Risk Assessment
Safety Risk Assessment
OHS Act Section 8 requires an employer to establish the hazards and risks at a workplace and implement safe systems of work to protect employees and non employees.
A safety risk assessment is the term used to describe the systematic process of identifying hazards and risks in the workplace which have the potential to cause injury, disease, damage to equipment and property and establish and implement control measures to manage/mitigate such hazards and risks.
Purpose of Conducting Risk Assessments
Risk assessments are the starting point of an occupational health and safety management system and aim to:
- Identify who may be at risk (e.g. employees, cleaners, visitors, contractors, the public, etc.).
- Determine control measures required to manage hazards.
- Determine if controls are affective and if additional controls are required to ensure safety at a workplace
- Prevent injury, disease, damage to equipment and property
- Prioritize hazards and controls
- Meet the employers legal requirements
- Create awareness of hazards and risks
Altra Medical Production’s competent risk assessors
You may want to attend risk assessment training and conduct the risk assessment yourself, or trust us to do it for you. Altra Medical Production’s competent risk assessors will:
- Develop a risk assessment policy and procedure (methodology and risk matrix)
- Identify activities in the workplace
- Identify the hazards and risks related to each activity
- Conduct quantitative risk analysis of each hazard
- Formulate and implement control measures to manage workplace hazards
- Monitor the effectiveness of control measures by using continueous risk assessment techniques
- Review control measures as and when required
Fire Risk Assesment
Employers are legally required to implement fire safety measures in the workplace. Although the focus of a fire risk assessment is to satisfy the requirements of legislation, the objective of the risk assessment will primarily be the safety of the occupants of a building.
A fire risk assessment is a systematic process of the evaluation of fire risks in the workplace taking into consideration life and property at risk and includes assigning a risk category to each area of the workplace and a review of the current fire safety measures.
Steps of a Fire Risk Assessment
Altra Medical Productions competent fire risk assessors will:
- Conduct physical inspection of the buildings and premises
- Establish people at risk
- Establish potential ignition sources
- Determine the effectiveness of existing fire safety measures such as means of escape, storage of flammable substances, adequacy of portable fire equipment, fire detection, alarm and suppression systems
- Establish compliance to SANS 10400-part T, municipal bylaws, and applicable SANS codes
- Provide fire risk assessment report detailing additional measures required to improve fire safety measures at a workplace