5.2 What Can You Do About Common Hazards?

The sections that follow take the common hazards one by one. For each one, think about what you would need to do as a duty holder.

Aggression and violence

Work-related violence is when someone is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances connected with their work. It includes verbal abuse, threats and physical attack, and can come from people you know as well as from strangers.

Your risk depends much on your occupation. If you deal with the public you are at higher risk, especially if you:

• handle money, as in security services
• work with violent people, such as prison officers
• deal with complaints, as receptionists do
• must deal with the public, as ambulance staff and police do
• provide care, advice or information, as nurses and care workers do
• work alone, as bus drivers and ticket collectors do
• work unsocial hours, as catering staff do

Working alone makes a person more vulnerable. Physical attacks are dangerous, but serious or persistent verbal abuse is a significant problem too. It is more common than physical attack and can cause anxiety and stress. Psychological symptoms include insomnia, stress, anxiety, irritability, loss of confidence, agoraphobia, thoughts of self-harm and guilt, and they can lead to physical symptoms.

As a duty holder, find out whether aggression and violence are a problem for your team. To reduce the risk:

• train staff to recognise the early signs of aggression, to avoid it and to deal with it
• improve public waiting areas and information about delays, and add security measures such as cameras, alarms and security doors
• change the way the team works, for example by limiting cash on the premises, banking more often, checking client details before meetings away from the workplace, and making sure that staff keep in touch when they work away from base
• set up an easy way to report, investigate and monitor incidents, such as an answerphone line

Encourage your team to raise concerns, to talk to you about precautions and to report any attack, however minor, with an account of what happened, the victim, the perpetrator, any witnesses, the outcome and the place.

Asbestos

Asbestos is the name of a group of fibrous minerals, widely used for their resistance to fire, their insulating properties and their strength. The common types are chrysotile (white asbestos), amosite (brown) and crocidolite (blue). It may be found in roofs and outside walls, boilers and pipework, ceilings, inside wall panels, floorings and some domestic appliances.

Asbestos harms only if its fibres become airborne and are breathed in, and asbestos materials release fibres only when they are disturbed. The effects are serious: asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. The disease can take many years to develop, so a person who breathes in fibres does not notice a change in health at once.

Many countries have specific asbestos regulations. In the UK and Ireland some work with asbestos needs a licence, and the same is true in some other places, such as New Zealand and some EU countries, for work like removal and demolition. Check the law that applies to you.

An organisation should:

• comply with national asbestos law so that exposure is limited as far as is reasonably practicable and within any exposure limit
• investigate likely asbestos hazards before any work begins
• keep up to date records of the location and condition of asbestos and share them with anyone who may disturb it
• assess the likelihood that anyone could be exposed and control the risk
• provide maintained equipment for monitoring the working environment
• train and inform workers about the hazards of their tasks and the controls
• provide and maintain PPE where the hazard cannot be prevented or controlled in other ways
• move waste in sealed, labelled containers in line with local rules for hazardous waste

Workers should follow instructions, report any change in the work that could create asbestos dust, wear the PPE provided and take part in medical surveillance.

A study aid, not published or endorsed by IOSH or OSHA. Laws and limits differ between countries.