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February 22, 2016

INTEGRATED METHODOLOGY FOR HAZARD

IDENTIFICATION AND RISK ASSESSMENT

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Hazards are the main cause of occupational health, safety and environmental problems.
Identification of Hazards and assessment of risk associated with them is an important practise to
reduce no of accidents and production breakdowns. The conventional process for conducting HIRA
(Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment) is limited to hazards which can cause harm to the
people. In 21st century the developed technology has resulted in transparent administration and
stringent regulations which bought importance to environment, property and Reputation. The four
factors are equally important so an integrated methodology is developed to cover people, property,
environment and reputation of the organization. The hazards identified in this process will be more
accurate resulting a safer and productive work place.

INTRODUCTION

Many business enterprises and organizations have proven that good safety management leads to
increased productivity. By having a good safety management program and developed safety culture
it is easy to avoid not only injuries, but also other incidents that are costly, time consuming, stressful
and inconvenient(Nigam, Maheshwari et al. 2009). This makes good economic sense. In 2003,
ConocoPhillips Marine conducted a study demonstrating a large difference in the ratio of serious
accidents and near misses(Radvanska 2010). This study was built on the original work of H.W.
Heinrich back in 1931(Heinrich 1941). The Conoco study found that for every fatality in the
organization there are at least 300,000 no of at-risk behaviors. These behaviors may include
bypassing safety components of machinery or eliminating an important safety step in the production
process and neglecting the use of personal protective equipment which they feels inconvenient that
slows down the operator. With effective Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Process the
possible hazards can be estimated and machine safeguarding and training etc. are done to control
manifestation of hazard, so eliminating at-risk behaviors and near misses also diminished. This also
reduces the chance of the fatality occurring, since there is a lower frequency of at-risk, so it has
become essential to identify the Hazards, to assess the associated risks and to bring the risks to
tolerable level. Every community should understand the risks it faces and make smart decisions
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about how to manage risk, including developing needed capabilities continuously putting efforts for
INTEGRATED METHODOLOGY FOR HAZARD ... https://hseindia.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/inte...
controlling the risks associated with various Hazards such that loss to Human life and property is
negligible or zero(Wells 1996).

The process is known as HIRAC (Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment and Control) the major
difference between the conventional HIRA (Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment) is in HIRA
all possible hazards are identified and residual risk is calculated by considering available safeguards
( No control measure incorporated during process) but where as in HIRAC safe guards or control
measures are incorporated immediately when found that hazard has tolerance to cause immediate
harm and also priority is given according to their manifestation capabilities. All major developments
used in this process of HIRAC are as follows:

· The activities that cause harm to the Environment is also considered as the hazards.

· The hazards that cause considerable property lose are identified.

· Any hazard leading to accidents which has impact on organizations reputation are considered for
HIRAC

· Risk Assessment Matrix is developed for categorization nature of hazards which involves the all
four categories of hazards.

· Three different excel work sheets developed for supporting the HIRAC process which makes future
additions easy

· Ergonomics and Hygiene factors are also considered during the process.

· Incorporating safe guards or control measures for hazards having tolerance to cause immediate
harm.

PROCESS

Hazard Identification

In order to identify hazards the following are recommended(Tixier, Dusserre et al. 2002):

· Past incidents/accidents are examined to see what happened and whether the incident/accident
could occur again.

· Employees be consulted to find out what they consider are safety issues, i.e. ask workers about
hazards near misses they have encountered as part of their work. Sometimes a survey or
questionnaire can assist workers to provide information about workplace hazards.

· Work areas or work sites be inspected or examined to find out what is happening now. Identified
hazards should be documented to allow further action. The work environment, tool and equipment
as well as tasks and procedures should be examined for risks to WHS.

· Information about equipment (e.g. plant, operating instructions) and Material Safety Data Sheets be
reviewed to determine relevant safety precautions.

· Some
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12.01.2018,
take place here?
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· Requirements of legislation or organization policies and procedures (e.g. workplace changes).

· Requests from the various Health and Safety Teams, etc.

· Identify all possible hazards for all the routine and non- routine activities including Emergency
situations prevalent in the department. All regular activities w.r.t operation and maintenance are
considered as routine and the activities which are not regular are considered as non-routine (e.g.
break down, Capital Repair). Risk assessment should be done against all the identified hazards.

· While doing the assessment, applicable Legal requirements w.r.t the activity (if any) are considered.

Risk Assessment:
A risk assessment should include:

1. Identify factors that may be contributing to the risk.

2. Review health and safety information that is reasonably available from an authoritative source and
is relevant to the particular hazard.

3. Evaluation of how severe the harm could be. This includes looking at the types of
injuries/illnesses/harm/damage that can result from the hazard, the number of people exposed,
possible chain effects from exposure to this hazard.

4. Evaluation of how a hazard may cause harm. This includes examining how work is completed,
whether existing control measures are in place and whether they control the harm, looking at
infrequent/abnormal situations as well as standard operating situations. A chain of events related to
a risk may need to be considered.

5. Determining the likelihood of harm occurring. The level of risk will increase as the likelihood of
harm and its severity increases. The likelihood of harm occurring may be affected by how often the
task is completed, in what conditions, how many people are exposed to the hazard and for what
duration.

The process of assessing the risk is undertaken by reviewing any available Information about the
hazard (e.g. legislation, Indian Standards, Industry Code of Practice or guidance material about the
hazard) and by using your personal work experience about what sort harm the hazard could create
and how likely this would be to happen. When determining how likely it is that a person could be
exposed to a hazard, consideration needs to be given to these “exposure factors”:

o Whether there are any other risk factors that increase the likelihood of exposure?

o How often the person is exposed (frequency)?

o For how long is the person exposed (duration)?

o How many people are exposed?

o The likely dose to which the person is exposed?

o Any legislative or recommended exposure levels required by statutory authorities.

Risk assessments are done basing on three main aspects people, property, Trust.
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Risk Categories

· Assessment and categorization is done on Base risk level for each identified hazards considering
their Probability (P) and Severity(S) as mentioned in the following table.
Probability (P) Score Indicative Guidelines

(Frequency of last occurrence)

Almost Certain 5 Daily

Quite Possible 4 Weekly
Unusual but Possible 3 Monthly
Unlikely 2 Yearly
Very unlikely 1 > one year

Human Asset Damage and other Environmental Effect Impact on Score

Severity Consequential Business Reputation
Loss (S)
(S) (S)
(S)

Multiple Massive damage: Massive damage: loss of Massive impact: 5

Fatality natural resources over a International
Costs in excess of Fifty wide area. public concern
crore Rupees

Fatality Major damage: Major damage: Exceeds Major impact : 4

National public
Costs between Five crore prescribed limits, with concern
and Fifty crore Rupees potential long term effects

Serious Moderate damage: Moderate damage: Moderate 3

impact:
Injury Costs between fifty Lakh Contamination Damages
and Five crore Rupees Significant
impact in region

Minor Minor damage: Minor damage: Minor impact: 2

Injury Local public
Costs between 500000 to No permanent effect on concern
fifty Lakh Rupees environment
Local media
coverage

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First Aid Slight damage: Slight damage: Slight impact: 1
Local public
Costs less than 5, 00,000 contained within the awareness but
Rupees premises no discernible
concern

No media
coverage

· Calculate Risk Score (R) of each hazards as R = P x S.

· Evaluate the Base Risk Level from the risk score as per the following Table
Score Risk Level
1 to 4 Acceptable (A)
5 to 7 Moderate (M)
8 to 9 Substantial (S)
10 and above Unacceptable (U)

· Consider the existing control measures in use for each identified hazard.

· Consider the probability, exposure & Severity of the hazard with the existing control measures in
place

· Calculate the Residual Risk Score.

· Evaluate the Residual Risk Level from the risk score

· In case the identified hazard has legal requirements, Risk Level is automatically considered
Unacceptable (U).

· All the risk levels except the Acceptable (A) are treated as Significant risks for which further
controls are determined and executed. For all the Significant Residual risk score level (i.e. M, S & U)
mention the following in the ‘Remark’ column of HIRA format as applicable.

Risk Assessment Matrix

Risk assessment matrix is one most used technique to categorize the identified hazards basing on
their risk scores.

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Risk Control:

If the risk score is either substantial, moderate or unacceptable there is a great need to control the
risk. In this process the control measure is suggested. The suggested control measure to be
implemented and the risk score is evaluated again to know the effective and this process to be
continued until the risk becomes tolerable. To suggest the control measure there is a hierarchy to be
followed which is given below

Risk Control Hierarchy:

· The hierarchy of controls are(Mannan 2012)-

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A. Elimination of hazard: examples include the proper disposal of redundant items of equipment
that contain substances such as asbestos or PCBs, the removal of excess quantities of chemical
accumulated over time in a laboratory, etc. The elimination of hazards is 100% effective.
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B. Substitution of hazard: examples include the replacement of solvent-based printing inks with
water-based ones, of asbestos insulation or fire-proofing with synthetic fibres or Rockwool, the use of
titanium dioxide white pigment instead of lead white, etc. The effectiveness of substitution is wholly
dependent on the choice of replacement.

C. Engineering controls: examples include the installation of machine guards on hazardous

equipment, the provision of local exhaust ventilation over a process area releasing noxious fumes,
fitting a muffler on a noisy exhaust pipe, etc.

D. Administrative controls: include training and education, job rotation to share the load created by
demanding tasks, planning, scheduling certain jobs outside normal working hours to reduce general
exposure (e.g. planning demolition and building works during summer recess), early reporting of
signs and symptoms, instructions and warnings, etc. Administrative control measures typically
require significant resources to be maintained over long periods of time for continuing levels of
effectiveness.

E. Personal protective equipment (PPE): includes safety glasses and goggles, earmuffs and earplugs,
hard hats, toe-capped footwear, gloves, respiratory protection, aprons, etc. Research has shown that
the effectiveness of personal protective equipment in realistic work situations is quite low. PPE is
therefore best seen as a “last line of defence” against hazards to be used in conjunction with other
risk control measures.

Suggestion of new controls

A set of new controls to be suggested basing the nature of hazards these controls to be incorporated
in the process and performance to be reviewed. The HIRAC procedure to be re conducted if there is
change in process, equipment or no of operators working, materials used etc. Any simple change in
the process

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NOTE: The process of ranking depends upon different parameters like Company revenue,
location etc..

References

Heinrich, H. W. (1941). “Industrial Accident Prevention. A Scientific Approach.” Industrial Accident

Prevention. A Scientific Approach.(Second Edition).

Mannan,
7 din 8 S. (2012). Lees’ Loss prevention in the process industries: Hazard identification, assessment
12.01.2018, 20:39
INTEGRATED METHODOLOGY FOR HAZARD ... https://hseindia.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/inte...
and control, Butterworth-Heinemann.

Nigam, N., et al. (2009). “Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment.” IFFCO–Aonla Trainng
manual.

Radvanska, A. (2010). “Accident losses elimination by means of safety pyramid analysis.” Annals of
faculty engineering Hunedoara. Int J Eng. 2010; 8 (1): 73 6.

Tixier, J., et al. (2002). “Review of 62 risk analysis methodologies of industrial plants.” Journal of Loss
Prevention in the process industries 15(4): 291-303.

Wells, G. (1996). Hazard identification and risk assessment, IChemE.

Posted by naveen835 in ENVIRONMENT, safety, Safety in Construction, safety in construction

industry, Uncategorized
Tagged: 21st century, accident, acts, Administrative controls, assessment of risk a, Asset Damage
and other Consequential Business Loss, Construction, Determining the likelihood of harm
occurring, Elimination of hazard, Elimination of hazard: examples include the proper disposal of
redundant items of equipment that contain substances such as asbestos or PCBs, the removal of
excess quantities of chemical accumulated o, Engineering controls, ENVIRONMENT,
Environmental Effect, Evaluation of how severe the harm could be, Evaluation of how severe the
harm could be. This includes looking at the types of injuries/illnesses/harm/damage that can
result from the hazard, the number of people exposed, possible chain effects f, factories,
frequency, good safety management, Hazard control, Hazard Identification, HAZARD
IDENTIFICATION AND RISK ASSESSMENT, HIRA, HIRAC, Human Severity, Identification of
Hazards, Impact on Reputation, Indicative Guidelines, industry, INTEGRATED
METHODOLOGY FOR HAZARD IDENTIFICATION AND RISK ASSESSMENT, occupational
health, safety and environmental, people, property, environment and reputation of the
organization, Personal protective equipment (PPE), Probability, Probability (P), Risk Assessment,
Risk Assessment Matrix, Risk Categories, Risk Control, Risk Control Hierarchy, Risk Score,
safety, Score, Suggestion of new controls

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