Consulting

Occupational Health Risk Assessment (OHRA)

OHRA is the systematic identification of health hazards in the workplace and subsequent evaluation of health risks.  This process takes existing control measures into account and identifies and recommends further preventive or control actions where appropriate.

The aim of OHRA is to:

• Identify and create an inventory of agents potentially hazardous to health
• Evaluate (assess) the risk to health associated with exposure to these agents against specified screening criteria
• Decide on the control measures required, if any, to remove or reduce the risk to health to a level as low as reasonably practicable. Consider any emergency (recovery) measures needed to mitigate acute and/or chronic health effects, should control measures fail

The following sections provide an overview of each step. (PetroRisk will develop these steps into an OHRA Methodology document).

Information and Data Gathering

PetroRisk shall identify all data requirements at the KO meeting.

Hazard Identification

The Occupational Health risks will be identified in an OHRA workshop at the same time as the HAZID, further assessment is required on the basis of the likelihood of exposure and the severity of the outcome from the exposure. For a particular task the following information is required to assist in the determination of risk:

• Agents and their Harmful Effects
• Nature and Degree of Exposure
• Screening and performance criteria against which to assess the adequacy of controls, e.g. acceptance criteria

Screening and Performance Criteria

Screening and Performance Criteria against which actual exposures and control measures are evaluated should be identified prior to the OHRA. These acceptance criteria should not be seen as being absolute; they should be reviewed and revised to take account of advances in technology and knowledge to encourage continual improvement.

They should include:

• Exposure limits for health hazards
• Specifications for engineering controls
• Specifications for procedural controls
• Specifications for personal protective equipment
• Specifications for emergency (recovery) measures

Exposure limits shall be set for:

• Chemical Agent
• Physical Agents
• Biological Agents
• Ergonomics

Evaluation

The information obtained previously will be evaluated making a judgement on:

• The severity of the possible ill-health effect from over-exposure to the agent to give a Hazard Rating
• The chance of over-exposure to give an Exposure Rating
• The risk to health by combining the above Ratings in a Potential Matrix

Based on the above, the evaluation will be concluded by identifying whether or not action is required. It may be necessary to seek additional information/advice before a judgement can be made.

The severity of the potential ill-health effect is based on the hazardous properties of the agent. As a guide, apply a Hazard Rating to each identified agent as follows:

• Slight Injury / Illness
• Minor Injury / Illness
• Major Injury / Illness
• Permanent disability or fatality
• Multiple fatalities

Estimate the chance of over-exposure from the evaluation of the nature and degree of exposure and apply an Exposure Rating as follows:

• Very low (A)
• Low (B)
• Medium (C)
• High (D)
• Very High (E)

Decide on Remedial Action

Once the evaluation and risk ranking has been completed the control measures require to be identified, the hierarchy of controls to be used are as follows:

• Elimination of the hazard
• Substitution (alternatives)
• Engineering (facilities and equipment)
• Procedural
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Where the risk is unacceptable, control options that can be implemented immediately should be addressed first, e.g. eliminate by stopping the activity, or introduce appropriate personal protective equipment, whilst substitutes (alternatives) or engineering solutions are investigated.

If improvements in engineering controls are considered appropriate, but it is not practicable to implement these measures immediately, a programme of work should be drawn up which takes into account plans for future new facilities or equipment. Such a programme will demonstrate a commitment to continual improvement.

The Assessment Team may also recommend the need for measures to monitor their continuing adequacy if this is deemed to be appropriate.

Record the OHRA

A written record of all OHRA’s should be kept. The record should:

• Be readily retrievable when required, e.g. for internal / external audits, for local or national authorities, for periodic review
• Meet legal requirements
• Be kept for a minimum of 30 years to aid epidemiological studies. In this connection, arrangements should be made for archiving records, which are no longer current
• Contain sufficient information to ensure future clarity on how the conclusions were reached

OHRA Report

The OHRA Report is essentially an overview of the methodologies used leading to the OHRA record. All record sheets are appended to the report. The layout of the OHRA report will be as follows:

• Introduction
• Scope of Work
• Objectives
• Legal Compliance
• Hazard Identification Process
• OHRA Methodology

–           Information & Data Gathering

–           Screening & Performance Criteria

–           Evaluation

–           Remedial Action

–           OHRA Record Sheets