Complex Risk Assessments - from Gate to Waste

HAZCON recently conducted a number of seminars targeted at users and producers of hazardous chemicals. Over 130 people from 100 organisations attended.

The seminar opened with a presentation of a simple chemical risk assessment approach using the GHS classifications where the hazards and their subsequent controls were obvious. This approach aligns with the dangerous goods and O(W)HS legislative approaches to risk management, as well as the guidance provided by the relevant Authorities.

The seminar went on to describe a process risk assessment "from gate to waste" methodology that will assist workplaces to identify all the possible stages of the chemicals life cycle where people are at risk of exposure or there is a risk release.

To underpin the process risk assessment, a step by step approach to conducting complex risk assessments was described with reference to problems and issues HAZCON has encountered in the field.

A case study on a major hazardous chemical used in the water industry was used to illustrate the success that using the "gate to waste" chemical risk management process can achieve.

The seminar was closed out with a summary of the methodology for conducting chemical risk assessments as well as an 8 step plan for managing chemicals in the workplace.
 

Ian Good - Principal HSE Consultant