Types of Hazards in Industry
Types of Hazards
Hazard is defined as something which has the potential to cause harm. Danger is synonymous with hazard. Anything of such nature which has possibility to cause harm in some way, even theoretically, is considered a hazard.
Hazard can occur due to different reasons and the occurrence may have different consequences thus the hazards have been categorized to fall in different classes. The importance of segregation of hazards is to be able to identify what measures are to be taken to reduce or eliminate a risk.
Hazard is classified in six types in chemical industry; chemical hazard, biological hazard, physical hazard, safety hazard, ergonomic hazard, psychological hazard.
Types of Hazards
Chemical Hazard:
Working with chemicals is central to a job in a chemical industry. Different chemicals affect personals and environment in different ways. Some are toxic, some are flammable, some are quite corrosive, some are carcinogenic. Contact of such chemicals can do variety of harm to human body. If an accident is to occur then some chemicals are also liable to cause harm at a mass scale. If it is necessary to use a hazardous chemical then it is extremely important to train the personal properly with SOP prior to placing the person in that part of the process where that chemical is used.
Biological Hazard:
All the potential of harm which can be caused by viruses, bacterias, or fungi falls under this category. Such agents are liable to cause infections, allergies, and poisoning. Those personals infected by such agents can also spread it to others in same cases if the agents are contagious in nature. Such agents often find a ground to multiply wheresoever there is stagnation of water even if the volume of stagnant water is very less, for example this is a problem which occurs especially in and near cooling towers, the aerobic bacteria which commonly is found in and near cooling tower is Legionella.
Physical Hazard:
Variety of environmental factors fall in this category. Basically they refer to those things present in the environment which can cause harm to the human body. It is not necessary that they are physical or tangible things. Heat or any electromagnetic radiation, and noise also fall under this category. If a chemical is spilled on floor then it also has potential to harm the physical body so it also comes under physical hazard.
Safety Hazard:
This category refers to all those materials or a situation which comprises the safety condition in the plant. Improper placement of gas cylinders, improper handling of flammable materials, poor lighting, insufficient use of safety equipments are some of the examples which dictate a potential for safety hazard.
Ergonomic Hazard:
This is a special type of category which refers to those potentials which can cause musculoskeletal injuries to a person. Essentially those factors which can cause posture to deteriorate and put strain on body comes under this classification. This type of hazard is very hard to observe, usually it is seen only after certain degree of damage has been done to the human body. Some examples are; no place to walk, repetitive manual handling, less place to work, etc.
Psychological Hazards:
Those situation or behavior which causes mental harm to personals and interferes with their mental well-being falls under this category. All situations which cause stress, anxiety, depression, and sexual harassment fall under this category.
Reference:- chemicaltweak
