Hazard Analysis Tools
Now let’s look at some of the tools safety committees can use to identify hazards and determine how to correct those hazards.
Workplace Accidents
Earlier, we discussed workplace hazardous conditions, unsafe behaviors, and safety management system weaknesses as causes for accidents. We need to understand which of these cause categories result in the most accidents:
Conditions. Hazardous conditions account for a small percentage of the workplace accidents. Yet, most of the time, we look primarily for unsafe conditions when conducting a walk-around safety inspection.
OSHA compliance inspections are geared toward discovering unsafe conditions so, it's no wonder that employer inspections focus on the same thing. Consequently, your company might conduct a safety inspection on Tuesday only to suffer fatality the next day due to an unsafe work practice not discovered earlier.
Our attention during safety inspections must be on hazardous conditions and unsafe behaviors.
Behaviors. Formal and informal observation programs are effective tools for uncovering unsafe behaviors in the workplace. Formal observation programs involve trained observers who use specific checklists or other tools to assess workplace safety and identify areas for improvement. Informal observation programs involve safety committee members, supervisors or coworkers simply observing each other's work activities and providing feedback on safe work practices.
Unsafe behaviors account for a greater number of accidents, far more than hazardous conditions. But what are the factors that contribute to hazardous conditions and unsafe behaviors? What is the "ultimate cause" for most accidents?
Systems. Root cause analysis involves a systematic and thorough investigation of the factors that contributed to the incident. Safety management system component failures contribute in some way to virtually all hazardous conditions and unsafe behaviors. Therefore, the only assumption we should make when an accident occurs is that the safety management system has failed somehow. Our job is to discover and correct those failures.
Overall, the importance of "root cause" analysis in determining the cause of accidents cannot be overstated. Using a root cause analysis approach to accident investigation allows companies to focus on addressing the underlying causes of incidents, rather than simply treating the symptoms. By identifying and addressing the underlying factors that contributed to the incident, organizations can take targeted action to prevent future incidents and improve their safety management system.
There are a few situations when safety management system weaknesses are working and should not be considered the root causes for an accident. Accidents that may be examples of this include:
- accidents in which the employee makes an informed decision to intentionally violate a safety rule;
- accidents that are considered "acts of God" (lightning, etc.) or otherwise uncontrollable; or
- accidents that are the result of an illness/disease that is unknown by the employee and not observable by management.
Throughout the rest of the module, we'll discuss the various tools in more detail that can be used to identifying, analyzing, and correcting the suface and root causes for accidents.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
5-1. Virtually all accidents in the workplace are the result of _____.
You forgot to answer the question!