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Hazard Assessment
Once the inventory of all jobs, tasks, machinery, equipment, tools and health-related
exposures has been created and the subsequent hazards identified, you then move to
determining the risk factor. This process will help you determine the potential effects they will
have on employees, machinery and/or equipment. The rating formula will tell you what the
most critical, highest potential areas, jobs and tasks are. Assessment provides an opportunity
to list the hazards in priority, with those that require immediate attention at the top of the list or
easily identified some other way.
HAZARD RATINGS
Frequency of Exposure:
4One or more times a day
3One or more times a week but less than once a day
2One or more times a month but less than once a week
1Less than once a month
Potential Consequence:
4Catastrophic (Serious injury or death or significant property damage)
3Critical (Time loss injury/illness or property damage)
2Marginal (Minor First Aid, medical treatment or property damage)
1Negligible (Any of the above unlikely to occur)
Hazard Probability:
4Very likely to occur (Expected happen, history)
3Could probably occur (Better than 50% chance)
2Possibility of occurring (Has been known to happen)
1Practically impossible to occur (One in a million or Act of God)
Starting at the top of your inventory on the Hazard Checklist, go to “Frequency of Exposure”
and rate (1-4), move to “Potential Consequence” and rate (1-4) and then “Hazard
Probability” and rate (1-4). Refer to the Hazard Rating Table to determine the appropriate
rating for each factor. When rating, you must ask if this were a new
employee completing this task or working with this piece of equipment. Questions to ask
include:
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How often would this employee be doing this task? You would then score it between 1
and 4 under Frequency of Exposure.
What is the potential consequence if something were to go wrong? You would then
score between 1 and 4 under Potential Consequence.
What is the probability of this happening? If there is a history of this happening in the
past, then you must factor that in during the rating process. Score between 1 and 4
under Hazard Probability.
You will end up with each item on the inventory list having three numbers assigned to it. Add
the three numbers together to determine its risk factor, which will help you determine the
priority for action (12 being the highest and 3 being the lowest).
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Rearrange the list by listing them in order of highest number (most hazardous) to lowest
number (least hazardous). The ones at the top of the list are now your top or first priority for
follow-up action – elimination or control. (Note: other methods of identifying the top priority
hazards are also acceptable, such as colour-coding.)