It often worries me a bit when I see some sites on the internet with the level of information presented in such a way that it can be perceived that a task is easy and straight forward. Often safety is not even mentioned. Did you check the power lead? How do you know the device is not going to cause a large bang or catch on fire? What will you do in an emergency? Have your safety switches been tested recently? Are you wearing any PPE?

Well fear no more because we will provide some basic fundamentals of safety here that you can adapt to your work and if you do these enough, these will become second nature.

In a nut shell, safety is largely driven not voluntarily, but because out of fear of repercussions to an accident. This could be a financial penalty (insurance/legal) and or regulatory whereby the government will fine you or you may end up with a criminal record. Such matters in serious cases end up in a civil or criminal court.

There are well published systems that go right up to ISO certification for things like Workplace Health and Safety. ISO 45001 is one such standard that is often encountered.

Safety is managed by doing the following

• Define your task or job you want to do - This is called defining the SCOPE
• Identify all the hazards - These are things that can harm you
• Assess the risk - You will score the likelihood of the hazard occurring and how serious the harm is
• Determine any controls you can implement - These are things that can lower the risk score
• Re-Assess the risk - You will re-score after implementing the control measures
• Implement your controls and carry out your task