According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the client – the person responsible for implementing health and safety on their project, whether that be to introduce health and safety measures directly or to employ someone to take on these duties – is required to reduce risks to individuals as far as reasonably practical through a site risk assessment.
Often, however, there are situations where there are many risks involved, meaning you must decide which risks to prioritise and manage first.
At Lucion, we have a team of Construction & Land Development specialists who utilise and develop a number of health and safety frameworks that are designed to minimise risk. We work with clients and designers to ensure we correctly apply the most practical design risk management strategy. One of the most popular frameworks is the Hierarchy of Hazard Control.
What is the Hierarchy of Hazard Control?
The Hierarchy of Hazard Control, sometimes referred to as the hierarchy of controls, helps reduce workplace hazards and risks at work to the lowest reasonable practical level by taking preventative measures, in order of priority. The Hierarchy of Hazard Control was introduced to help clients and duty holders manage the risks with a practical approach and resist the desire to manage the easiest risks first but rather manage the risks depending on whether they were likely to harm people and to what severity.
Implementing a risk reduction hierarchy like the Hierarchy of Hazard Control means you have an effective control measure with a consistent approach to managing worker safety. As a business, you must ensure you are aware of and understand the main risks in your workplace and have suitable control measures in place to protect your workers from hazards and the harmful effects of working with hazardous chemicals.
At Lucion, we can support your understanding and compliance with the Hierarchy of Hazard Control through our hazardous materials surveys and other hazardous materials services, like asbestos compliance.
Categorising the Risk
Risk reduction hierarchy is categorised by the potential harm or adverse health effect that the hazard may cause, the number of times a person may potentially be exposed and the number of people who may be exposed. For example, exposure to airborne asbestos fibres will always be classified as high risk because a single exposure is all it takes to cause potentially fatal lung disease (and each additional exposure increases the likelihood). Asbestos air monitoring and asbestos exposure assessments are useful for understanding the asbestos levels in working environments and they allow businesses to implement protective barriers and safe work practices to minimise or reduce exposure to asbestos. These risks are higher up on the hierarchy of hazard control model.
On the other hand, the risk associated with work requiring minimal physical activity, for example office-based work or works with minimal potential for exposure to hazardous substances like using display screen equipment, has a much lower risk.
The Hierarchy of Hazard Control sets out five steps to follow when reducing workplace risks.
- Elimination – Re-design the job or substitute a substance so that the hazardous material is removed or eliminated.
- Substitution – Replace the material or process with a less hazardous one.
- Engineering controls – For example, use work equipment or other measures to prevent falls where you cannot avoid working at height, install or use additional machinery to control risks from dust or fumes or separate the hazard from operators by methods such as enclosing or guarding dangerous items of machinery/equipment. Give priority to measures which protect collectively over individual measures.
- Administrative controls – These are all about identifying and implementing the procedures you need to work safely. For example: reducing the time workers are exposed to hazards (e.g. by job rotation), prohibiting use of mobile phones in hazardous areas; increasing safety signage, and performing effective risk assessments.
- Personal protective clothing and equipment – Only after all the previous measures have been tried and found ineffective in controlling risks to a reasonably practical level must Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) be used. For example, where you cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, use suitable work equipment or other measures.
By approaching risks at work with this risk reduction hierarchy in mind, businesses are encouraged to find the most powerful preventative measure as opposed to jumping to the easiest control measure.
The hierarchy of hazard control is just one of the most basic frameworks that can be implemented to keep construction sites safe (and reduce or manage residual risks post-completion), however, at Lucion, we are committed to not only implementing the safest system for each individual project but also finding the most flexible framework that keeps your project moving whilst achieving compliance to HSE regulations and a better health and safety culture to protect people from hazards.
What do the regulations say?
Under the Management of Health and Safety Work Regulations 1999, the client, duty holder or employer, is required by law to protect both your employees and other individuals from potential hazardous risks as far as reasonably practicable. As a minimum for all businesses no matter the size, you must take reasonable steps to:
- Identify hazards that could pose a risk of injury or illness to individuals
- Determine the likelihood of the hazardous risk occurring and the severity of the outcome
- Take reasonable steps to eliminate the risk or control the risk through effective control measures as far as reasonably practicable
Choosing Lucion to support you
At Lucion, we offer a range of training courses which can support you as you navigate the hierarchy of hazard control. With specialist hazardous materials training courses on COSHH Awareness or health and safety courses like IOSH Health & Safety Management Training, IOSH Working Safely and IOSH Managing Safely, we can prepare your workforce to deal with hazards at work. Our range of hazardous materials services, including hazardous materials surveys, can help you tackle occupational hazards and maintain compliance with the hierarchy of hazard control model.
Our team of NEBOSH qualified Health and Safety consultants are experienced, trusted providers of Construction & Land Development services and can act as your CDM Advisor for your project. Our team has worked with architects across the UK from SMEs to large international practices to provide CDM and construction safety advice.
Contact us to see how we can support your project.
