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Risk assessment: 5 Vital steps to ensuring safety
- Step 1. Hazard identification
- Gather information about hazards in the laboratory.
- Review the work and working practices. What hazardous substances are present or likely to be present in the laboratory ? How are they hazardous and what effects could they have? Who could be exposed and how?
- Step 2 : Risk assessment
- Dec ide who might be harmed and how. Consider how laboratory practice could be changed. How close are people to the substances? How often is exposure likely to occur and how long for? What levels of exposure are there? Assign a risk rating.
- Step 3: Decision making
- If th e hazard is a r isk to health and safety, decide whether existing precautions are adequate or more should be done.
- Step 4: Record keeping
- Re cord what ne eds to be done in terms of prevention and or control of exposure
- Step 5: Regular review .
- If
- Monitor whether precautions recommended in step 4 are in place. If this is not the case bring it to the attention of a health and safety officer
- review frequently
- If circumstances changed significantly review immediately (Go to step1)
- Is the asse ssment still valid ? If not , amend it.
the risks are serious and/or likely to change
- If
Risk rating and Risk levels (how to determine risk rating and risk levels)
Firstly you must assess the likelihood. What is the chance in the period of a year that an untoward incident or an injury will occur due to the hazard. This can be given a number rating in terms of likelihood:
Likelihood | Number |
---|---|
Rare | 1 |
Unlikely | 2 |
Possible | 3 |
Likely | 4 |
Almost Certain | 5 |
Then you must assess the consequences associated with the risk. In the even of an untoward incident or an injury how severe would the consequences be? This can again be given a number rating in a similar way to the above:
Likelihood | Number |
---|---|
Insignificant | 1 |
Minor | 2 |
Moderate | 3 |
Major | 4 |
Catastrophic | 5 |
Risk rating can be calculated by multiplying the likelihood and the consequences
Likelihood x Consequences
Risk level: If this number is, or is in excess of 10, the risk must be eliminated immediately
Risks associated with common hazards in the cytology laboratory
Hazard | Risk |
---|---|
Electrical equipment | Spark and fire |
Glass and plastic | Cuts and infection |
Needle stick (FNA) | Infection (HIV, HepB) |
Unfixed cellular material | Contact with eye or skin as result of spillage or leakage |
Alcohol , xylene | Flammable |
Giemsa stain | Corrosive ,irritant |
Papanicolaou stain | Hydrochloric acid corrosive |