Hazard control describes the steps necessary to protect workers from exposure to hazards or harm. This includes the procedures to monitor worker exposure and their health in relation to hazards such as chemicals, materials or substances, or other environmental factors such as noise and vibration.

Written workplace hazard control programmes outline the methods used to control exposure to the hazard and how these controls will be monitored for effectiveness.

What kind of control is needed?
Selecting an appropriate control it is not always easy. It often involves a risk assessment to prioritise the hazards and risks. In addition, both “normal” and any potential or unusual situations must be taken into account. Each hazard programme should be designed specifically to suit the needs of the individual workplace, so no two programmes will be exactly alike.

Techniques for identifying hazards
Different techniques exist for identifying hazards in the workplace, and selecting the right hazard identification technique is critical to appropriately managing the hazard and protecting those in the workplace.

Construct Health uses a number of hazard identification techniques and tools in hazard control programmes, including:

  • Formal inspections
    This is the most comprehensive form of hazard ID and ascertains the overall state of the health and safety management system.
  • Safety tours
    This is a systematic review of a plant (walk through basis) concentrating on well-known or obvious health and safety issues in a plant. The primary purpose is to check on nature of the hazard and the effectiveness of existing controls.
  • Behaviour sampling
    Behaviour sampling is a human behaviour assessment technique which is used during routine, generally low-risk operations in which the probability of unsafe behaviour is quite high. Assessment is undertaken on a systematic sampling basis to establish the proportion of unsafe work behaviours which might require correction and amendment to organisation safety management systems.
  • Task analysis
    Task analysis is a formal methodology, derived from systems analysis, which describes and analyses safety performance demands made upon humans in the workplace. Task analysis is based upon the principle that the task is the basic unit of behaviour at work.