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There are five general areas of workplace hazards: materials, equipment, environment, people, and systems. While OSHA focuses on the physical hazardous conditions of materials, equipment, and environment, these account for only 3% of accidents. The larger causes are people who may be distracted or incapable, and flawed safety systems, which can collectively contribute to up to 98% of workplace accidents. OSHA does not usually cite unsafe behaviors of people or flaws in safety systems.

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Holly Smith
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548 views

Meeps

There are five general areas of workplace hazards: materials, equipment, environment, people, and systems. While OSHA focuses on the physical hazardous conditions of materials, equipment, and environment, these account for only 3% of accidents. The larger causes are people who may be distracted or incapable, and flawed safety systems, which can collectively contribute to up to 98% of workplace accidents. OSHA does not usually cite unsafe behaviors of people or flaws in safety systems.

Uploaded by

Holly Smith
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Five General Hazard Areas

All workplace hazards exist in five general areas:

Materials - liquids, solids, gases, etc.

Equipment - includes machinery, tools, devices

Environment - noise, temperature, atmospheres, workstation design

People - anyone in the workplace (i.e., employees, guests, customers


or contractors)

System - flawed policies, programs, plans, processes, procedures, and


practices
When you conduct a walkaround inspection you are usually looking for
hazardous materials, equipment, and environmental factors. These first three
hazard areas represent hazardous physical conditions (think of these as
hazardous "states of being") in the workplace which, according to various
studies*, cause only about three percent of all accidents in the workplace. It's
interesting to note, that hazardous conditions are what OSHA inspectors
primarily cite as violation. What does that mean? Well, OSHA is very good at
uncovering the conditions that don't cause many accidents. It's a flawed
system, but it's all we have. That also explains why there is little correlation
between the most frequently cited violations and the most frequent causes of
injury.
The fourth category, "People," refers to any employee (or others) at any level
of the organization who may not be "sober and focused" on the work they're
doing. For example, an employee might be in a hazardous "state of being if
they are:

under the influence of legal/illegal drugs;

poorly trained or educated;

worried about a family illness; or

mentally or physically incapable of doing the job safely

Remember, an employee who is distracted in any way from the work they're
doing should also be considered a "walking" hazardous condition that
increases the likelihood of an unsafe behavior. Unfortunately, OSHA does not
usually "catch" employees working in an unsafe manner, so you don't see
unsafe behaviors described in OSHA citation reports too often.
The safety management system is composed of policies, programs, plans,
processes, procedures and practices that influence or contribute to behaviors
in the workplace. A flawed system will contribute to some degree to workplace
conditions and behaviors. Therefore we can argue that the safety
management system is ultimately the cause for up to 98 percent of the
accidents that occur in the workplace.

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