Job Hazard Analyses
Job Hazard Analyses (JHA’s) are an important safety tool to help prevent injuries. If you are not utilizing this tool, you may want to think to incorporate it into your safety plan. A JHA gives you a preplanned outline of the potential hazards and risks you may face on the job.
Remember these important tips when completing a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA):
- Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) is a way to help workers focus on accident prevention.
- Job Hazard Analysis is sometimes called by different names but the basic idea is to find hazards and prevent injuries.
- Workers and supervisors are the best sources for identifying hazards in the work they perform.
- For each step in a task the hazards should be identified, written down or checked off.
- Every hazard identified must have a safety control or accident prevention method written down.
- JHAs are often done at the start of a new job and may be required daily.
- A few minutes used to write a good JHA can save hours or days lost to an injury.
A specific work task can be separated into a series of simple steps. For each step, hazards should be identified.
Consider these common types of hazards and be sure they are included in the JHA:
- Struck Against or Struck By
- Contact with or Contact By
- Caught In, Caught On, or Caught Between
- Fall to Same Level or Fall to Below
- Overexertion or Exposure
More examples of tasks or hazards that lead to accidents include:
- Working at heights
- Slippery surfaces
- Exposed moving machinery parts
- Fires or explosions
- Noise
- Electricity
- Toxic Emissions
- Corrosive chemicals
- Repetitive tasks
- Heavy lifting
- Rigging activities
- Use of heavy equipment
- Working with powder actuated tools
For each hazard written it is important to take the next step and write down a way to reduce, eliminate, or control the hazard.
Consider these ideas as a few examples of safety controls:
- Are safety handles and guards for tools and equipment available?
- Can you move the work to ground level or prepare on the ground and lift it to a safe area?
- Are the right tools, materials and equipment being used?
- Is there a lift, or scaffold available instead of ladders?
- Are electrical or other power sources able to be switched off?
Let’s be safe out there!
