Essay Methods of Assessing the Risk: Chemical Hazards

A situation that can pose a threat to the lives of people, their health, properties and the environment as a whole can be referred to as a hazard. Chemical hazard, therefore, is the threat posed to people at their workplace when they are doing their daily duties by chemicals (Harris, 2005). Risk assessment is a very important step in managing and controlling disasters. The term risk assessment can be defined as a process of thoroughly looking at the workplace so as to identify anything or situations that may harm individuals in the working places. The process involves identifying hazards, analyzing and evaluating risks that may arise as a result of that hazard and eventually find ways of controlling that particular hazard from occurring.

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Risk assessment is crucial in every workplace as it creates a framework where people get the awareness of the environment they are working in. In addition, people at risk are identified, and measures are put in place to protect them and hazards being prioritized. The main aim of this process is to create a safer working environment for both employees and employers by preventing hazards from affecting people or reducing the level of their risk by ensuring that measures in place are more effective.

Chemicals can be dangerous especially to human health and can affect different body organs hence causing diseases to people. The chemicals can cause harm to people and that is why risk assessment must be done to reduce exposure to chemicals (Harper, 2004). Besides, chemicals can have negative effects on ones brains, irritation on some body parts like the eyes, nose, throat, affect lung, bladder and on ones skin. It can further cause diseases like cancer and asthma. Chemicals can enter ones body through inhalation, ingestion, contact with the skin and injection. The four ways are very common in workplaces (Pettersson-Stromback et al., 2010).

The risk assessment process involves three key stages namely: Identification of the hazard, assessment of the risks associated with it and lastly control of its exposure (Frier, 2003). When the three steps are taken care of appropriately, the employees and the employers are assured of good health and safe place of work. For the three stages to be accomplished, both the employees and the employers have a role to play (Morag and Luria, 2013). The risk assessment process not only focuses on the current situation of the workplace but also on any other possible situation that may arise later.

Identification of hazards aims at finding and recording any potential hazards that might be present in the workplace. In this case, where chemicals are the potential hazard, all chemicals need to be identified and the chemical safety data sheet will help in that (Turner, Hunsicker and Franjevic, 2016). As said earlier, the contribution of every individual within the workplace is required for the process to be easy and fast. A thorough inspection of the workplace is then done by people who usually work at the place and those who are new to the environment (Dean, 2001). That way, the chances of obtaining good results from the inspection are high. In this stage, chemicals in the workplace are identified as well as the hazards associated with them.

In the identification of hazards, several things are put into consideration. Such strategies include examining past incidences or accidents that occurred in the workplace, assessment of the chances that the risks might occur again, consulting employees so that they can give information on hazards in the workplace, inspecting work areas in order to find out what is taking place at the moment, reviewing information about the equipment used and safety materials so as to decide pertinent safety precautions and lastly welcoming ideas on what potential hazards that may occur in that place (Harbison, 2011). In workplaces, there are quite some chemicals and all of them have distinct effects on the human body and this brings us to the next stage of risk assessment process which is an assessment of the hazard (Levy, 2004).

Risk assessment is the second stage that involves putting into consideration the possibility of someone being exposed to a hazard and the probability that such situation is going to occur (Eichendorf et al., 2002). The risk assessment stage helps in determining the severity of the risk, how effective the control measures in place are, any actions that can be taken to help control the risk and how urgent are those actions need to be done. After a hazard has been identified, which is, in this case, a chemical hazard, its severity is determined and this can be done in terms of how many people can be affected within a short period (Leggett, 2012). Assessing the method by which the chemical has entered ones body be it inhalation, ingestion, injection or contact with the skin is also important as it helps in reducing the level of risks.

The assessment of risk process involves reviewing any available information about the hazard. All the chemicals available in the workplace need to be reviewed such that everyone within the workplace is aware of all information concerning every chemical (Fairhurst, 2003). The creation of awareness helps employees to take care of themselves as they know the dangers of any chemical as well as the level of hazardous in each. The assessment also means knowing the frequency or the time of which somebody is exposed to the chemical. In addition, this stage helps in assessing the risks of harm which result from exposure to hazards. When this is already determined, the measures to help prevent or sometimes reduce the level of risks the hazard may pose to people are put in place. Most institutions use a table so as to ensure that everyone and everything in the workplace are covered. The table will include the menacing group and the explanation of risks that may arise. In workplaces, there is employers, employees, equipment and environment within it. All those are included in the first column and the description of the threat posed to them by the chemicals in the other column. Having such tables in workplaces makes the process of risk assessment very easy and achievable.

Lastly, control of exposure to the chemicals involves taking into account the most effective and recognizable control measures that will help in eliminating or reducing the risk (Langerman, 2008). In this stage, current control measures are considered including the work procedures, personal protective and safety equipment in the workplace, storage arrangements, health facilities in place and the training that is offered to employees. Also, the emergency procedures in place as well as the procedure of disposing waste (Warheit and Donner, 2015). All the above factors matter a lot when it comes to controlling the exposure to chemicals. When one has all that knowledge, they can know whether there is need to come up with more effective control measures or not.

Despite the efforts put in place by individuals in workplaces to ensure that they are safe from chemicals, other hindrances try to stop them from achieving that. One of the barriers facing the implementation of risk assessment and management process is cultural norms. Different organizations have their unique way of operation and different beliefs as well. Despite the fact that risk assessment helps in eliminating risks, some of the workers may view that as running away from opportunities (Hoffmann, 2011). This is so because they feel that exposure to some chemicals will make them know the existence of such hazard and work on ways of making it right. They will make research on the means of mitigating it instead of eliminating it since they believe that the organization does not have to stop using all the chemicals just because they pose threats. A way is to be found so as that no lives or properties are lost and the chemical also remain in the workplace as they are needed too.

Secondly is resistance to change by the people and is often encountered when trying to implement the process of risk assessment and management (Kim, Lee and Gosain, 2005). The whole process of risk assessment and management usually ends by bringing in new control measures to the system. Most of the people within the workplace may find it hard in adapting with the new methods brought in. Sometimes people may be asked to change the way job was done before and this is where you find so many people complaining and trying to resist.

Also, the individuals concerned with the identification of hazards sometimes cover up the hazards for the sake of keeping their jobs. For this reasons, peoples health and safety are put at stake just because they cannot afford to lose their jobs. It is a situation that often happens in both private and public sectors. Workers believe that managers will not want to hear any bad news and so when writing their reports, they only include the good progress they are having in projects without mentioning any potential risks they have discovered because they fear losing jobs.

Risk assessment and management process needs funds for the process to be carried out. Lack of enough funds within the organization is a barrier to implementation of the process. Most of the times, projects tend to compete for the limited funds the organizations have and managers will choose to ignore the negative ones and use the funds in carrying out other projects (Kim, Lee and Gosain, 2005). In a workplace with the possibility of being affected by chemicals, risk management system should always be there and workable so that in the case of anything they do not need to start the process from point zero as that will require much money.

Communication is another barrier to successful implementation of the process. Effective communication is essential for the proper and smooth running of activities in every institution or workplace (Kim, Lee and Gosain, 2005). Without good communication systems, everything will tend to fall apart. It is also applicable to the implementation of risk assessment and management process since it helps in connecting people within the working place and their managers and can easily share any updates within the working environment. Communication in workplaces also includes the special skill and abilities within the individuals in the workplace that enables them to come up with effective suggestions on mitigation measures.

References

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Dean, R. (2001). Book Review: Methods of assessing the risk to health from exposure to hazards released from waste landfills. Waste Management & Research, 19(4), pp.366-366.

Eichendorf, K., Guntrum, E., Jochum, C. and Niemitz, K. (2002). Hazard Analysis for the Evaluation of the Hazard Potential of Chemical Process Units. Chemical Engineering & Technology, 25(4), p.439.

Fairhurst, S. (2003). Hazard and risk assessment of industrial chemicals in the occupational context in Europe: some current issues. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 41(11), pp.1453-1462.

Frier, P. (2003). Hazard and Exposure Considerations related to Chemical Risk Assessment. Greener Management International, 2003(41), pp.47-55.

Harbison, R. (2011). Cancer Risk Assessment: Chemical Carcinogenesis, Hazard Evaluation, and Risk Quantification. Environmental Health Perspectives, 119(7), pp.a312-a312.

Harper, M. (2004). Assessing workplace chemical exposures: the role of exposure monitoring. J. Environ. Monit., 6(5), pp.404-412.

Harris, D. (2005). Exploring chemical analysis. 1st ed. New York: W.H. Freeman.

Hoffmann, S. (2011). Overcoming Barriers to Integrating Economic Analysis into Risk Assessme...