Free Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment PDF
Learning Objective
Upon completion of this unit, you will understand how to identify hazards and assess risks for your dairy operation.
Learner Outcomes:
- Understand that behind each fatality or serious injury there are thousands of at-risk behaviors and unidentified hazards that contributed to the incident.
- State the definition of a hazard and explain how to identify hazards in the workplace.
- Determine methods for controlling hazards in the workplace.
- Complete a Job Hazard Analysis for a typical dairy worker task.
Introduction
Safety in any operation works best if the person or people in charge take a leading role in managing safety and health.
Many business enterprises have proven that good safety management leads to increased productivity and the same works for farms.
By having a good safety management program, you can avoid not only farm injuries, but also other incidents that are costly, time-consuming, stressful, and inconvenient. This makes good economic sense.
Definition of a hazard
A hazard is simply a condition or set of circumstances that present a potential for harm. Hazards are divided into two broad categories:
- Health hazards (cause occupational illnesses)
- Safety hazards (cause physical harm – injuries)
Hazard Identification
Hazard identification is the process of identifying all hazards in the workplace. There is no set method for grouping agricultural injury and illness hazards. Most production agriculture hazards overlap into different hazard categories. One way to group them would be by major hazards listed in the OSHA Dairy Local Emphasis Program:
- Manure storage facilities and collections structure
- Dairy bull and cow behavior/worker positioning
- Electrical systems
- Skid-steer loader operation
- Tractor operation
- Guarding of power take-offs (PTOs)
- Guarding of other power transmission and functional components
- Hazardous energy control while performing servicing and maintenance on equipment
- Hazard communication
- Confined spaces Horizontal bunker silos Noise
Hazards are the main cause of occupational health and safety problems. Therefore, finding ways of eliminating hazards or controlling the risks is the best way to reduce workplace injury and illness.
How to Start
To assess safety management on your farm, check whether you
have:
- Regular hazard assessment surveys of operations, equipment, substances, and tasks
- A system of recording injuries, near misses, and identified hazards
- Safe procedures for dairy farm tasks
- Safety training and supervision for new and young employees
- Protective clothing and equipment (PPE)
- Safety training and practice for each new piece of equipment
- Safety discussions between employers, contractors, and employees
- Safety information readily available for hazardous substances
- Copies of the regulations
