0.4 Risks and hazards Flashcards
What is a hazard?
A hazard is something that could potentiall cause harm
What is a risk?
The chance that a hazard will cause harm
Give an example to demonstrate the difference between a hazard and risk
A hazard may be a tight bend in the road. This hazard creates a risk of crashing your vehicle when turning around the tight corner.
How can we estimate risk?
Calculating how many times the risk happens in a large sample of events.
E.g. how many crashes occur in a group of 100,000 drivers in a year
As well as looking at the probability of harm, risk estimation also considers how serious the harm is (e.g. the risk of death is worse than the risk of a headache)
Give an example of a low-risk and high-risk activity
Low risk: going for a walk. Small chance of falling and hurting yourself, and even if you hurt yourself it is likely to be a minor graze
High risk: sky diving. The chance of parachute failure may be small, but the consequence would be severe
What is the difference between a voluntary risk and an imposed risk?
Voolluntary risk = a risk you choose to take
Imposed risk - a risk you are forced to take
How do you minimise risk in experiments? GIve an example.
Identify hazards, then make plans to reduce the risks of those hazards
E.g. if you are doing an experiment with acid, then the acid is a hazard. You can minimise the risk of harm from the hazard by wearing gloves and goggles.
