Potential Hazards
To ensure all hazards are identified, analyze each step to uncover potential, as well as actual, hazards produced by both work environment and the action.
Ask questions to uncover potential hazards.
During the JHA, after asking the who-what-where-when-why-how questions, ask "what-if" questions to identify potential hazards and exposures that may not be evident at first. See the underlined examples below.
Be sure to consider the following examples of what-if questions that serve as initial questions :
What if the worker hits a column? Is there danger of striking against, being struck by, or otherwise making harmful contact with an object?
- What if an employee has to walk between moving machinery? Can the worker be caught in, by, or between objects?
- What if workers have to work on wet floors? Is there potential for a slip or trip?
- What if the worker has to climb a ladder to clean windows? Can the employee fall from one level to another or even on the same level?
- What if an employee has to carry heavy boxes? Can pushing, pulling, lifting, lowering, bending, or twisting cause strain?
- What if workers need to complete tasks in a cold workplace? Is the work environment hazardous to safety or health?
- What if employees need to work in unventilated spaces? Are there concentrations of toxic gas, vapor, fumes, or dust?
- What if an employee works in a noisy workspace? Are there potential exposures to heat, cold, noise, or ionizing radiation?
- What if workers have to handle hazardous chemicals? Are there flammable, explosive, or electrical hazards?
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
3-4. During a JHA, what is the goal when asking "what-if" questions?
You forgot to answer the question!