NEBOSH IGC flashcards
NEBOSH IGC · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Hierarchy of control
- Ranked measures from most to least effective: elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment. Employers must apply the highest practicable level first.
- Risk assessment definition
- A careful examination of what could cause harm to people, enabling the employer to weigh whether enough precautions have been taken or more should be done.
- Residual risk
- The level of risk remaining after existing and proposed controls have been applied. It determines whether further action is required before work proceeds.
- Near miss
- An unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage but had the potential to do so. Reporting near misses reveals failures before harm occurs.
- Unsafe act
- A human behaviour that creates or increases risk, such as bypassing a guard or working at height without fall protection. It is an immediate cause of accidents.
- Unsafe condition
- A hazardous physical state in the workplace, such as damaged equipment, poor lighting, or blocked escape routes. It is an immediate cause of accidents.
- Root cause
- The underlying management failure that allowed an unsafe act or condition to exist, such as inadequate training, poor supervision, or missing maintenance arrangements.
- Proactive monitoring
- Measuring activities before harm occurs, for example inspections, audits, training completion, and safety climate surveys. It indicates whether controls are working.
- Reactive monitoring
- Measuring outcomes after harm or failure, such as injury rates, lost-time days, and incident investigations. It shows where controls have already failed.
- Permit to work
- A formal documented system authorising specific high-risk work under stated conditions, with isolation, precautions, time limits, and formal handback and cancellation.
- Safety culture
- The shared values, attitudes, and behaviours relating to safety. Maturity ranges from blame-driven pathological through reactive, calculative, and proactive to generative.
- Consultation with workers
- A legal duty to inform and consult employees on health and safety matters, including risk assessments and control measures, so their experience shapes decisions.
- Management review
- A periodic top-management evaluation of the safety management system using audit results, incident data, and objectives, to set priorities and resources.
- Emergency plan
- Documented arrangements for foreseeable emergencies, covering alarm, evacuation, marshals, first aid, drills, and review after tests or real incidents.
- Contractor coordination
- Sharing risk information, coordinating activities, and supervising contractors so that their work does not create risks for themselves or the host workforce.
- Competent person
- Someone with sufficient training, experience, and knowledge to identify hazards and control risks in the relevant work. Competence must match the task complexity.
- RIDDOR reportable injury
- An injury at work that must be reported to the enforcing authority, including fatalities, specified injuries, and over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker.
- Dangerous occurrence
- A near-miss event with high potential for serious harm, such as a scaffold collapse or lift failure, which is reportable even without injury.
- Lost time injury
- An injury that causes the affected worker to be absent from work beyond the shift or day on which it occurred. Used as a reactive safety indicator.
- Safety audit
- A systematic, independent examination of the safety management system against defined criteria, producing findings and corrective actions with owners.
- Safety inspection
- A routine, often workplace-level check of physical conditions and behaviours against standards, used as a proactive monitoring tool.
- Corrective action
- The measure taken to eliminate the cause of a detected nonconformity or incident and prevent recurrence, tracked to closure with an owner and deadline.
- Accident investigation
- A structured process to establish what happened, why it happened, and what must change, using evidence, witness accounts, and root cause analysis.
- Hierarchy of control limit
- PPE is the least reliable control because it depends on correct selection, fit, use, and maintenance. It is used only when higher measures cannot adequately control risk.
- Risk matrix
- A tool combining likelihood and severity ratings to give a risk level, enabling consistent prioritisation of hazards and comparison of residual risk.
- Reasonably practicable
- Balancing the risk against the cost of controlling it in terms of time, money, and effort. Grossly disproportionate cost may justify not adopting a measure.
- Safety policy
- A written statement of the organisation's safety intentions, signed by top management, setting objectives and the arrangements for implementing them.
- Worker induction
- Initial training giving new or transferred workers site-specific hazards, rules, emergency arrangements, and welfare facilities before they start work.
- Health surveillance
- Systematic monitoring of workers exposed to specific health risks, such as noise or hazardous substances, to detect early signs of work-related ill health.
- Occupational health
- The branch of medicine and practice concerned with preventing work-related ill health, supporting fitness for work, and advising on workplace health risks.
- Toolbox talk
- A short, focused briefing to a work team on a specific hazard or task, used to reinforce controls and gather feedback before work begins.
- Safety performance indicator
- A measure used to judge safety performance, either proactive (activities before harm) or reactive (outcomes after harm), used to drive improvement.