Management of Safety Performance: Risk Management, Benefits of risk assessment, Recommended risk assessment Process/Action Required, (Term Paper Sample)

Management of Safety Performance
Name
Institution of affiliation
Date
Company Introduction
Research laboratories are one of the most important sections within the Higher Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in Libya, it is estimated that the research laboratories cover an area of almost 1,000 square meters, due to the presence of four different scientific disciplines taught within the Institute. Various laboratories are located in separate areas, biological labs for students of occupational health department and students of the General Section, chemical laboratories for the students of the General section, Laboratory water treatment and laboratory gases for the students of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Technology and the Department of Occupational Safety and Health as well as a host of other laboratories that contain measuring devices used in external work environments. The building has classrooms, meeting rooms, and offices, as well as chemical and gases storage areas, and other materials used during the IVD and to conduct experiments. There are about 30 employees, ranging from doctors to, as well as around 130 students a year, who use the lab. The major types of hazards that are prevalent in this research institute include fire and explosion, radiation hazards, biological hazards, chemical hazards and physical hazards.
Risk Management
ISO 17791 defines risk management as the systematic process of management policies, procedures and practices to the tasks of analysing, evaluating and controlling risks. The effective risk management requires a team of personnel dedicated and assigned different duties in managing the organizations resources, equipment and tools. The team comes up with the procedures and policies which guide the risk management within the institution.
Risk assessment – a legal requirement
Risk assessment is a mandatory requirement in any work environment. The risk assessment entails identification of the possible risks which may cause harm, result to death or ill health among the workers. Risk assessment further goes up to the stage of identifying the possible steps of action to take in case any of the identified risk occurs in the work environment. However, it’s important to note that risk assessment is not only about a build-up paper work but also requires installation of safety equipment in place. These are meant to help the workers in case of any occurrence of the risks. The tool should also be maintained to ensure that they are in good working condition. Secondly, appropriate personnel should be trained and equipped with the right equipment to manage the risks. It’s important to note that risk are dynamic and undergo changes with time depending on the nature of the risks. Therefore risk assessment is not a one-time activity but rather a continuous activity which is carried out over a specific period of time. Continuous risk assessment helps identify new risks that the organization may be faced withCITATION Nat111 \l 1033 (National Research Council (US) , 2011).
Benefits of risk assessment
Employee safety is a major concern in any work environment in the current world. It has become a basic factor that employees consider before a accepting a job offer. Risk assessment helps employee gauge their safety within the work environment. Working in a laboratory is very risk given the fact that the employees work in an environment fully of chemicals and other physical hazards. Psychologically, unsafe environment results to psychological stress to the employees. They become uncomfortable working under such an environment. In such cases they are unable to concentrate and work fully to their maximum. This results in low productivity among the employees. Therefore the risk assessment guarantees safety of the employee creating a conducive environment at work CITATION Ora09 \l 1033 (Oracle, 2009).
Every risk in the work environment has its financial implications. For instance when a laboratory technician becomes sick because of handling some laboratory chemicals, their productivity is lowered and therefore the overall productivity if the organization is affected. Fire and explosions can result to loss of life and property. Risk assessment identifies the various sectors within the organization that are likely to be affected by a certain risk. They identify the financial imp0lications that are associated with the identified risks. A well implemented risk management plan will help the organization evade such huge expenses and losses CITATION Mee12 \l 1033 (Mee, 2012).
Also it’s ethically and morally acceptable to manage human life effectively. Working a laboratory has a lot health risks associated with it. Risk assessment and risk management plan is an indication of an employer who values the lives of their employees. It not only creates confidence among the employees in their work schedules but also builds a positive image for the organization. Positive image will help the Libyan Higher Institute of Occupational Safety and Health enrol more students, hence increasing productivity of the institute.
Recommended risk assessment Process/Action Required
In the institute there are vraiuo9s facilities with different risks associated with them. These risks are likely to affect these facilities and people in different levels. Some of the facilities that may be affected by risks include the classrooms, laboratories, offices and the stores. There are also 30 employees and 130 students who are subjected to the risks mentioned.
Step 1: Risk Assesment
The first step in the risk assessment is the identification of the risks that the organization faces. Fire and explosion risks are very eminent in the laboratory environment. The fact that the institute is a research centre increases the risk of fire more. In the laboratory there are several gases and liquids of different types. There are those that are highly flammable which can result in fire easily when exposed. Also experiments are carried out in these laboratory. Some of these may result to explosion out of experimental reactions in the laboratory experiments. The second risk is the radiation hazards. Radiation hazards results from the exposure to natural and synthetic radioactive materials. Some of these rays include radium, radon, cosmic rays, x-rays and ultraviolet rays. These rays affect the human body in different forms which may not be seen physically. The radiation hazards can result from chemical reactions in the laboratory. Depending on the wavelength of these radiations they can cause injury to the eyes and skin when exposed CITATION Tre13 \l 1033 (Trent University, 2013). Biological hazards are very common in a laboratory. They entails microbes, viral organisms and other biological agents which are introduced into organisms for experimental purposes. These may include testing for ability for replication, containment and other biological effects that are associated with certain chemicals. Acute toxins can result to human allergies when they are exposed to such biological agents CITATION McL11 \l 1033 (McLeod, 2011). Chemical hazards are inevitable in a laboratory setting. The potential for injury or harm resulting out of mishandling or poor use of chemicals is likely to result in a laboratory environmentCITATION Nat111 \l 1033 (National Research Council (US) , 2011). These may result out of inhaling, eating such chemicals. Some chemicals can stay in the hand for long. Therefore there is need for immediate action in removing such chemicals. Physical hazards are hazards such as poor housekeeping standards, self-heating substances, corrosive metals, oxidizing solids and liquids among many other such instances. These may result to negative health effects on the people working and those using the laboratory for their experiments.
Step 2: Risk Analysis
ISO 31000 identifies that risk analysis should include analysis into the causes and sources of a risk, the positive and negative impacts of those risks and the probability that those impacts will occur in case of the risk occurrence. Risk analysis is carried out with the aim of determining the probability of a risk occurring and the impact that the risk will have to the organisation. Risk analysis can lead to new innovation on new strategies of mitigation or managing risks at the risk treatment stage. Information gathered in the risk identification stage is utilized in the risk analysis. Some of the key factors to consider in the risk analysis include the consequences of the risk and the probability that the risk will occur.
In any analysis, the level of risk and probability of occurrence differs depending on the nature of the risk. The analysis can be presented in a table shown below.
Consequences

Likelihood

Level

Descriptor

Level

Descriptor

1

Insignificant

A

Almost certain

2

Minor

B

Likely

3

Moderate

C

Possible

4

Major

D

Unlikely

5

Catastrophic

E

Rare

Retrieved from CITATION Nat111 \l 1033 (National Research Council (US) , 2011)
Hazard

Consequences

Likelihood

Fire and Explosion

5

C

Radiation

3

C

Biological

3

C

Chemical

4

A

Physical

3

B

Step 3: Evaluation
Step three entails the evaluation of the already existing mechanisms to mitigate and control the identified risks. In these step the risk analysis requires a thorough assessment of the available steps that are taken by the organization in mitigating the identified risk hazards. It shall include identifying the effectiveness of the available tools in dealing with the ri...