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What Is the Difference Between a Hazard and a Risk?
Watch Todd Jerome Jenkins explain the distinction between a hazard and a risk in workplace safety.
By Todd Jerome Jenkins, MS, CSP · Free to watch · No account required
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Hazards and risk · 5:14
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Companion reading
Describe the exposure before rating the risk
A hazard is a source or condition with the potential to cause harm. Risk considers the possible harm and how likely that harm is under the conditions being assessed. A useful assessment describes who can be exposed, how the event could occur and what currently prevents it.
Keep the hazard and the score separate. A moving vehicle is a hazard; a pedestrian’s route, visibility, separation and timing affect the risk of a vehicle-person event. A low number on a matrix does not change the vehicle’s ability to cause serious harm. Check whether the rating assumed controls that are only planned.
Use the assessment to choose and verify action. Examine credible severe outcomes even when exposure is infrequent. Record uncertainty and changed conditions instead of forcing an unsupported estimate. Ask workers where the planned separation, access or communication becomes difficult in normal work.
Before the task
- Describe the mechanism of harm and people exposed.
- Distinguish installed controls from proposed controls.
- Reassess when the task or work environment changes.
Fictional work example
A delivery truck reverses near a busy entrance. The risk assessment assumes a closed pedestrian route, but the barrier has been moved to unload another vehicle.
Consider: What should happen to the earlier risk rating?
Compare your reasoning
Reassess the actual arrangement and restore or redesign effective separation before the conflicting activities continue. The earlier score does not verify the barrier.
Sources and further reading
Original companion notes and fictional examples · Updated . These notes support study; apply the actual workplace procedures and requirements. Government sources retain their own status and do not endorse this material.