What do I have to identify?

Basically all hazards actually present which may affect your workers at the workplace have to be recorded. This means that hazards which have already been eliminated by means of occupational safety and health measures do not have to be recorded and documented. Account must be taken both of hazards which may lead to accidents and work-related health hazards.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act hazards arise in particular due to:

• the design and equipment of the production establishment including all transport routes, working, storage, sanitation and recreation rooms and of the workplace,
• physical, chemical and biological exposures,
• the design, selection, use and condition of work equipment (machines, devices, plants, tools) and agents, as well as the handling of these and the handling of objects to be processed,
• the design of working and production processes,
• the design of work organisation (working sequences, division of labour, working time, breaks, responsibility) and
• inadequate qualifications, ability and skill, as well as inadequate instruction of workers

Hazards can also arise due to:

• inappropriate mental loads,
• the working environment conditions such as climate, lighting and light and
• the selection and use of personal protective equipment

To record the hazards systematically and completely, you should orient yourself on a list of hazards which are possible in principle. A basic orientation for the evaluation of possible hazards can be found in the List of hazard factors in the risk assessment guidelines (annex 1).

Note also that different hazards may arise with different operating conditions. The following operating conditions should be included in your assessment:

• normal operation
• start-up
• setting up
• trial operation
• shut-down
• servicing/care
• repair
• disturbances/outages

How should I proceed?

The precondition for all subsequent steps in the risk assessment is the identification and recording of the hazards in your establishment. The hazards should always be determined on the spot at the individual workplaces and while including the workers affected.

There are two methods for identifying hazards:

• the direct (predictive or preventive) method, for example by means of on-site workplace inspections and/or surveys and
• the indirect (retrospective) method, for example by means of accident investigations and/or the investigation of work-related illnesses.

Direct (predictive or preventive) method

With the direct method, working systems and sequences which have not yet led to accidents are examined to establish the hazards. The supreme goal is to prevent work accidents and work-related illnesses!

Hazards are identified directly in six stages:

1. Determination of the relevant risk factors

Determine all hazards and exposures (characterised by risk factors), which may affect the workers at the workplace. At the same time deficiencies in operational occupational safety and health management which favour the occurrence of hazards must also be revealed.

Note:

Further information on corporate occupational safety and health management can be found under the heading What role does corporate organisation play? Details information on risk factors can be found under the heading Expert knowledge.

2. Identification of danger sources

Identify the cause of the possible hazards – the danger source.

3. Identification of the dangerous conditions

Identify the circumstances which facilitate the coincidence of the hazard factor and people (dangerous conditions). The conditions are mostly known.

4. Note special performance prerequisites for workers

Check whether special individual performance prerequisites must be taken into account for workers, e.g. for young people, older workers, pregnant women, disabled persons or workers who do not have complete mastery of the German language.

Example:

While some risk factors are "not age-critical", certain risk factors also have to be considered in relation to the workers' age.¹⁾
For example, electrical hazards, hazardous substances, biological hazards etc. are not to be regarded as age-critical, while hazards due to special physical impacts (for example whole-body or hand-arm vibrations) or physical loads (lifting and carrying of loads) must be seen as age-critical.

5. Information gathering

Check whether there are government or Berufsgenossenschaft regulations (acts, ordinances, accident prevention regulations etc.) or Technical Rules for the risk factors identified which have to be complied with (e.g. occupational exposure limits in the case of hazardous substances). If such specifications exist, they must be complied with! In the case of non-compliance protective measures must be taken immediately (see steps 4 and 5: "Stipulation of measures" and "Implementation of measures").

6. Check whether there is a hazard

Check whether a recognised, injury-inducing or illness-inducing factor can actually affect workers.

Indirect (retrospective) method

In the indirect method accidents which have already occurred are included in the risk determination.

¹⁾ Source: "Alternsgerechte Arbeit gestalten", Arbeitshilfe IG Metall , NRW, Frankfurt am Main, 2007

What aids can I use in identifying hazards?

As aids for a systematic approach in identifying possible hazards you can use check lists and hazard catalogues.

Check lists

Check lists are primarily envisaged for small and medium-sized establishments. They are intended to convey information for the implementation of the risk assessment and on typical hazards and protective measures for a certain sector, for activity groups or occupational groups. The information is compiled in the form of a test list which can be used at the same time to document the results.

Check lists can be found at your competent labour inspectorate of the state office for occupational safety and health, or for the specific sector at your accident insurer.

Hazard catalogues

Hazard catalogues contain lists of typical hazards and protective measures for certain sectors or operational areas. You can use hazard catalogues to prepare for the risk assessment and from them you can, for example, draw up establishment-specific check lists.

You will also find an overview of available check lists and hazard catalogues of the accident insurers, the governmental occupational safety and health authorities and other relevant suppliers if you look around in our database with practical aids for the risk assessment.

Specialist knowledge related to the individual risk factors is passed in under our heading Expert knowledge.

Identification of inappropriate mental loads

You should also think about mental burdens at the workplace and take account of them in your hazard determination.

There are various procedures for identifying inappropriate mental loads. To obtain an overview of weak points and strengths with respect to mental loads orientation procedures are sufficient (among other things using check lists) which can be used without any prior knowledge of work psychology. If there is no sign of success with the use of these procedures and after the work design measures have taken effect, special procedures must be employed, possibly involving specialists.¹⁾

To be able to assess a workplace and the activities performed there objectively, it is often necessary to visit the workplace a number of times. The need for this arises if, for example, work is performed in a shift cycle, it is frequently necessary to process different quantities of material or information in the same time or activities vary in the time they take.

In the on-site workplace inspection, observation is the prime consideration. Such observation involves an estimation from outside. Since in most cases the occupant of the workplace knows best about the working conditions at his workplace, the self-estimation often complements the external one and reveals additional weak points. Practicable procedures for external and self estimation are given in the literature indicated.

¹⁾ Series "Psychische Gesundheit am Arbeitsplatz", InfoMediaVerlag e.K., Bochum