Risk Assessment

Confined Spaces

Confined spaces can be fatal

Each year in Australia, people are killed in a wide range of confined spaces, from storage vessels, to complex industrial equipment. Many of these fatalities occur when attempting to rescue another person in a confined space. Additionally, people can be seriously injured from other hazards found within confined spaces.

What do the regulations require of employers?

If you are an employer, the regulations require you to manage and control risks that are associated with confined spaces.

Hazard identification:

First, you must properly identify confined spaces by applying the definition. Then, in consultation with a health and safety representative or external risk management provider, you must identify the hazards that are associated with entering and working in such spaces.

Risk assessment:

Next, you must assess the risks to workers who might have to enter the space. This means you need to determine whether there is any risk, i.e., injury or illness, associated with each of the hazards identified. What is more, you must record and retain the assessment.

Australian Risk Services assist companies in performing confined spaces risk assessments using our expertise and experience.

Plant Regulations

This code of practice provides practical guidance on how people can meet the requirements of the Model Work Health and Safety Regulations. The aim of the Regulations is to protect people against the risks plant and associated systems of work can pose to their health or safety at work.

Plant is defined in the Regulations to cover items such lifts, cranes, pressure equipment, machinery, hoists, powered mobile plant, amusement structures, lasers, turbines, explosive-powered tools, scaffolds and temporary access equipment. The regulations do not cover ships, boats, aircraft, road and rail vehicles, hand-held plant, which relies exclusively on manual power for its operations. This code of practice only deals with the types of plant covered by the Regulations.

The regulations require the identification of hazards, assessment of risks and control of risks posed by plant and associated systems of work.  The regulations apply to designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers of plant, employers and self-employed persons. The code explains what these processes mean and how they can be performed by designers and employers.

Manual Handling

Manual handling covers a wide range of activities including lifting, pushing, pulling, holding, throwing and carrying. It includes repetitive tasks such as packing, typing, assembling, cleaning and sorting, using hand-tools, and operating machinery and equipment. Because most jobs involve some form of manual handling, most workers are at risk of manual handling injury. Of course, not all manual handling tasks are hazardous. But it is significant that around a quarter of all workplace injuries are caused by manual handling.

What kind of injuries can result from manual handling?

Unsafe manual handling may cause a variety of injuries & conditions including:

• Muscle sprains & strains
• Injuries to muscles, ligaments, intervertebral disks & other structures in the back
• Injuries to soft tissues such as nerves, ligaments & tendons in the wrists, arms, shoulders, neck or legs
• Abdominal hernias
• Chronic pain

Some of these conditions are known as repetitive strain injury (RSI), occupational overuse syndrome (OOS), cumulative trauma disorder (CTD) and work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WRMSD). In the Model Work Health & Safety Regulations, all of these conditions are referred to as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). The regulations define MSD as an injury, illness or disease that arises in whole or in part from manual handling in the workplace, whether occurring suddenly or over a prolonged period of time.

You should consider this service if you are:

• An employer, because it will help you work out which manual handling tasks in your workplace could cause MSD, & show you how to control the risk
• A designer, manufacturer, importer or supplier of plant for use in workplaces because it will help you ensure that users of your product are not exposed to the risk of MSD

Hazardous Substances

The purpose of the Hazardous Substances Code of Practice is to help manufacturers, importers & suppliers of hazardous substances & employers using those substances, to meet the requirements of the Model Work Health & Safety Regulations, so as to protect people at work against risks to health from using hazardous substances.

You should consider this service if you are:

• Manufacturer of hazardous substances
• Supplier of hazardous substances
• Occupiers of premises where dangerous goods are stored & handled
• Health & safety representatives, employees & anyone else who has an interest in the risks to people or property posed by hazardous substances

Hazardous substances are substances that have the potential to harm human health. They may be solid, liquids or gases; they may be pure substances or mixtures. When used in the workplace, these substances often generate vapours, fumes, dusts & mists. A wide range of industrial, laboratory & agricultural chemicals are classified as hazardous.

Noise Risk Assessment

A noise assessment may be simple or quite complex, depending on the type of workplace, the number of workers and the information already available regarding noise exposure levels. The detail and accuracy needed will depend on individual circumstances.

When should a noise assessment be done?

Employers should carry out noise assessments when workers and others may be exposed to risks from noise levels above LAeq,8h 85 dB(A) and/or LC, peak 140 dB(C), i.e. excessive noise. If noise exposure is marginally below LAeq,8h 85 dB(A) the noise levels should be reassessed whenever any changes that may increase noise exposure are made.

What is the aim of a noise assessment?

Noise assessments vary depending on the severity of the risks at the workplace. The general aim of a noise assessment is to:

• Identify all persons likely to be exposed to excessive noise. Generally, this will involve the evaluation of LAeq,8h and measurements of peak noise levels where relevant
• Obtain information on noise sources & associated work practices. This information will help decide what measures should be taken to reduce noise levels
• Check the effectiveness of measures taken to reduce noise exposure or the risks from noise exposure. If a base-line has been established in a more comprehensive assessment & there has been no change at the workplace it may be possible to restrict future surveys. These surveys would measure noise levels at a few defined positions & under a restricted range of working or loading conditions of the equipment involved
• Help choose appropriate personal hearing protectors for persons exposed to risks from excessive noise; &
• Define hearing protection areas at work

Australian Risk Services work closely with a Certified Occupational Hygienist (COH) as per the requirements of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists, who is skilled in the following areas:

• Identification & assessment/monitoring of workplace hazards
• Development of best practice atmospheric contaminant monitoring programs including statistical analysis of results
• Making recommendations to reduce or eliminate the impact of workplace hazards
• Conducting noise surveys
• Managing & creating occupational hygiene databases
• Development of hazardous substance registers
• Identification & assessment of confined spaces
• Development & delivery of information sessions to work crews

Dangerous Goods

The purpose of this Code of Practice is to help manufacturers and suppliers of dangerous goods and occupiers storing and handling these dangerous goods, to meet the requirement of the Model Work Health and Safety Regulations, so as to provide for the safe storage and handling of dangerous goods.

You should consider this service if you are:

• Manufacturer of dangerous goods
• Supplier of dangerous goods
• Occupiers of premises where dangerous goods are stored & handled
• Health & safety representatives, employees & anyone else who has an interest in the risks to people or property posed by dangerous goods

We work closely with our clients to ensure that staff is adequately involved in risk assessments and that they understand the process and requirements of law when conducting risk assessments.

Working at heights

In the last three years 23 people died at work as a result of a fall and many more people were severely injured

WorkSafe Victoria has been producing guidance for employers to help them prevent falls happening, but something more had to be done to stop the deaths and injuries.

New regulations are being introduced that will affect the way you and your employees work at height.

Find the fall hazard

Identify any job your workers do, or may do, where there is any chance at all of a fall of more than 2 metres. The regulations call this identifying a fall hazard.

Assess the risks

Once fall hazards are identified you have to decide how likely it is that someone will fall.

Once the employer has identified all the tasks where there is any chance at all of a fall, the employer has to work out how likely it is that a fall could happen. The risk assessment needs to be performed.

Risk Assessment allows appropriate control measures to be developed. Once hazards have been identified, they should be assessed in terms of their potential to do harm.

To assess risk, consideration should be given to the:

• Likelihood that harm will occur &
• Severity of the harm should it occur

Australian Risk Services can assist your company in performing working at heights risk assessments.

Fix the problem

With the information you’ve gathered you then have to put in place risk control measures.

Monitor and review the effectiveness of the control measures

Regular monitoring to ensure the control measures that have been implemented have performed as intended.