In the not-too-distant past, it was common for Occupational Safety and Health pr

Question

In the not-too-distant past, it was common for Occupational Safety and Health professionals to consider the hierarchy of controls according to the following priority order:

1.            Engineering controls,

2.            Administrative controls

3.            Personal Protective Equipment

However, eliminating the hazard and substitution have usurped engineering control's position at the top of the hierarchy although they have always been obvious best options, just not always included in discussions of the hierarchy of controls. Identify two examples where elimination of the hazard or substitution was, or might be, applied as a means of hazard control. Discuss some of the pros and cons of this option as compared to the other options in the hierarchy. You may also select examples from places you have worked or for which you have some familiarity.

Explanation / Answer

Methods of control such as Engineering control, administrative control and use of protective equipment although effective to cater to hazard are not better than elimination which includes substitution and is one of the best and the cost effective ways to dels with a hazard in the long run. This technique stresses on removing the hazard from the workplace in its entirety by removing hazardous equipment or materials from the working environment. For example, in my previous workplace the office entrance had a revolving door . This is good when less people used it however during rush hours it lead to a lot of chaos and some people tripped and almost fell while using it, hence eventually it was removed and replaced by a safer and more convenient option. Another example of elimination can be the removal /modification of any process that requires the employee to work above the ground for long hours. This can be eliminated by changing the conditions so that the employee have to work at the ground level. Apart from that marking hazardous areas in the workplace can also help in reducing and eliminating them.

The advantage of the method of elimination hazard control lies in the fact that it is not dependent on human intervention and since the hazard has been removed the company might not encounter such a scenario altogether. The major disadvantage of this approach of hazard removal is that it is expensive in the short run and apart fro that this method may not be applicable for all the scenarios because certain tasks are inherently risky and hazardous even after removal of all possible hazards.

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