By Ethan Davis

The assessment of your workplace should be conducted by the person responsible for the safety program and/or a professional safety and health consultant.

Conduct a comprehensive safety and health survey of your entire facility that is designed to identify any existing or potential safety and health hazards. This initial survey should focus on evaluating workplace conditions with respect to safety and health regulations and generally recognized safe and healthful work practices. It should include checking on the use of any hazardous materials, observing employee work habits and practices, and discussing safety and health problems with employees.

Create the systems and procedures necessary to Prevent and Control the Hazards that have been identified through your worksite analysis. These control procedures will be your basic means for preventing accidents. The OSHA standards that have been promulgated can be of great assistance to you since they address controls in order of effectiveness and preference. Where no standard exists, creative problem solving and consultant resources should help you create effective controls. The basic formula OSHA follows is, in order of preference:

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  Eliminating the hazard from the machine, the method, the material or the plant structure.

  
  


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  Abating the hazard by limiting exposure or controlling it at its source.

  
  


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  Training personnel to be aware of the hazard and to follow safe work procedures to avoid it.

  
  


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  Prescribing personal protective equipment for protecting employees against the hazard.