Principles, Standards and Implementation

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Safety Strategy

Task and Hazard Identification

All the hazards at the machine must be identified and listed in terms of their nature and location. Types of hazard include crushing, shearing, entanglement, part ejection, fumes, radiation, toxic substances, heat, noise, etc.

The results of the task analysis should be compared with the results of the hazard identification. This will show where there is a possibility for the convergence of a hazard and a person i.e. a hazardous situation. All the hazardous situations should be listed. It may be possible that the same hazard could produce different type of hazardous situation depending on the nature of the person or the task. For example, the presence of a highly skilled and trained maintenance technician may have different implications than the presence of an unskilled cleaner who has no knowledge of the machine. In this situation if each case is listed and addressed separately it may be possible to justify different protective measures for the maintenance technician than the ones for the cleaner. If the cases are not listed and addressed separately then the worst case should be used and the maintenance and the cleaner will both be covered by the same protective measure.

Sometimes it will be necessary to carry out a general risk assessment on an existing machine that already has protective measures fitted (e.g., a machine with dangerous moving parts protected by an interlocked guard door). The dangerous moving parts are a potential hazard that may become an actual hazard in the event of failure of the interlocking system. Unless that interlock system has already been validated (e.g., by risk assessment or design to an appropriate standard), its presence should not be taken into account.