardous chemicals. This methodology is called:

Identify - Assess - Control - Sustain

Identify
If you are unaware of the hazards that are present in your workplace, you will struggle to implement the necessary
controls to mitigate these hazards. A hazard is an event that will hinder you from reaching your objectives. If your
organisation had an objective of “Zero Harm” then a hazard will be anything that will hinder you from achieving this
state of zero harm.

Therefore the risk management process starts by firstly identifying the potential hazards associated with the
hazardous chemicals in your workplace. To successfully carry out this part of the risk management process, you
must go into your workplace and physically identify all the areas on your premises where hazardous chemicals are
stored or used. A good way to do this is to print off a floor plan of your premise and then mark in all the locations
where hazardous chemicals are present.

Some common areas in the workplace where hazardous chemicals are stored or used include:

• Manufacturing lines
• Warehouses
• Spray booths
• Laboratories
• Equipment maintenance areas
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Hazardous Chemicals
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Each time you identify a location in your workplace where hazardous chemicals are stored you must also identify
any hazards that may be present. There are a number of hazards that chemical substances can present.
These hazards include:

Flammability the potential to burn or explode when ignited

Toxicity the immediate, delayed or long-term health effects on humans or animals through
inhalation, skin absorption or ingestion,
Corrosivity The potential corrosive chemical action on other materials, in particular,
packagings and living tissue (including skin)
Instability the potential to undergo a spontaneous reaction
Reactivity the potential to react with other chemicals or water
Environmental impact the effect on the environment, including aquatic life

Once you have identified all the locations where hazards chemicals are stored and used, you can then start to
assess the magnitude of the risk that they present.

Assess
Once you have identified all the potential hazards associated with the hazardous chemicals stored in your
workplace, you can then carry out a risk assessment. A risk assessment is a systematic approach to
identifying how the storage of your hazardous chemicals could harm the people, property and the environment of
your organisation.

This process involves assessing:

What hazardous events (accidents, incidents), could occur?
How frequently these hazardous events could occur?
What the consequences of each event could be?
What are the total risks (the probability and consequences of events)
of each area where hazardous chemicals are stored.

Once you have assessed these factors, you can then use the data to calculate the risk level associated with each
location where hazardous chemicals are being stored. Risk is calculated by using the formula below:

Risk = Severity of the outcomes x Likelihood of the incident

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Hazardous Chemicals
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Each time you identify a location in your workplace where hazardous chemicals are stored you must also identify
any hazards that may be present. There are a number of hazards that chemical substances can present.
These hazards include:

Quantifying Likelihood Of Incident - L

L Likelihood Of Occurence Indicative Frequency

0 Totally Eliminated Zero

1 Rare Once in a thousand years

2 Unlikely Once in a hundred years

3 Likely Once in ten years

4 Certain Less than once a year

5 Imminent More than once a year

Assessing Relative Level Of Risk (R = S x L)

R Assessment Of Risk Initial Priority For Action*

1-2 Low 4. Schedule for actions after other risks

3-4 Medium 3. Further improvement required

5+ High 2. Immediate action required

10+ Totally Unacceptable 1. Shutdown unless additional controls instigated immediately

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Quantifying Severity Of The Outcome - S

S Extent Of Consequences Examples

1 Minor Minor loss of containment

Dealt with by site personnel
No harm to personnel
No environmental damage

2 Medium Loss of containment

Minor Fire
No structural damage
No harm to personnel
No long term environmental damage

3 Major Major loss of containment

Fire
Some structural damage
Minor injuries or personnel affected by fumes
Some environmental damage

4 Catastrophic Total loss of containment

Major Fire
Major structural damage
Injuries / harm to personnel requiring hospitalisation > 24 hours
Death
Impact largely confined to the premises

5 Catastrophic External Significant impact beyond the boundaries of the premises

As you carry out these risk assessments on the different locations where hazardous chemicals are stored in your
workplace, it is important to keep track of all the data in a central location. This can be done by using a risk
management matrix template. This template can be manually drawn up on a piece of paper, or even better, on an
excel spreadsheet or google sheet that automatically calculates the risk level with embedded formulas.

An example of a risk management matrix is shown below. This matrix has two sections. The first section is for
assessing the level of risk before any controls have been implemented and the second section is for assessing the
success of the controls after implementation.
Risk Management Matrix Template

NAME OBJECTIVE

PRE-MITIGATION POST-MITIGATION
DEPARTMENT / MITIGATIONS / WARNINGS /
REF / ID
RISK LOCATION REMEDIES RISK ACCEPTABLE
RISK RISK SEVERITY RISK LEVEL RISK SEVERITY RISK LEVEL
LIKELIHOOD LIKELIHOOD TO PROCEED?

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Control
After you have assessed the risk level for each location where hazardous chemicals are stored in your workplace,
you must then develop a plan to reduce the risks by implementing the necessary controls. Risk reduction can often
consume a lot of resources, which makes it important to prioritise which risks must be controlled first.

The hazards that pose the greatest amount of risk upon the people, property and the environment of your
organisation must be controlled first, and then the hazards with the next greatest risk. This process must be
followed until all the risks have been mitigated.

The controls that you use to mitigate the risks associated with hazardous chemicals will depend on the nature of
the risk. In all cases the control measures must be implemented in a strict order. This order is shown below:

1. Elimination Discontinuing the use of the hazardous substance.

2. Substitution
3. Engineering controls
4. Administrative controls
5. Personal Protective equipment
Substituting the hazardous chemical with a less hazardous substance
Engineering controls to enclose or isolate the hazard
eg. Chemical storage cabinets
Written safe working policies and procedures
Use of personal protective equipment such as gloves, safety glasses and

Hierarchy Of Controls

Most
Elimination Physically remove the hazard
Effective

Substitution Replace the hazard

Engineering Controls Isolate people from the hazard

Administrative
Change the way people work
Controls
Least PPE Protect the worker with Personal Protective Equipment
Effective

After you have implemented all the necessary controls to reduce the risk associated with hazardous chemicals, it is
a good practice to carry out another risk assessment to analyse the success of the controls. This risk assessment
can be recorded on the same risk management matrix that you used for the first risk assessment so that you can
identify the level of improvement.
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Sustain
Once you have implemented the controls to reduce the risks associated with hazardous substances, it’s very
important to develop an ongoing system to sustain your low risk and compliance to the dangerous goods
regulations and standards. Before you develop this plan, you must first identify the factors that may increase your
risk or decrease your compliance. Some of these factors could include:

• Increased quantities of hazardous chemicals stored onsite due to business growth.

• Changes in the layout of equipment and machinery in the workplace bringing items such as ignition
sources into close proximity of hazardous chemicals
• Lapse in the use of safe working procedures
• When hazardous chemical storage facilities break down due to wear and tear.
• The employment of new personnel

Once you have identified these events and how frequently they occur, it will allow you to determine how frequently
you will have to carry out certain proactive tasks to sustain your low level of risk and your compliance to the
regulations. For example, when you make changes to the layout of your workplace, it is a good practice to carry out
a risk assessment of that area to identify any changes and to determine if these changes pose any further risks
upon your workplace. Also, if you employ a new worker, you will need to train him to handle and store hazardous
chemicals according to your safe working procedures so that he doesn’t pose any further risk upon himself or
others in the workplace.

By analysing how frequently things change in your workplace, you will be able to determine how often you will have
to carry out a periodic risk assessment. If your organisation is growing rapidly, you may have to carry out a risk
assessment every month. On the other hand, an established organisations may only need to carry out a risk
assessment every quarter.

Another factor that should be considered when planning to sustain low risk is a maintenance schedule for your
hazardous chemical storage facilities. All hazardous chemical storage facilities have certain features that make
them safe and compliant. Some of these features include:

• Correct dangerous goods signage

• Compliant ventilation system
• Self-closing self-latching doors
• Liquid tight spill containment sump
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If any of these features breakdown, it can make the the storage facility unsafe to store hazardous chemicals.
A systematic maintenance plan will enable you to keep your hazardous chemical storage facilities in a
safe working condition.

Another factor that is important to consider when sustaining your low risk is a periodic risk assessment or
compliance check from an external assessor. An external assessor with a good knowledge of the dangerous goods
standards and regulations will be able to provide extra insights and pick up things that you may not have been
aware of. An external assessment doesn’t have to be a highly frequent event. A half yearly or annual external
assessment would be recommended to ensure that your storage systems and facilities comply with the dangerous
goods standards and regulations.

Conclusion
As hazardous chemicals pose many risks upon the people, property and the environment of your organisation, it is
very important that you have a disciplined, methodical and systematic approach to managing risk. An effective
methodology that can be adopted is Identify, Assess, Control, Sustain. The adoption of this methodology will allow
you to manage the risks associated with hazardous chemicals in an efficient and effective manner. If you would like
any further advice on how to manage the risks associated with hazardous chemicals, please don’t hesitate to reach
out, because we developed the methodology and we are more than happy to help.