Six workplace H&S hazards you can easily avoid
Six workplace H&S hazards you can easily avoid
Essential knowledge to help safeguard your employees
Every workplace is hazardous. Some more than others, of course. As an employer, under the health and safety laws it’s your responsibility to identify these hazards and develop an effective health and safety policy to minimise and control them. For example, on a construction site you will require your workers to wear hard hats.
To help you complete your risk assessments in the workplace, this article describes the six workplace H&S hazards that you should look for.
#1: Safety hazards
The most commonplace of workplace health and safety hazards, these include environmental conditions that could cause illness, injury, and death. For example:
- Working at heights
- Physical factors that could cause trips and falls (the number one cause of workplace accidents)
- Unguarded machinery (one of the major seven health and safety mistakes that you will get sued for)
- Electrical hazards
- Working in confined spaces
#2: Physical hazards
Closely related to safety hazards, physical hazards are also environmental. Unlike safety hazards, you don’t need to come into contact with physical hazards for them to cause harm. Examples include:
- Radiation
- Sunlight
- Hot and cold temperature extremes
- Noise
#3: Biological hazards
Workplaces with biological hazards include hospitals, education establishments, labs, care homes, and farms. Anywhere that you may be exposed to working with animals, people, and plants that have disease. Exposure may be caused by:
- Blood
- Bacteria
- Viruses
- Insect bites, flees, and ticks
- Animal droppings
- Fungi and mould
- Etc.
#4: Chemical hazards
Chemical hazards can cause skin irritations, respiratory problems, and other illnesses. These hazards can be materials used in manufacturing processes, or the resulting chemicals, and can be solid, liquid, or gas. Examples include:
- Acids
- Solvents
- Acetylene, propane, carbon monoxide
- Pesticides
- Flammable materials
- Etc.
#5: Ergonomic hazards
Ergonomic hazards are those that cause poor working conditions that strain the body. They can cause short-term pain and develop into long-term injury or illness. For example:
- Poor posture caused by badly designed chairs
- Muscle and bone issues caused by excess vibration
- Poorly positioned computer monitors causing neck and back pain
- Repetitive work practices causing repetitive strain injury and carpel tunnel syndrome
#6: Working practices
Hazards may also be caused by poor workplace practise and general workplace environment and culture. These cause stress, and might include factors such as:
- Lack of respect
- Sexual harassment
- Overload of work
- Intensity of work
Are you safeguarding your employees from all your workplace hazards?
Take a close look at your workplace. Do it now. With the knowledge from this article, your workplace probably looks far more hazardous than it did five minutes ago. It’s your obligation to carry out risk assessments, so that you can safeguard your employees from these hazards. Sentry provides you with all the up-to-date documentation you need to do this more easily and effectively.
Contact Sentry today to book your free, no obligation demo and discover an easier way to avoid H&S hazards in the workplace.
