1.

IOSH
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) is the world's leading
professional body for people responsible for safety and health in the workplace.
Our role: Supporting safety and health professionals
IOSH acts as a champion, supporter, adviser, advocate and trainer for safety and
health professionals working in organisations of all sizes. We give the safety and
health profession a consistent, independent, authoritative voice at the highest
levels.
Our single-minded focus is to support our members whose job is to protect the
safety, health and wellbeing of working people. We share their passion and
determination to cut the number of people who die or fall ill because of their work,
by helping organisations to create safer, healthier and more sustainable working
practices.
2. OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, more commonly known
by its acronym OSHA, is responsible for protecting worker health and safety
in the United States. Congress created OSHA in 1971 following its passage of
the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to ensure safe and healthy
working conditions for workers by enforcing workplace laws and standards
and also by providing training, outreach, education and assistance. Congress
enacted the OSH Act in response to annual workplace accidents that resulted
in 14,000 worker deaths and 2.5 million disabled workers annually. Since its
inception, OSHA has cut the work-fatality rate by more than half, and it has
significantly reduced the overall injury and illness rates in industries where
OSHA has concentrated its attention, such as textiles and excavation. The
administrator for OSHA is the Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and
Health; the position answers to the Secretary of Labor, a member of the
Cabinet of the United States.
A hazard is a situation that poses a level of threat to life, health, property, or environment. These
hazards are also very dangerous for human and animal life. Most hazards are dormant or potential,
with only a theoretical risk of harm; however, once a hazard becomes "active", it can create
an emergency. A hazardous situation that has come to pass is called an incident. Hazard
and possibility interact together to create risk.[1]
Identification of hazard risks is the first step in performing a risk assessment.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) refers to protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other
garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body frominjury or infection. The hazards

addressed by protective equipment include physical, electrical, heat, chemicals, biohazards,

and airborne particulate matter. Protective equipment may be worn for job-related occupational
safety and health purposes, as well as for sports and other recreational activities. "Protective
clothing" is applied to traditional categories of clothing, and "protective gear" applies to items such as
pads, guards, shields, or masks, and others.

The purpose of personal protective equipment is to reduce employee exposure to hazards when
engineering and administrative controls are not feasible or effective to reduce these risks to
acceptable levels. PPE is needed when there are hazards present. PPE has the serious limitation
that it does not eliminate the hazard at source and may result in employees being exposed to the
hazard if the equipment fails.[1]

What is Risk Assessment?

Risk Assessment is where the severity of the Hazard and its potential outcomes are considered in
conjunction with other factors including the level of exposure and the numbers of persons exposed
and the risk of that hazard being realised. There are a number of different formulae used to calculate
the overall risk from basic calculations using high, medium and low categories to complicated
algorithms to calculate risks at Nuclear power stations and other high risk work locations.
It is important to ensure that the residual risk following implementation of control measures is as low
as is reasonably possible (ALARP). For a risk to be ALARP it must be possible to demonstrate that
the cost involved in reducing the risk further would be grossly disproportionate to the benefit gained.