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Easily identify and record hazards for safety controls and corrective actions using a hazard identification checklist.
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In this article
A hazard identification checklist, also known as a hazard assessment, is a tool used by safety officers in performing hazard assessments. The main purpose of a hazard assessment is to identify potential health and safety hazards by examining conditions or practices in the workplace. Performing regular hazard assessments is critical for implementing adequate corrective measures that can help prevent injuries and illnesses.
Ultimately, this process is covered by an organization’s holistic Health, Safety, and Environment or HSE management system.
Hazard identification is the process of detecting potential sources of harm or damage from doing a job task in a specific work area. Identifying workplace hazards is crucial to implement controls that will help ensure the safety of workers and other stakeholders. Overall, it’s part of hazard assessment, the process of evaluating risks associated with a hazard and taking action to remove it or reduce risks involved with it.
A hazard assessment reduces the probability of workplace accidents occurring and ensures the safety of your employees. Easily perform fire risk assessments by following the steps below:
Look – Walk around the facility and look for out-of-place items. Identify potential or existing hazards. Learn how to identify common workplace hazards.
Think – Evaluate identified hazards and determine their underlying causes. Set appropriate controls to mitigate the likelihood of recurrence.
Act – Implement corrective actions or controls.
Monitor – Perform regular inspections and reviews to ensure that standard operating procedures and safety control measures are followed.
Industries like construction, manufacturing, and transportation face numerous workplace risks in their daily operations. And as the risks increase, determining them can take more time and effort to accomplish.
Using a hazard identification checklist can help simplify this task by establishing a framework to document and examine workplace hazards. This structured approach facilitates a more efficient, consistent, and comprehensive recording of risks, leading to improved safety protocols, hazard control measures, and risk mitigation strategies.
Aside from this, here are 5 reasons why you should use a checklist for identifying hazards:
It reduces the chances of oversight during the assessment process by accounting for all relevant hazard categories and work-specific considerations.
It standardizes the assessment process to ensure that similar hazards are identified and evaluated consistently.
It speeds up the hazard identification process by providing a ready-to-use tool at your disposal.
It serves as a helpful resource for training and guiding individuals involved in the hazard assessment process.
It aids in tracking the progress of risk management efforts and serves as evidence of due diligence.
When creating your own checklist, it’s important to keep in mind the environment, activities, and components specific to your workplace. At its most basic format, a hazard identification checklist will include the following elements:
Nature of work
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Noise exposure
Excavation
Site security and emergency preparedness
Ambient conditions when working outdoors
Cuts and abrasions
Plant and machinery
Falling objects
Lifting procedures
Fire or ignition sources (hot work)
Environmental impacts
Decontamination of plant and equipment
Vibration
Waste disposal
Customer and surrounding property
Nearby work
The image below illustrates how you can use a digital checklist for hazard identification:
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Use this basic hazard identification template to perform general hazard assessments. Safety officers can also use this template during walkthroughs to easily document potential hazards in the facility.
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Hazards associated with job processes and workflows need to be examined and reviewed to determine if existing control measures are effective and sufficient. Start by listing a process and identify the category of hazard (physical, chemical, biological, etc.). Evaluate the severity, frequency, probability of loss, and significance of hazards observed based on the rating guide provided. Site some recommendations for safety planning and purposes.
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Use this comprehensive OSHA hazard assessment checklist which covers a total of 43 sections of compliance checks in the workplace. Identify hazards from every corner and processes, and keep a proper documentation after sign-off.
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Use this template before commencing work on a construction project and determine the hazards that may arise from the work activity to be performed. This checklist records significant data on detected risks like the presence of electrical tools, an ongoing excavation activity, the use of scaffolds and ladders, and the handling of deadly substances and materials.
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Use this checklist to ensure safety during operation to carry out risk assessments and determine if there are sensitive risk groups in the retail sector like night workers, young persons and pregnant women and if they receive sufficient protection. Evaluate if the staff are well educated on the safety rules when working with big equipment, extreme temperatures, electricity, and chemicals.
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This CCOHS hazard assessment can be used to check the overall safety of a manufacturing site. This covers a thorough evaluation of the environment, equipment, and employees’ compliance with safety rules must be conducted to identify workplace hazards.
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Before performing a hazard assessment, it is best to gather your team to talk about existing issues and problems in the workplace. Use this toolbox talk template prior to a job or shift commencing for about 5 to 10 minutes. All staff and managers working on the shift discuss the key hazards and remediation plans associated with the work to be performed. Use Mitti (by SafetyCulture) to document the group discussion and prompt all workers to sign off.
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This checklist is the first step in establishing a HACCP plan, as it helps to identify and record potential food safety hazards. Every food premises should conduct a hazard analysis to determine the food safety hazards reasonably likely to occur in the production process and identify the preventive measures the establishment can apply to control those hazards. This checklist has been certified by HACCP International to meet their requirements.
