A risk assessment is not a ‘one-time’ exercise and 100% chemical compliance will require you to review and monitor each of the chemical hazards at your workplace — plus any control measures you have implemented. Risk monitoring and review is usually a combination of regular maintenance, audit inspections, and follow-up risk assessments. This blog looks at some of the factors that determine how often you should conduct these reviews to keep your workplace safe and compliant.
REMEMBER ‘You must review and, as necessary, revise control measures so as to maintain, so far as is reasonably practicable, a work environment that is without risks to health or safety.’
Section 38: WHS Regulations
The whole point of a risk assessment is to help you create a workplace or job site where people and the environment are kept safe from harm. A HAZCHEM risk assessment identifies chemical hazards and assesses their likely impact at the workplace — so of course another risk assessment must carried out if you increase the amount of chemicals you hold onsite, or you have a near-miss/close-call incident. But if your workplace has a number of high risk chemical hazards you should also program regular risk assessments even if everything appears ‘situation normal’.
For example if you have:
There really isn’t a magic formula for how often a follow up risk assessment should be done, the frequency you choose (once a month, once a quarter etc) will be determined by the size and complexity of worksite, and the severity of hazards.
A follow up (or review) risk assessment works in the same way as your initial assessment. First you identify new chemical hazards that were not previously identified, then you look at the existing hazards and possibly expand your definition of them.
Chemical hazard controls require follow-up testing and monitoring to ensure that each hazard has been completely eliminated or adequately minimised. Ways to test and monitor chemical safety include:
Compliance breaches, new hazards, or issues uncovered during testing and monitoring would trigger another risk assessment, but the testing and monitoring should be ongoing.
A risk assessment can be requested by your Safety Committee or by WHS Representatives if they believe that a chemical control measure is insufficient or a hazard exists that has been properly identified. But we recommend not waiting until something goes wrong to consult with your workers and contractors about chemical hazards. The workers actually using the chemicals and applying the hazard control measures are in the best position to determine their practicality and effectiveness.
During the consultation process we recommend discussing and reviewing:
After consulting with your staff you might decide to conduct a single risk assessment or appoint a team to schedule a series of follow ups.
REMEMBER: ‘The person conducting a business must consult with the workers who are likely to be directly affected by a matter relating to work health or safety.’
Section 47 WHS Act
If you need some guidance materials to help you carry out a risk assessment (or review an earlier assessment) we invite you to download our free eBook How to manage the risk of hazardous chemicals in the workplace. We walk you through our 4-step risk management methodology IDENTIFY - ASSESS - CONTROL - SUSTAIN and provide you with a clear system to ensure all the chemical hazards at your workplace are properly managed.