RSP key terms

A structured set of policies, procedures, responsibilities, and resources an organization uses to plan, implement, evaluate, and continually improve how it protects workers and others from harm.

A proactive measure that reflects preventive activity before harm occurs, such as inspections completed, hazards corrected, or training hours delivered, used to predict and steer future safety performance.

A reactive measure that tracks outcomes after harm or loss has already occurred, such as injury rates, lost workdays, or property damage costs; useful for verification but weak at predicting future problems.

A scheduled, top-level evaluation in which senior leaders examine safety performance data, audit results, and objectives to confirm that the management system remains suitable, adequate, and effective.

A four-stage cycle for continual improvement: establish objectives and processes, implement them, monitor and measure results against targets, then correct and standardize before repeating the cycle.

A voluntary technical document developed by an accredited body through balanced committee agreement, which becomes enforceable only when adopted by a regulation or referenced in a contract.

A statutory provision requiring employers to provide a workplace free of recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious harm, applied where no specific standard governs the condition.

An individual designated by the employer who, through training and experience, can identify existing and predictable hazards and holds authority to take prompt corrective measures.

The process of identifying hazards, evaluating the likelihood and severity of resulting harm, and deciding whether existing controls are adequate or additional action is required.

A ranked approach to reducing risk that prefers eliminating the hazard, then substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and finally personal protective equipment as the least reliable option.

A step-by-step examination of a task that identifies hazards associated with each step and specifies controls, often used to write safe work procedures and train workers before the job begins.

The level of risk remaining after controls have been applied; it is compared with the organization's risk acceptance criteria to decide whether further reduction is required.

A principle requiring risk to be reduced as low as reasonably practicable, balancing the cost and difficulty of further controls against the magnitude of risk reduction achieved.

A formal process for reviewing proposed changes to equipment, processes, materials, or organization before implementation so new hazards are identified, controlled, and documentation updated.

An unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage but had the potential to do so; investigating such events reveals failures before serious harm occurs.

A structured investigation method that looks beyond the immediate cause of an incident to find underlying system, management, and cultural failures whose correction prevents recurrence.

A specific, assigned, and time-bound step taken to eliminate the cause of a detected nonconformity or incident so it does not recur; its effectiveness must later be verified.

A work-related injury or illness meeting regulatory criteria for entry on the injury and illness log, typically involving death, days away, restricted work, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness.

An injury treated with minor measures such as cleaning, bandaging, or non-prescription medication that do not rise to the level of medical treatment and are usually not recordable.

A normalized measure calculated by multiplying the number of recordable cases by a standard factor and dividing by hours worked, allowing comparison across sites and time periods.

Guidelines for teaching adults that emphasize relevance to real work, problem-centered content, active practice, respect for prior experience, and immediate application of new skills.

A systematic review of job tasks, regulatory requirements, incident data, and worker competence gaps used to decide who needs training, on which topics, and to what depth.

A four-level framework for judging training effectiveness by examining participant reaction, learning gained, behavior change on the job, and organizational results.

A brief, focused safety discussion held with a work crew before a shift or task to review hazards, controls, and lessons drawn from recent events.

A concentration of a workplace contaminant considered acceptable for repeated exposure over a stated period, derived from health research and carrying either legal or advisory status.

An advisory airborne concentration guideline published by a professional scientific body for an eight-hour workday and forty-hour week, reflecting current knowledge of health effects.

Clothing, respirators, gloves, eye protection, or other gear worn by a worker as a last line of defense against hazards that cannot be eliminated or engineered away.

A procedure verifying that a tight-fitting respirator seals against the wearer's face, conducted with a qualitative or quantitative method before first use and periodically afterward.

A planned program of health examinations and biological monitoring offered to workers with significant exposures, intended to detect early signs of work-related illness.

A written document describing reporting procedures, evacuation routes, assembly areas, accountability methods, rescue duties, and training required for responding to foreseeable emergencies.

A model showing the four elements needed for combustion: fuel, oxygen, heat, and an uninhibited chemical chain reaction, removing any one of which extinguishes the fire.

A predetermined safe location outside the danger zone where evacuated personnel gather so supervisors can account for everyone and report missing persons.

A protective strategy in which occupants remain indoors, close windows and doors, and shut down ventilation to avoid exposure to an outdoor hazard such as a chemical release.

An element of an organization's activities, products, or services that interacts with the environment, such as air emissions, waste generation, or water consumption.

The practice of reducing or eliminating pollutants at their source through process changes, material substitution, and efficiency rather than treating or disposing of waste after it is created.

A ranked preference for managing materials that places prevention first, followed by reuse, recycling, recovery, and disposal as the least favored option.

A structured framework of policy, planning, operational controls, and review that an organization uses to manage its environmental aspects and meet its compliance obligations.