The Management and Assessment of Risk.
Within the BCGA it is fully accepted that the key to successful safety management is the management and assessment of risk.
In the past safety management was essentially reactive – an accident occurred, it was investigated thoroughly to establish root cause, and corrective action implemented to minimise the chance of a recurrence.
The introduction in 1992 of the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations (S.I. 2051 of 1992) obliged all organisations to assess risk and try to anticipate what can go wrong, and install control measures to prevent it.
Today it is clear that safety management must focus on prevention – we should not wait for accidents to occur in order to improve. But how can effective risk assessment be carried out? Many helpful documents are now available to show how this process can be conducted.
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At a very general level the Health & Safety Executive have provided some documents giving advice on the basic technique of risk assessment:
Leaflet INDG 163 provides a simple 5-step process of risk assessment which can be applied to any activity. |
Leaflet INDG 383 applies the technique to manual handling – a cause of many injuries throughout industry.
Both these leaflets are available from http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/
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The following BCGA documents are relevant to Risk Assessments:-
GN3 Safe Cylinder Handling and the Application of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations to Gas Cylinders.
GN9 The Application of the Confined Spaces Regulations to the Drinks Dispense
Industry.
GN11 Use of Gases in the Workplace The management of risks associated with reduced oxygen atmospheres.
GN13 DSEAR Risk Assessment.
TIS15 (Free) Model Risk Assessment for Oxy – Acetylene Applications.
TIS17 (Free) Model Risk Assessment for manual handling activities in the industrial gas industry.
TIS26 (Free) Model risk assessment for the transport of gas cylinders: 2012
TIS27 (Free) Model risk assessment for the safe use of liquid nitrogen dewars 2012 |
