Workplace Hazard

Work Place Hazard Assessments
[As Per Ministry of Labour Standards]

What is a Workplace Hazard Assessment?

‘Prevention through Design™’ One of the best ways to prevent and control occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities is to “design out” or minimize hazards and risks early in the design process, design out hazards and minimize risks

• An initial assessment is required for every workplace to which the regulation applies.
• Further assessments must be carried out whenever there is a change in any process involving the use, handling or storage of the designated substance that may result in a significant exposure of the employee to the substance.
• An occupational exposure assessment strategy follows a simple strategy that is suitable for evaluating many environments, workforces, and agents. The outcomes of performing the related steps provide answers to the following questions.
  • What are the potential exposures?
  • Who is exposed and at what level?
  • Which groups require priority in a monitoring campaign?
  • Do sampling results indicate that the risk is acceptably low?

Why are Workplace Hazard Assessments important?

• The purpose of a Workplace Hazard Assessments to recognize, evaluate, and control potential workplace hazards so that all employees are assured a safe and healthy occupational environment.
• Evaluation of workplaces requires a logical workplace exposure assessment strategy to meet industrial hygiene and other occupational health resources on those work situations with the greatest potential for adverse health effects.

Solutions

• GEP’s workplace exposure assessment will provide guidance and determine the best course of actions and recommend control strategies suited to the workplace environment.
• Commonly GEP will include the following:
  • Engineering controls
  • Results of monitoring
  • Likelihood of exposure
• As a guide to the evaluation of the hazards posed workers by exposures, it is common to employ evaluation criteria for the assessment of a number of chemical and physical agents.
• The primary sources of environmental criteria for the workplace are the following:
  1. The Ontario Ministry of Labour - Time-Weighted Average Exposure Values (TWAEVs),
  2. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs),
  3. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) criteria Documents and Recommended Exposure Limits (RELs),
  4. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienist (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLVs®).
• Contact GEP to schedule a free consultation to determine what type of contaminants are of concern and what is the most effective type of testing you need to achieve your goals.