IOSH Managing Safely flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Three reasons for managing safely

Managing safely is driven by the moral duty to protect people, legal duties under health and safety law, and financial costs of accidents including lost production, repairs and fines.

Definition of a hazard

A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm, such as chemicals, electricity, work at height, machinery, or an unsafe act or condition.

Definition of risk

Risk is the combination of the likelihood that a hazard will cause harm and the severity of the harm it could cause.

Accident cost iceberg

Insured costs such as claims and damage sit above the waterline; uninsured costs such as lost time, retraining, investigation and reputational damage are far larger and hidden.

Plan-Do-Check-Act

The four-stage improvement cycle used in managing safely: plan what to do, do it, check performance against the plan, and act to correct and improve.

Five steps to risk assessment

Identify hazards, decide who might be harmed and how, evaluate risks and decide precautions, record significant findings, and review and update the assessment.

Risk rating formula

Risk rating is calculated by multiplying likelihood of harm by severity of harm, commonly on a five-by-five matrix giving scores from one to twenty-five.

Suitable and sufficient

The legal standard for a risk assessment: it must identify significant hazards, consider who is affected, and be proportionate to the level of risk.

When to review a risk assessment

Review after an accident or near miss, a change in process, equipment or personnel, new legislation, or at a scheduled interval, whichever comes first.

Vulnerable people in risk assessment

Groups needing special consideration include young and inexperienced workers, new or expectant mothers, people with disabilities, lone workers, contractors and visitors, whose exposure or susceptibility differs.

Hierarchy of control

Order of risk control measures from most to least effective: eliminate, substitute, engineering controls, administrative controls, then personal protective equipment.

Reasonably practicable

Balancing a risk against the cost, time and effort of controlling it; controls are required unless the sacrifice would be grossly disproportionate to the risk reduction achieved.

PPE as last resort

Personal protective equipment is the least reliable control because it depends on correct selection, fitting, use and maintenance by each individual worker.

Safe system of work

A formal procedure combining physical controls, safe methods, training and supervision so that a task is carried out with risk reduced to an acceptable level.

Permit to work

A formal documented authorisation controlling high-risk tasks such as confined space entry or hot work, recording hazards, precautions, isolations and authorisation before work starts.

Employer duty to employees

Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of all employees.

Employee duties under HSWA

Employees must take reasonable care of their own and others' safety and cooperate with their employer, and must not intentionally interfere with safety provisions.

Written safety policy threshold

An employer with five or more employees must have a written health and safety policy setting out the statement of intent, organisation and arrangements.

Prohibition and improvement notices

A prohibition notice stops an activity involving serious personal injury risk immediately; an improvement notice requires a legal contravention to be corrected within a stated period.

RIDDOR reporting duties

Employers must report work-related deaths, specified injuries, dangerous occurrences, certain diseases, and over-seven-day incapacitation to the enforcing authority.

Noise action levels

The lower exposure action value is 80 dB(A) and the upper is 85 dB(A) daily; hearing protection zones and hearing checks are required at the upper level.

Work at height hierarchy

Avoid work at height where possible, prevent falls using collective measures such as guard rails, then minimise the distance and consequence of any fall.

COSHH assessment requirement

Employers must assess exposure to hazardous substances, prevent or adequately control exposure, and provide information, training and health surveillance where required.

Manual handling TILE

An assessment framework considering the Task, Individual, Load and Environment to decide whether manual handling can be avoided, mechanised or made safer.

Vibration action values

The hand-arm vibration exposure action value is 2.5 m/s squared A(8) and the exposure limit value is 5 m/s squared A(8), over a daily eight-hour period.

Immediate versus root cause

The immediate cause is the unsafe act or condition that triggered the incident; the root cause is the underlying management or organisational failure behind it.

Near miss definition

An unplanned event that did not cause injury or damage but had the potential to do so, signalling the same underlying causes as a real accident.

Five whys technique

A simple root cause method that repeatedly asks why an event occurred, typically five times, until the underlying organisational cause is reached.

RIDDOR reporting deadlines

Deaths and specified injuries must be reported without delay; over-seven-day injuries must be reported within fifteen days of the incident.

Proactive and reactive measures

Proactive measures monitor prevention before harm occurs, such as inspections and audits; reactive measures record outcomes after events, such as accident rates and days lost.

Accident incidence rate

The number of accidents divided by the number of employees, multiplied by one thousand, showing accidents per thousand workers in a given period.

Accident frequency rate

The number of accidents multiplied by one hundred thousand and divided by total hours worked, giving accidents per hundred thousand hours worked.