Ensure A Safe Workplace Essay

The legislation and compliance requirements that are relevant to ABC Chemicals’ for all cabling done on the premise must be conducted by a fully certified and qualified tradesman. A normal IT Technician if not qualified cannot alter or create new Ethernet cables or any cable to be used in the workplace. They cannot re-route or add additional cabling into walls and they cannot install additional wall plates. ABC Chemicals have a mound of hazards that need to be fix before an incident occurs. Being constructed in 2000 the building has been fitted with limited emergency equipment. No emergency plan is displayed in the workplace and no workers have received any training in safe handling of chemicals. These three hazards alone can be catastrophic in causing the majority of the incidents in this business. Not only do they not have an emergency plan multiple vehicle accidents occur in front of the premise, if one were to go through the building no worker would know what to do. ABC Chemicals is situated within 25 metres of a local nursing home for elderly residents and a child care centre that provides day-care for children under five years old. This is a problem as all old chemical drums are placed outside for a month at a time. They are not enclosed or covered meaning any fumes from the drums would be released into the air effecting any businesses in a 25 metre radius, possibly more. Not only are old drums put outside, any material that is used to clean up small spills during the day is thrown straight into the general waste dumpster. Out the back where all the drums and dumpster is situated all that separates an overgrown dry grass paddock is a cyclone fence. If any of the drums falls over and chemicals leak out this can seep through the holes in the fence either cause the dry grass to combust or contaminate the land. If the land was found contaminated the construction of the future community centre would not go ahead. Each hazard that has been found at ABC Chemicals will go through a risk assessment to determine the likely hood of each risk. When assessing the risk three essential steps are taken. The chance of an incident occurring is evaluated then the severity or consequence is calculated or estimated. Once these two factors are found they are used to assign priority for risk  control that uses a risk rating. The building is fitted with limited emergency equipment with no emergency plan displayed in the workplace and no workers have received any training in safe handling of chemicals. These alone could cause a fatality, with the likelihood of this occurring at some time. They are classified as an extreme risk and should have immediate action to reduce their severity. To reduce the risk ABC Chemicals should arrange for all staff to complete training in safe handling of chemicals. Additional emergency equipment should be added to the premise and be easily accessible when an incident occurs and emergency plans should be scattered around the building so wherever you are you should know what is expected of you. The busy intersection in front of the premise is a cause for major injuries. As accidents have occurred in front of the business before it is possible for it to happen. This would be classified as an extreme risk and should be attended to immediately. By applying barricades to the surrounding area can reduce the possibility of a car hitting into the premise and cause major damage. All drums accumulated over a monthly period are placed outside with no coverage. The small spills that occur daily are also cleaned up and thrown into the general waste dumpster. There is no barricades to stop any spills from seeping through the fence into the dry grassed block of land. The fact that the drums are in a 25 meter radius of a local nursing home and a child care centre the fumes of these drums could damage the health of the young children and the elderly. Daily inhalation of these fumes and continuous leakage into the land behind the premise need an immediate solution in new ways of storing their waste until pickup day. This will reduce the chance of people becoming sick and reducing the change of the land behind to become contaminated and cease the future construction of a community centre. These All rags used to clean up small spills are =this could be very dangerous for Risk prioritization goes beyond risk ranking in that it compares scenarios a combinations of specific products and equipment, hazards, and control measures using multiple criteria. Some of these additional criteria may include cost of interventions or control measures, feasibility of implementing control measures, practicality of control measures, effectiveness of control measures, level of public concern, level of  certainty in the estimates and political will. There are many tools that can be used to assess the risks and risk causes. These being Safety data sheets, national and state injury statistics, industrial chemicals notification and assessment scheme and the standards and codes. The SDS provides information about materials before they are purchased and used on-site. It also gives information on potential hazards and effects of each material. The SDS helps by reducing hazards at the assessment stage by assessing the risk and hazard and applying a suitable and less hazardous replacement. SDS are available from the vendor or the manufacturer but can also be viewed online. National and state injure statistics are based on injuries that occur Australia-wide. By gathering this information, trends can be established which can be used to assist the development of precise preventative strategies. With this information, organisations similar to your business can help predict the most likely injuries. The Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme for new and existing products and chemicals relates to compliance with industrial chemicals legislation. The Australian inventory of chemical substances and all existing chemical s must be assessed and certified according to hazardous risk. Standards and codes consist of practical advice on issues and included preventative strategies to assist with hazard control. They are used as a baseline for comparison and a check for businesses to see if they conform to current legislation and meet the duty of care requirements.