Identifying and Controlling Hazards
Course 101
Safety Certified Supervisor Series

MODULE ONE: BASIC CONCEPTS

Employer's obligation to remove hazards

OSHA standards require an employer to render the workplace free of certain hazards by any feasible and effective means which the employer wishes to utilize. Hazards describe the surface causes (conditions) for accidents in the workplace. For example:

• Employees doing sanding operations may be exposed to the hazard of fire caused by sparking in the presence of magnesium dust. One of the methods to abate (eliminate or reduce) may be training and supervision. The "hazard" is the exposure to the potential of a fire; it is not the lack of training and supervision that represents the safety management system failures (root causes) contributing to the hazard.
• In a hazardous situation involving high pressure gas where the employer has failed to train employees properly, has not installed the proper high pressure equipment, and has improperly installed the equipment that is in place, there are three abatement measures which the employer failed to take; there is only one hazard: exposure to the hazard of explosion due to the presence of high pressure gas.