Report of Hazards

at the Construction Site

of NS Construction Sdn. Bhd.

By
Index No: NS4367
IC NO: 620121-71-5465

Safety and Health Officer Examination (2/2008)

Paper III Part 2: Workplace Assignment
18 June 2007- 31 June 2007

PERAKUAN TUGASAN TEMPAT KERJA

WORKPLACE ASSIGNMENT VERIFICATION
Adalah dengan ini saya mengaku bahawa dokumen ini disediakan untuk Peperiksaan
Pegawai Keselamatan dan Kesihatan adalah berdasarkan hasil kerja asal saya sendiri kecuali
sedutan atau petikan.
I hereby certify that this document prepared for the Safety and Health Officer Examination
is based on my original work except for citation and quotation made.

Tandatangan
Signature

:..

No. Kad. Pengenalan

I.C.No.

:.

No. Indeks
Index. No

Tarikh
Date

: 21 July 2007

Table of Contents
No

Title

Page

WORKPLACE ASSIGNMENT VERIFICATION

1.0

ABSTRACT

2.0

INTRODUCTION

3.0

OBJECTIVE

4.0

METHOD

4.1

Hazard Identification

4.2

Risk Assessment

10

5.0

6.0

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

14

5.1

List of Hazards

14

5.2

Prioritizing Hazard

14

5.3

Impact on the most critical hazard

18

RECOMMENDATION

19

6.1

Control Measures

19

6.2

Review

22

6.3

Benefits

23

7.0

REFERENCES/RESOURCES

24

8.0

APPENDIX A ORGANIZATION CHART

APPENDIX B SAFETY AND HEALTH COMMITTEE CHART
APPENDIX C PICTURES

1.0

ABSTRACT
This report attempts to identify all hazards at a chosen workplace that leads to risks
and how safety and health measures could bring about beneficial end results by
containing or preventing these risks from bringing harm to the workers and the
organization. The workplace identified in the assignment that could contribute to
high risks and harm is the Working At Height and Noise at a Construction Site.
The report sets out to identify the many forms of hazards at the workplace and a few
suitable techniques that were selected to tabulate the risks involved. The risk
assessment process was used as the main technique to access and evaluate the risks
of the hazards identified. Among these, the most critical hazard was seen to be the
working at height for safety hazard and noise for health hazard. The control
measures to eliminate or reduce this critical hazard are then recommended based on
the findings, results and reviews obtained with appropriate references/sources and
appendices.

2.0

INTRODUCTION
NS Construction Sdn Bhd was established in 1974 with its core business being the
Building Construction work apart from dealing in other trades. The company was
restructured in 1994 and had since been managed by the present Board of Directors.
The nature of business is Building Construction and Civil Works.
Organization Chart
Director

General Manager

Site Manager

Site Engineer

Storekeeper

Site Supervisor

Quantity Surveyor

Assistant
Storekeeper

Assistant
Site
Supervisor

Assistant Quantity
Surveyor

Safety
and
Health
Officer

Project
Coordinator

Lorry Driver

Activities
There are a lot of activities done in the construction site, but for the purpose of this
assignment only building works are discussed. The activities that are discussed in
this report are on how building works are carried out, erection of scaffolding,
installation of roof trusses and roof coverings.

Work Environment
The entire process and activities has various hazards. We may observe their
existence from the initial stage of the building works. The hazard identified are
working at height that can cause falling from height, falling object, slip, trip and fall
from scaffold, heat stress, exposed to weather conditions (rain, drizzles etc) and
health hazards due to inhalation of dusts.

Work Process
a.

Before the work start safety induction will be given to all supervisors and
workers for the work that involves.

b.

Fabrication of roof trusses and roof covering are done in the factory
according to the specification stipulated in the Contracts Document.

c.

After the fabrication of roof structure completed, the roof structure will be
transported to site and a 20 tone mobile crane is required to hoist the roof
trusses and covering.

d.

Scaffolding erection work is required to work at height for the installation of

the roof structure.

e.

Welding and painting works on the roof trusses are done on the ground
before installing them.

f.

When the roof is completed, plastering and painting works will follow suit.
When all the building works are completed, dismantling work for the
scaffolding, cleaning and clearing work at site will commence. Returning of
tools and equipments to tools store requires very strict work ruling. The

supervision of the entire process is very critical to avoid any accidents

through careless action of the workers.

3.0

OBJECTIVE

A number of objectives will be fulfilled in this assignment, as follows:

a.

Identification of signification safety and health risks posed at the workplace.

b.

Identification of workplace safety and health risks and hazards.

c.

Estimation of severity of the safety and health risks from each of the safety
and health hazards.

d.

Based on their risk rating, determine the likelihood and severity of each
safety and health hazard by the use of Qualitative and Quantitative Risk
Table.

e.

Discuss control measures to eliminate or reduce the risk of most critical

safety and health hazards.

f.

Recommend post analysis of program to ensure continuity of effectively

managing Safety and Health at the work place.

4.0

METHOD

4.1

Hazard Identification
The first step in the managing risk is through hazard identification at the workplace.
All these hazards can be categorized into 5 categories:
a.

Mechanical Hazard
Machinery, its parts, tools, objects and materials processed or used in the
work process are often a source of mechanical hazards leading to injuries.

b.

Physical Hazard
Any hazard associated with that could cause physical harm, including but not
limited to corrosives, flammability, or explosion hazards. This hazard can
cause explosions, fires, violent chemical reactions, or other hazardous
situations.

c.

Chemical Hazard
A chemical hazard is any substance that can cause harm. Chemicals which
are stored in the workplace and at the house and can result in serious injuries
if were not properly handled.

d.

Biological Hazard
A biological hazard or biohazard is an organism, or substance derived from
an organism, that poses a threat to (primarily) human health. This can include
medical waste, samples of a microorganism, virus or toxin (from a biological
source) that can impact human health. It can also include substances harmful
to animals. The term and its associated symbol are generally used as a
warning, so that those potentially exposed to the substances will know to
take precautions.

e.

Ergonomic Hazard
Ergonomic Hazards includes workplace hazard which related between man
and machine. Material Handling and Back Injuries provides information on
back belts, lifting, pushing and pulling, and material handling aids.
Repetitive Motion Injuries provides information on musculoskeletal injuries,
risk factors, design hazards, wrist splints, and ergonomic hand tools.
Hazards could be identified through many methods such as identification,
inspection, data analysis, interviews, or hazard reporting system by workers.

4.1.1

Identification Method
Through this method, we can easily identify any hazard exist at the workplace.
Every job performed must be classified into various steps to ensure the hazards
could be identified including the risk.

4.1.2

Inspection Method
By doing inspection at the workplace, we could also identify hazards. Inspection
should be done on schedule basis or by ad-hoc.

4.1.2

Data Analysis Method

Through this method, all data such as the accident data could provide us the
information on the existing hazard occurs; it includes also the near miss and the
diseases infection data.

4.2

Risk Assessment
All hazards identified must be assessed of its risk. Risk assessment will be
performed through risk estimation and risk evaluation. This value is represented by
two parameters that are probability and severity. Every probability and severity is

valued accordingly by high or low of the hazardous event as per Figure 1 and
Figure 2.
PROBABILITY
Very likely
Likely
Unlikely
Highly unlikely

DEFINITION
Can happen frequently
Could happen occasionally
Could happen, but not rarely
Could happen, but probably never will
Figure 1 Valuation on Probability

SEVERITY
Fatality
Serious Injury
Injury
Small Injury

DEFINITION
Death
Sick leave for more than 4 days/permanent
disability
Sick leave maximum of 4 days/permanent
disability
Near miss/First Aid
Figure 2 Valuation on Severity

This type of assessment is called Qualitative Risk.

Events or situations assessed as very likely with fatality consequences are the most
serious (HIGH) risk and those assessed as high unlikely with negligible injuries are
the least serious (LOW) risk. This can be seen on Figure 3 below for the Qualitative
Risk Table.
Consequences
Fatality
Major injuries
Minor injuries
Negligible injuries

Very likely
High
High
High
Medium

Likelihood
Likely
High
High
Medium
Medium

Unlikely
High
Medium
Medium
Low

Figure 3 Qualitative Risk Table

From definition,
Risk = Consequences X Likelihood

10

Highly unlikely
Medium
Medium
Low
Low

In real scenario, we could not explain the risk by saying high or low because
sometimes there are existing two types of hazard and with the same level of risk
high, but the question is how high it is. So to differentiate the level of risk, the
estimate risks were represented by numbers. Numbers are given to present the level
of likelihood and severity. This numbers can be multiply, and ranked by value
for 4 higher and 1 low.
This type of assessment is then called Quantitative Risk. This can be seen on Figure
4 and 5 below.
VALUE
4
3
2
1

PROBABILITY
Very likely
Likely
Unlikely
Highly unlikely

DEFINITION
Can happen frequently
Could happen occasionally
Could happen, but not rarely
Could happen, but probably never will

Figure 4 Valuation on Probability

VALUE
4
3
2
1

SEVERITY
Fatality
Serious Injury
Injury
Small Injury

DEFINITION
Death
Sick leave for more than 4 days/permanent
disability
Sick leave maximum of 4 days/permanent disability
Near miss/First Aid

Figure 5 Valuation on Severity

For example:
Likelihood:

Severity

Very Likely (Daily)

=4

Likely (Weekly)

=3

Unlikely (Monthly)

=2

High Unlikely (Yearly)

=1

Fatality or Permanent Disability

=4

Major Injuries (more than 4 days MC)

=3

11

and

Minor Injuries (less than 0r 4 days MC)

=2

Negligible Injuries (first aid and near miss) = 1

Calculation example:
Likelihood of hazard is estimated

=2

The severity is estimated

=4

Then, the risk will be

=2X4=8

This risk assessment can be seen on 2 D Matrix Table on Figure 6 below.

Consequences
Very likely
(4)
High
(16)
High
(12)
High
(8)
Medium
(4)

Fatality
(4)
Major injuries
(3)
Minor injuries
(2)
Negligible injuries
(1)

Likelihood
Likely
(3)
High
(12)
High
(9)
Medium
(6)
Medium
(3)

Unlikely
(2)
High
(8)
Medium
(6)
Medium
(4)
Low
(2)

Highly unlikely
(1)
Medium
(4)
Medium
(3)
Low
(2)
Low
(1)

Figure 6 - Risk Assessment on 2 D Matrix Table

5.0

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

5.1

List of hazards
After performing the hazard identification and risk assessment, here are lists of
hazard found on the work area. These hazards were categorized on the level of their
risk. The higher the risk, the hazard will be placed on top among them.
a.

Safety Hazard
i.

Working at height

ii.

Erection of scaffolding/roof structure

12

b.

5.2

iii.

Welding

iv.

Loading/Unloading materials

Health Hazard
v.

Noise

vi.

Heat Stress

Prioritizing Hazard
Prioritization of hazards was conducted by applying risk assessment method. Risk
Assessment Matrix designed for each hazard at the workplace. Through this matrix,
all hazards that were identified through the above methods were weighted by their
risk elements through respective data and tables, their possible occurrences and risks
involved. The combination of all components in each activity was able to provide a
comprehensive tabulation as on Figure 7 below (from descending order):

Type of hazard
Safety hazard

Health hazard

Hazard
Working at height
Erection
scaffolding/roof
structure
Welding
Loading/unloading
material
Noise
Heat Stress

Severity
4
4

Likelihood
4
3

Risk
16
12

Value
High
High

3
2

3
2

9
4

High
Medium

4
4

4
3

16
12

High
High

of

Figure 7 Hazard List and Risk Value Table

5.2

Impact on the most critical hazard

a.

Working at height (safety hazard)

Risk

Probability X Severity

(16)

4X4

13

b.

Hazard Effect
Effect on this hazard will cause severe injuries and sometimes causing death
to the victim. Most of the work processes were done at height. The work
environment consists of working on high rise building or erection tower. The
chances or probability of getting involved in chances of fall from height are
very great and be valued as 4 (can happen frequently) and the severity was
also high and valued as 4 (fatality).

c.

Noise (health hazard)

Risk

Probability X Severity

(16)

4X4

Noise is the most common hazard in the workplace. It comes from the
machine. Effect on this hazard is very severe. The damage impact on the ear
takes on gradually effect without the knowledge of the worker. Most of the
damage is permanent.
6.0

RECOMMENDATION

6.1

Control measures
The most critical hazard either safety or health must be controlled. The control
measures of these hazards were done in according with means of hierarchy of
control. The steps are as follows:
a.

Working at height (Safety Hazard)

i.

Elimination
This method of control of hazard is the most effective way of
controlling. By eliminating the hazard then there will be no more
hazards exist. But it is impossible to use this method because we have

14

to work at height. Even though this most effective method, but it is

rather unpractical to exercise. No working at height means no high
rise building will exist. So we have to go to the next method.
ii.

Substitution
This second method of control under the hierarchy of control is by
substituting the hazards. Now we know that the hazard is working at
height. What can we do to substitute by not working at height? The
entire jobs performed are on the high rise building. Whether we like
or not the world today, we must build high rise building to save area.
There is no other means of technology to replace high rise building
for people to work with. So to replace working at height with other
means of technology is impossible. Substitution of other methods is
unpractical even though is good. So we have to go the next method
that isolation.

iii.

Isolation
This method is rather practical to perform. We cannot isolate people
from working with height. In construction industry, most of the jobs
are working at height if we want to erect new building. How can we
perform our job such as installing roof structure for high rise building
by working from the ground level? We have to go up. The only way
we can do is by isolating other people who are not involved with the
task to work at height, but working at height for the concerned
workers must be done. This method is not practical.

15

iv.

Administrative Control
Through this control, we can administer the workers who must work
at height, by authorizing designated workers who must work at height
to work on that height. For non-concerned workers we must restrict
them to work at heights. We must permit certain workers only by
issuing them permit to work with height. For those who are without
permit are not authorized to work at height.

v.

Engineering Control
The next method is engineering control. Engineering control by
barricade and guarding the entrance of building to prevent
unauthorized personnel to work at height. Signages must be posted to
inform workers who are not involved with working at height to clear
off from the building.

vi.

Personal Protective Equipment

This is the last resort of controlling method. To do this, we have to
issue all personnel who are working at height with proper PPE such
as full body harness. All workers who are working at height are to
ensure to use this PPE for their own safety. Monitoring and
surveillance must be done as regular as possible to ensure these
workers obey the rules to use this PPE. By wearing this PPE, hazards
of falling from height can be reduced. Workers must be taught to use
this harness and how to take care of this PPE. Once the PPE is
damage, employer must replace them as soon as possible.

16

b.

Noise (Health Hazard)

i.

Elimination
Through this method we have to eliminate all machineries that
produce noise at the workplace. All machines produce noise. It is
impossible to practice since we have to use the machine to perform
our task, even though through elimination we can eliminate the noise
hazards.

ii.

Substitution
Substitution method is by substituting all machines which are much
quieter than the existing machines. It can be done but it will costly to
replace the machines. We have to consider the amount we have to
spend on buying new and quieter machines. This method is good but
costly.

iii.

Isolation
By isolating the machines from the workplace is rather unpractical.
The only way we can do is by isolating non-involved personnel from
the noisy area. But what about the working personnel who is directly
involved with the machines? To do this we have to use other control
to overcome this. So, isolation is good but needs other control
methods to make it better.

iv.

Engineering Control
Through this control it can be done by designing noise absorption
device on the machineries so that the noise created can be reduced.

17

Even though by doing this is practical but the cost that makes it hard
to consider. Then we have to go to the next control method.
v.

Administrative Control
This method of control will involve management. Through this
method we have to limit the exposure of noise to workers, install
proper signage on noise, monitoring on workers condition and health,
and conduct training on noise for workers such as work safe
procedure and noise conservation program.

vi.

Personal Protective Equipment

This method of control is the last resort on controlling risk. Every
worker must be provided with PPE such as ear muff or ear plug
whenever they are involved with noisy area.

6.2

Review
Reviewing on the recommendation for improving any lacking and to ensure the
effectiveness of the control measures proposed must be performed. This review
process must be done ongoing in accordance with necessity such as for example if
there is a change in the work process or work procedure. The review process should
be done through:
a.

Referring to the accident records for comparison from time to time.

b.

Getting feedback from workers on the effectiveness of the control measures

through discussion, meeting, questionnaires and reports.

c.

Medical records of workers from Occupational Health Doctor.

d.

Surveillance and implementation on using of PPE with workers whether they

are suit to them, knows how they are being utilized, taking care and used.

18

6.3

Benefits
a.

b.

To the Company
i.

will increase productivity.

ii.

will give good reputation to the Company

iii.

will reduce the number of accident

iv.

will follow all the laws and regulations

For Workers
i.

will increase awareness and knowledge on the importance of

practicing safety and health at the workplace

ii.

will reduce accident to the workers

iii.

will produce a good working environment

iv.

will ensure the safety and health of workers being taking care of

v.

will follow the required laws and regulations of the government

19

7.0

REFERENCES/SOURCES
a.

ILBS, Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (Act 514) & Regulations
and Orders, International Law Book Service

b.

ILBS, Factories and Machinery Act 1967 with Regulations, International

Law Book Service

c.

NIOSH, Module 1 Occupational Safety and Health Management, NIOSH

Publisher, 2004

d.

Guidelines on Working at Height by DOSH.

20