According to the Turkish Occupational Health and Safety Regime, the definition of risk assessment is stated in the “Regulation on Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment” as “studies required to determine existing or external hazards in the workplace, to analyze and grade the factors that cause these hazards to turn into risks and the risks arising from these hazards, and to decide on control measures”.
It is mandatory to conduct risk assessment studies in all workplaces within the scope of the Occupational Health and Safety Code No. 6331. Hazards and risks are not the same in all workplaces. Risks may vary depending on the nature of the work performed. In fact, risks may differ in different workplaces of the same employer in the same business line. Therefore, risk assessment should be carried out specifically for that workplace.
Although there are many risk assessment methods for assessing risks, the main purpose is to determine the hazards in the workplace and the risks arising from these hazards, to grade the risks according to the order of precautions, and to determine the measures to be taken to eliminate or reduce these risks and to take the necessary measures.
Who Should Perform Risk Assessment?
Risk assessment methods are generally subjective methods. The grading of risks may vary from person to person. Therefore, risk assessment studies should be carried out by the risk assessment team. According to the Regulation, the members of the risk assessment team consist of the employer or his/her representative, occupational safety specialist, workplace physician, employee representatives, support staff and employees who are determined to represent all units in the workplace and who are knowledgeable about the work carried out in the workplace, current or potential hazard sources and risks.
What are the Risk Assessment Stages?
1. Identification of Hazards: The potential for harm or damage that exists in the workplace or may come from outside and may affect the employee or the workplace is called “hazard”. When identifying the hazards present in the workplace, information and documents regarding the work environment, employees and the workplace are collected. In the light of the information collected, the hazards that arise from physical, chemical, biological, psychosocial, ergonomic and similar hazard sources in the work environment or that may arise as a result of their interaction are determined and recorded, taking into account the provisions in the legislation on occupational health and safety.
2. Determination and Analysis of Risks: Each of the identified hazards is taken into consideration separately and the frequency of risks that may arise from these hazards and who, what, how and with what severity these risks may harm are determined.
In light of the information and data collected, the identified risks are analyzed using factors such as the characteristics of the business’s activity, the characteristics of the hazards or risks in the workplace and the constraints of the workplace or one or more of the methods selected based on national or international standards. The analyzed risks are ranked and written down, starting from the one with the highest risk level, according to the magnitude and importance of their effects, in order to decide on control measures.
3. Preparation of Corrective Action Plan: The following steps are implemented to completely eliminate the risk or, if this is not possible, to reduce the risk to an acceptable level:
1. Elimination of hazards or hazard sources
2. Replacement of the hazardous with a non-hazardous or less hazardous one (substitution)
3. Combating risks at source: Plans are prepared that include the work and process steps of the decided measures, the person or workplace department that will perform the process, the responsible person or workplace department, the start and end dates and similar information. These plans are put into practice by the employer. The implementation steps of the prepared plans are regularly monitored, inspected and the necessary corrective and preventive actions are completed by identifying the deficiencies.
4. Renewal of Risk Assessment: According to the Turkish Occupational Health and Safety Legislation, the risk assessment made is renewed at the latest every two, four and six years in very hazardous, hazardous and less hazardous workplaces according to the hazard class. However, the risk assessment is renewed completely or partially, considering that the new risks that may arise in the following cases affect the entirety or a part of the workplace. The following are the cases when the risk assessment should be renewed immediately:
- Moving the workplace or making changes to the buildings
- Changes in the technology, materials and equipment used in the workplace
- Changes in the production method
- Occurence of a work accident, occupational disease or near-miss incident
- Change in legislation regarding the limit values of the work environment
- It is deemed necessary according to the results of the work environment measurement and health surveillance
- A new hazard originating from outside the workplace and affecting the workplace.
