Hazard assessment and control

A new owner of an Alberta business with workers takes on the duty to assess hazards. Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act defines a hazard as a situation, condition or thing that may be dangerous to health and safety. Part 2 of the OHS Code then sets out what an employer must do about it.

What Part 2 requires

• Section 7: assess the work site and identify existing and potential hazards before work begins at the work site or prior to the construction of a new work site, prepare a report of the results and the methods used to control or eliminate them, and record the date the assessment is prepared or revised. Under s.10(2), s.7(2) and (3) do not apply to an emergency response while emergency action is required.
• Section 7(4): repeat the assessment at reasonably practicable intervals, when a new work process is introduced, when a process or operation changes, and before the construction of significant additions or alterations to a work site.
• Section 8: involve affected workers in the assessment and in controlling or eliminating the hazards.
• Section 9: eliminate a hazard or, if elimination is not reasonably practicable, control it, with engineering controls first where reasonably practicable.

What to ask

Ask for the current written assessment, the date of its last revision, and evidence that workers took part. This entry covers Alberta only; check the rules where you are.