Logbooks

For many professionals, logbooks are a vital tool. They help in recording essential information, aiding in troubleshooting and referencing specific project details. While these logs fulfill regulatory requirements, they also document one’s work. Using notebooks or loose papers might seem convenient, but they can be misplaced. As you grasp the significance of logbooks, they’ll soon become an indispensable part of your daily routine.

Apprenticeship Training Logbooks

In many trades and professions, apprenticeship is a structured method of training where an apprentice learns directly from an experienced professional. This approach is a combination of on-the-job training and, often, classroom instruction. The process ensures that the apprentice acquires hands-on experience while grasping the theoretical aspects of the trade or profession. Upon starting an apprenticeship, apprentices are provided with a training logbook that outlines the essential skills and work methods needed for their progression. As they demonstrate proficiency in each skill, their mentor will initial and date the corresponding section of the logbook. This logbook acts as both a guide to the skills they need to acquire and an official record of their accomplishments. Therefore, it’s imperative for them to always have it on hand and safeguard it.

Training Logbook Sample

Inspection logbooks

Inspections are relatively simple tasks where you use a voltmeter or other device to test the safety and functionality of a building’s electrical system. Inspections are important because they help make sure that you can provide customers with a safe, efficient system when it comes time for them to use the wiring you installed.

Inspection logs usually contain information about what kind of inspection was performed on an equipment, where it was performed and what parts of the system were inspected. Most technicians also provide a little bit of information about their findings and the causes for any problems that needed to be addressed.

Inspection Logbook Example

Reading and Interpretation of Relevant Documents

In today’s fast-paced professional environment, the ability to read efficiently is invaluable. Given the volume of information one encounters daily, mastering specific reading techniques can significantly enhance comprehension and time management. Here are three tried-and-true techniques:

1. Key Words and Phrases: This technique revolves around focusing on specific words or phrases that capture the main idea or core message of the content. Before diving into a document, try to predict which words or phrases will be pivotal based on the topic or context. As you navigate the material, these key terms can act as markers, guiding you to the most crucial sections. By emphasizing these words or phrases, you facilitate faster comprehension, allowing you to swiftly discern the text’s primary message while filtering out less relevant details. It’s a tactic that enables readers to quickly digest and recap information, especially in dense or complex documents.

2. Scanning: Scanning is the art of swiftly reviewing a text to gain a broad understanding without immersing oneself in every detail. It’s particularly useful when you’re trying to get a general sense of a document’s content or when searching for specific information. Begin by observing headings and subheadings, which often provide insights into the content’s structure. The first and last sentences of paragraphs are also revealing, often summarizing the main points. Additionally, any bolded, italicized, or underlined text usually indicates critical information, making them worth a closer look.

3. Skimming: Similar to scanning but with a slightly different focus, skimming involves reading a text quickly to understand its overarching ideas. Instead of hunting for specifics, as in scanning, skimming provides a birds-eye view of the content. The introduction or summary of a piece can offer valuable insights, and the first and last paragraphs often encapsulate the primary themes. While gliding through the material, it’s helpful to note recurring concepts or terms, as they indicate areas of emphasis.

Reading Charts and Graphs

A picture, so they say, will tell a thousand words. But what about a graph or chart? A good graph or chart can show as many as several paragraphs of words. But how do you choose which style of graph to use?

This page sets out some of the basics behind drawing and creating good graphs and charts. By ‘good’, we mean ones that show what you want them to show, and don’t mislead the reader.

Types of Charts

There are several different types of charts and graphs. The four most common are probably line graphs, bar graphs and histograms, pie charts, and Cartesian graphs. They are generally used for and are best for, quite different things. You would use:

• Bar graphs to show numbers that are independent of each other. Example data might include things like the number of people who preferred each of Chinese takeaways, Indian takeaways and fish and chips.
• Pie charts to show you how a whole is divided into different parts. You might, for example, want to show how a budget had been spent on different items in a particular year.
• Line graphs show you how numbers have changed over time. They are used when you have data that are connected, and to show trends, for example, average night-time temperature in each month of the year.
• Cartesian graphs have numbers on both axes, which therefore allow you to show how changes in one thing affect another. These are widely used in mathematics, and particularly in algebra.Axes: Graphs feature two axes: the x-axis (horizontal) running across the bottom and the y-axis (vertical) along the side. The x-axis may show categories or numbers, while the y-axis typically displays numbers. Both usually start from the bottom left, and their labels indicate the data type. Be cautious if the y-axis doesn’t begin at 0; this can be misleading.

Bar Graph and Histogram

You can see immediately that this graph gives you a clear picture of which category is largest and which is smallest. It gives a clear comparison between categories. You can also use the graph to read information about how many are in each category without having to refer to the data table, which may or may not be provided with every graph you see. In general, you can draw bar graphs with the bars either horizontal or vertical, because it doesn’t make any difference. The bars do not touch.

A histogram is a specific type of bar chart, where the categories are ranges of numbers. Histograms, therefore, show combined continuous data.

Learning Task

Graph Interpretation (5 minutes)

Instructions:

Consider the given data about people’s ages:




Answer the following:

1. Which age range has the most number of people?
2. If you were to create a histogram from the data, which age range would have the tallest bar?
3. Based on the description provided, would there be gaps between the bars on the histogram? Why or why not?

Pictograms

A pictogram is a special type of bar graph. Instead of using an axis with numbers, it uses pictures to represent a particular number of items. For example, you could use a pictogram for the data above about ages, with an image of a person to show the number of people in each category:

Pie Charts

A pie chart looks like a circle (or a pie) cut up into segments. Pie charts are used to show how the whole breaks down into parts. For example, this data shows the sales figures for a year, broken down by quarters:

Quarterly Sales Figures: 

1st Qtr8.2

2nd Qtr3.2

3rd Qtr1.4

4th Qtr1.2

Line Graphs

Line graphs are usually used to show dependent data, particularly trends over time. Line graphs depict a point value for each category, which is joined in a line. We can use the data from the pie chart as a line graph too.

You can see even more obviously that sales have fallen rapidly over the year, although the slow down is levelling out at the end of the year. Line graphs are particularly useful for identifying the point in time at which a certain level of sales, revenue (or whatever the y value represents) was reached.

In the example above, suppose we want to know during which quarter sales first fell below 5. We can draw a line across from 5 on the y-axis (red line on the example) and see that it was during quarter 2.

Cartesian Graphs

Cartesian graphs are what mathematicians really mean when they talk about graphs. They compare two sets of numbers, one of which is plotted on the x-axis and one on the y-axis. The numbers can be written as Cartesian coordinates, which look like (x,y), where x is the number read from the x-axis, and y the number from the y-axis.

Drawing Graphs using Computer Packages

You can use various computer software packages, including Word and Excel, to draw graphs.

Some packages are extremely capable when used effectively. However, be aware that some applications are rather limited in the type of charts that they can draw, and you may not find the results entirely what you expected! You really need a basic understanding of graphs and charts so that you can compare what the computer has created to what you want to show.

Computer applications also make it easy to produce overly complicated graphs. A 3D exploding pie chart may look ‘cool’ but does it help you or others to visualize the data? It is often best to keep graphs and charts simple with neat, clear formatting.

Lesson 2: Reporting Policies and Procedures (Week 2)

Hazard Reports 

Hazard Assessments

A hazard is an activity, situation or substance that could cause harm. Risk is the chance that a hazard will cause harm. Hazard assessment is the process of identifying workplace hazards (both existing and potential), assessing the risk, implementing controls and reviewing to ensure hazards are eliminated or the risk minimized.

Hazard assessment is a proactive activity to improve health and safety. By identifying hazards and implementing controls, the workplace can prevent injuries and illnesses and the associated costs (both human and financial). Hazard assessment is an important foundation for other elements of a health and safety system, such as inspections, training, practices and procedures.

There are many methods to identify hazards. An important method is a job hazard analysis (JHA). JHA is the process of systematically evaluating a job, task, process or procedure to identify hazards and their associated risks, and then eliminating or reducing the risks to be as low as reasonably possible in order to protect workers from injury. Job hazard analysis is sometimes called job safety analysis or job task analysis. JHAs can be done through discussion and observation (for example: using photos and videos).

Other methods to identify hazards include formal and informal hazard and risk assessment processes, inspections, field-level risk assessments, hazard and risk assessments related to emergency procedures, and procurement hazard and risk assessments.

It is very important to involve workers, especially those with experience when conducting hazard assessments.

An employer should:

1. Define hazard reporting processes
2. Conduct hazard assessments
3. Assess the risk of the identified hazards using a risk assessment methodology
4. Implement controls to address identified hazards, focusing on hazards with the greatest risk first, considering:
5. hierarchy of controls:
6. elimination/substitution, engineering, administrative (including safe work practices/procedures and training), personal protective equipment (PPE) at the source, along the path, at the worker level regulatory and other established standards
7. Follow up on hazard controls to ensure they:
   

1. • have been implemented as intended
   • are effective; and
   • have not created new hazards.
   • Maintain records of completed hazard assessments

What are examples of a hazard?

Workplace hazards can come from a wide range of sources. General examples include any substance, material, process, practice, etc. that has the ability to cause harm or adverse health effect to a person or property. See Table 1.

Hierarchy of Controls

Every workplace has hazards, and while many are easy to avoid or have minor impacts, there are many others which can lead to severe injury, damage, and loss.

A hazard control program can protect workers and reduce the occurrence of accidents, illnesses and injuries. It can also help to demonstrate due diligence, improve employee morale, and reduce overall operational costs.

This infographic illustrates the elements of a hazard control program, the hierarchy of controls, and the importance of monitoring and reviewing control systems to protect and keep workers safe. In order to decide the best way to report a hazard, you will need to do a risk assessment to discover if the hazard can be addressed by your team, whether you’ll need to involve your manager/boss, or whether it will require reporting to external bodies or regulators.

For example, if the hazard is a rope that is presenting a tripping hazard, it would be inappropriate to fill out a hazard report, when you could easily just relocate the rope. However, if there is a health and safety hazard such as an oil spill or live wire, you will require a formal report.

Lesson 3: Hazards, Injuries and Environmental Impacts (Week 2)

Risk Assessments 

What is a risk assessment?

Risk assessment is a term used to describe the overall process or method where you:

• Identify hazards and risk factors that have the potential to cause harm (hazard identification).
• Analyze and evaluate the risk associated with that hazard (risk analysis, and risk evaluation).
• Determine appropriate ways to eliminate the hazard or control the risk when the hazard cannot be eliminated (risk control).

A risk assessment is a thorough look at your workplace to identify those things, situations, processes, etc. that may cause harm, particularly to people. After identification is made, you analyze and evaluate how likely and severe the risk is. When this determination is made, you can next, decide what measures should be in place to effectively eliminate or control the harm from happening.

The CSA Standard Z1002 “Occupational health and safety – Hazard identification and elimination and risk assessment and control” uses the following terms:

Review the following document for definitions and more information about what hazards and risks are, according to the CCOHS: Hazard and Risk

Why is risk assessment important?

Risk assessments are very important as they form an integral part of an occupational health and safety management plan. They help to:

• Create awareness of hazards and risk.
• Identify who may be at risk (e.g., employees, cleaners, visitors, contractors, the public.
• Determine whether a control program is required for a particular hazard.
• Determine if existing control measures are adequate or if more should be done.
• Prevent injuries or illnesses, especially when done at the design or planning stage.
• Prioritize hazards and control measures.
• Meet legal requirements where applicable.

What is the goal of risk assessment?

The aim of the risk assessment process is to evaluate hazards, then remove that hazard or minimize the level of its risk by adding control measures, as necessary. By doing so, you have created a safer and healthier workplace.

• The goal is to try to answer the following questions:
• What can happen and under what circumstances?
• What are the possible consequences?
• How likely are the possible consequences to occur?
• Is the risk controlled effectively, or is further action required?

When should a risk assessment be done?

There may be many reasons a risk assessment is needed, including:

• Before new processes or activities are introduced.
• Before changes are introduced to existing processes or activities, including when products, machinery, tools, equipment change or new information concerning harm becomes available.
• When hazards are identified.

How do you plan for a risk assessment?

In general, determine:

• What the scope of your risk assessment will be (e.g., be specific about what you are assessing such as the lifetime of the product, the physical area where the work activity takes place, or the types of hazards).
• The resources needed (e.g., train a team of individuals to carry out the assessment, the types of information sources, etc.).
• What type of risk analysis measures will be used (e.g., how exact the scale or parameters need to be in order to provide the most relevant evaluation).
• Who are the stakeholders involved (e.g., manager, supervisors, workers, worker representatives, suppliers, etc.).
• What relevant laws, regulations, codes, or standards may apply in your jurisdiction, as well as organizational policies and procedures?

How is a risk assessment done?

Assessments should be done by a competent person or team of individuals who have a good working knowledge of the situation being studied. Include either on the team or as sources of information, the supervisors and workers who work with the process under review as these individuals are the most familiar with the operation.

In general, to do an assessment, you should:

• Identify hazards.
• Determine the likelihood of harm, such as an injury or illness occurring, and its severity.
• Consider normal operational situations as well as non-standard events such as maintenance, shutdowns, power outages, emergencies, extreme weather, etc.
• Review all available health and safety information about the hazard such as Safety Data Sheet (SDS), manufacturers literature, information from reputable organizations, results of testing, workplace inspection reports, records of workplace incidents (accidents), including information about the type and frequency of the occurrence, illnesses, injuries, near misses, etc.
• Understand the minimum legislated requirements for your jurisdiction.
• Identify actions necessary to eliminate the hazard, or control the risk using the hierarchy of risk control methods.
• Evaluate to confirm if the hazard has been eliminated or if the risk is appropriately controlled.
• Monitor to make sure the control continues to be effective.
• Keep any documents or records that may be necessary. Documentation may include detailing the process used to assess the risk, outlining any evaluations, or detailing how conclusions were made.

It is important to remember that the assessment must take into account not only the current state of the workplace but any potential situations as well.

By determining the level of risk associated with the hazard, the employer, and the health and safety committee (where appropriate), can decide whether a control program is required and to what level.

How are the hazards identified?

Overall, the goal is to find and record possible hazards that may be present in your workplace. It may help to work as a team and include both people familiar with the work area, as well as people who are not – this way you have both the experienced and fresh eye to conduct the inspection. In either case, the person or team should be competent to carry out the assessment and have good knowledge about the hazard being assessed, any situations that might likely occur, and protective measures appropriate to that hazard or risk.

To be sure that all hazards are found:

• Look at all aspects of the work.
• Include non-routine activities such as maintenance, repair, or cleaning.
• Look at accident / incident / near-miss records.
• Include people who work off site either at home, on other job sites, drivers, teleworkers, with clients, etc.
• Look at the way the work is organized or done (include experience of people doing the work, systems being used, etc).
• Look at foreseeable unusual conditions (for example: possible impact on hazard control procedures that may be unavailable in an emergency situation, power outage, etc.).
• Determine whether a product, machine or equipment can be intentionally or unintentionally changed (e.g., a safety guard that could be removed).
• Review all of the phases of the lifecycle.
• Examine risks to visitors or the public.
• Consider the groups of people that may have a different level of risk such as young or inexperienced workers, persons with disabilities, or new or expectant mothers.

How do you know if the hazard will cause harm (poses a risk)?

Each hazard should be studied to determine its level of risk. To research the hazard, you can look at:

• Product information/manufacturer documentation.
• Past experience (knowledge from workers, etc.).
• Legislated requirements and/or applicable standards.
• Industry codes of practice / best practices.
• Health and safety material about the hazard such as safety data sheets (SDSs), research studies, or other manufacturer information.
• Information from reputable organizations.
• Results of testing (atmospheric or air sampling of the workplace, biological swabs, etc.).
• The expertise of an occupational health and safety professional.
• Information about previous injuries, illnesses, near misses, incident reports, etc.
• Observation of the process or task.

Remember to include factors that contribute to the level of risk such as:

• The work environment (layout, condition, etc.).
• The systems of work being used.
• The range of foreseeable conditions.
• The way the source may cause harm (e.g., inhalation, ingestion, etc.).
• How often and how much a person will be exposed.
• The interaction, capability, skill, and experience of workers who do the work.

How are risks ranked or prioritized?

Ranking or prioritizing hazards is one way to help determine which risk is the most serious and thus which to control first. Priority is usually established by taking into account employee exposure and the potential for incident, injury or illness. By assigning a priority to the risks, you are creating a ranking or an action list.

There is no one simple or single way to determine the level of risk. Nor will a single technique apply in all situations. The organization has to determine which technique will work best for each situation. Ranking hazards requires knowledge of workplace activities, urgency of situations, and most importantly, objective judgement.

For simple or less complex situations, an assessment can literally be a discussion or brainstorming session based on knowledge and experience. In some cases, checklists or a probability matrix can be helpful. For more complex situations, a team of knowledgeable personnel who are familiar with the work is usually necessary.

As an example, consider this simple risk matrix. Table 1 shows the relationship between probability and severity.

Severity ratings in this example represent:

• High: major fracture, poisoning, significant loss of blood, serious head injury, or fatal disease
• Medium: sprain, strain, localized burn, dermatitis, asthma, injury requiring days off work
• Low: an injury that requires first aid only; short-term pain, irritation, or dizziness

Probability ratings in this example represent:

• High: likely to be experienced once or twice a year by an individual
• Medium: may be experienced once every five years by an individual
• Low: may occur once during a working lifetime

The cells in Table 1 correspond to a risk level, as shown in Table 2.

These risk ratings correspond to recommended actions such as:

• Immediately dangerous: stop the process and implement controls
• High risk: investigate the process and implement controls immediately
• Medium risk: keep the process going; however, a control plan must be developed and should be implemented as soon as possible
• Low risk: keep the process going but monitor regularly. A control plan should also be investigated
• Very low risk: keep monitoring the process

Let’s use an example: When painting a room, a step stool must be used to reach higher areas. The individual will not be standing higher than 1 metre (3 feet) at any time. The assessment team reviewed the situation and agreed that working from a step stool at 1 m is likely to:

• Cause a short-term injury such as a strain or sprain if the individual falls. A severe sprain may require days off work. This outcome is like a medium severity rating.
• Occur once in a working lifetime as painting is an uncommon activity for this organization. This criterion is like a low probability rating.

The workplace decides to implement risk control measures, including the use of a stool with a large top that will allow the individual to maintain stability when standing on the stool. They also determined that while the floor surface is flat, they provided training to the individual on the importance of making sure the stool’s legs always rest on the flat surface. The training also included steps to avoid excess reaching while painting.

What are methods of hazard control?

Once you have established the priorities, the organization can decide on ways to control each specific hazard. Hazard control methods are often grouped into the following categories:

• Elimination (including substitution).
• Engineering controls.
• Administrative controls.
• Personal protective equipment.

Why is it important to review and monitor the assessments?

It is important to know if your risk assessment was complete and accurate. It is also essential to be sure that any changes in the workplace have not introduced new hazards or changed hazards that were once ranked as lower priority to higher priority.

It is good practice to review your assessment on a regular basis to make sure your control methods are effective.

What documentation should be done for a risk assessment?

Keeping records of your assessment and any control actions taken is very important. You may be required to store assessments for a specific number of years. Check for local requirements in your jurisdiction.

The level of documentation or record keeping will depend on:

• Level of risk involved.
• Legislated requirements.
• Requirements of any management systems that may be in place.

Your records should show that you:

• Conducted a good hazard review.
• Determined the risks of those hazards.
• Implemented control measures suitable for the risk.
• Reviewed and monitored all hazards in the workplace.

AART Hazard Reporting System