What is hazard assessment?
A hazard is any practice, behaviour, substance, condition, or combination of these that can cause injury or illness to people, or damage to property.

An assessment is the process of identifying hazards so they can be eliminated or controlled.

What the law says
Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) states that employers must take every reasonable precaution to protect workers, provide information and instruction, and to ensure that workers properly use or wear the required equipment.  This includes assessing—or identifying and controlling--all of the hazards in the workplace that could cause injury or illness to your employees.  These hazards must then be eliminated or controlled.  Employers, supervisors and workers can be prosecuted for not complying with the law. 

How hazard assessment can affect your business:
Injuries and illnesses can cause great emotional and financial hardship to a business and its workforce.  Assessing and controlling hazards will help to alleviate these.

• An average WSIB claim is $11,771
• Factor in other costs like lost productivity and staff replacement the cost can be as much as four times more—approximately $59,000 per injury
• With a profit margin of 5%, sales/services required to cover the total cost of one injury equals about $1.2 million

 (Source: WSIB “Preventing Slips, Trips and Falls in the Workplace”)

What you can do

• • Initiate a hazard control program that
    • lists all of the steps necessary to protect workers from exposure to a substance or system, and the procedures necessary to monitor worker exposure and their health to hazards like chemicals, materials or substances, or noise or vibration
    • Includes a written policy outlining the methods being used to control the exposure and how the controls will be monitored
    • Control hazards by
      • Elimination (or substitution) of the hazard from the workplace or substituting it
      • Engineering controls in the design or modification to plants, equipment, ventilation systems and processes to reduce the source of exposure
      • Applying administrative controls by altering  the way the work is done, including timing, policies and other rules and practices
      • Providing appropriate personal protective equipment and making sure it is properly worn and properly maintained