LABORATORY RISK ASSESSMENT TOOL (Lab R.A.T.
)
GUIDELINES
WHAT IS A RISK ASSESSMENT TOOL?
Prevention of workplace injuries and incidents begins with identifying hazards. A risk
assessment tool is one practical approach recommended to identify hazards and ways to
reduce or eliminate hazards. It focuses on the relationship between the researcher, the
experiment, the tools, and the work environment. Ideally, after you identify uncontrolled
hazards, you will take steps to eliminate or reduce them to an acceptable risk level.
WHAT IS A HAZARD?
A hazard is the potential for harm. In practical terms, a hazard often is associated with a
material, condition, or activity that, if left uncontrolled, can result in an injury, illness,
environmental release, property damage, and / or an interruption in work.
WHAT IS RISK?
A risk is the probability or likelihood that that a hazard will cause harm. In practical terms,
risk is the product of the likelihood of a hazard causing harm and the severity of that harm.
WHEN DO YOU USE THIS TOOL?
Use a risk assessment when you are developing a new experiment, procedure, or project in
the laboratory. In Phase 1 of your assessment you will identify the question you are trying
to answer, the approach you want to use, and the general hazards associated with the
materials, chemicals, equipment, and processes you intend to use.
A risk assessment focuses on hazard identification at each step or task level of the
experiment. When conducting an assessment, always consider the full range of safety,
health, and environmental hazards, from machine safety to high noise levels to chemical
and biological exposures.
For Phase 2 of your assessment:
• Outline each step / task of your experiment or project;
• Talk with your PI and peers about routine and infrequent tasks, near misses, and
safety concerns;
• Learn more about the hazards of all materials and chemicals involved in the
experiment/project.
A risk assessment tool can provide essential information for enhancing safety practices,
establishing proper procedures, and ensuring all lab members are properly trained. You
may need to get assistance from experts about certain hazards involved. Consult RMS if
you have questions.
HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY HAZARDS IN THE LAB?
Your goal is to discover the following information before starting your experiment or
project:
• What are the inherent hazards of the materials, equipment, and activity?
• What can go wrong?
• How could it happen?
• What are the worst-case credible consequences?
• What are the contributing factors?
Documenting the answers to these questions in your risk assessment tool form in a
consistent manner will help to ensure that efforts to eliminate hazards and implement
controls will target the most important contributors to risk. Rarely is a hazard a simple case
of one singular cause resulting in one singular effect.
Good descriptions of hazards include:
• Where it would happen (environment)
• Who or what it would happen to (exposure)
• What precipitates it (trigger)
• The outcome that would occur (consequence)
• Any other contributing factors
HOW DO YOU REDUCE OR ELIMINATE HAZARDS?
After reviewing your list of hazards, use the Hierarchy of Controls to consider what
methods will eliminate or reduce them. Think about the controls that need to be in place to
address the severity of the worst-case credible consequence. The higher the severity, the
higher level or number of controls needed to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.
Document the existing controls and ask yourself, “How likely is it that the accident scenario
will occur with these controls in place?”
For Phase 3 of the assessment, you should review your choices and question the methods
you intend to use. Discuss your decisions with your PI, supervisor, and any peers who
perform the experiments or tasks being considered. Review incident data or information
from co-workers on the likelihood that the accident scenario would occur with controls in
place. It may be that additional controls are required based on experience.
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If you plan to introduce new or modified procedures, be sure everyone understands what
is involved, what new risks are introduced, and the reasons for the changes.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE STARTING YOUR RISK ASSESSMENT?
When conducting a risk assessment, be sure to consult the Laboratory Safety Manual for
standards in research practices. Compliance with these standards is mandatory, and by
incorporating these standards in your risk assessment, you can be sure that you are
meeting UW policies and state regulations.
HOW DO YOU ASSIGN RISK?
First ask, “If a person is exposed to this hazard or accident scenario, how bad would the
outcome or consequence be?” Consider the worst-case credible consequence without
regard to having controls in place. The purpose of this exercise is not to imagine the worst
outcome, but to evaluate the most probable level of severity. It is based on your judgment,
experience and knowledge of the subject matter. Consult with your PI, supervisors and
peers for input. Assign the severity level defined on the Risk Matrix.
The next question, “How likely is this?” refers to the likelihood of a malfunction or accident
occurring with the existing controls in place. It is impossible to try to predict when and
under what circumstances a system will fail. In this step, you should assume that the
system will fail and assume that the researcher is exposed to the hazardous motion or
process. Your question is not, “When will the equipment or process fail unexpectedly?”
Your question is, “When the equipment or process fails unexpectedly or there is a potential
exposure during a hazardous process, how likely is it that the researcher will be injured
given the controls currently in place?” Review accident data or lessons learned from both
inside and outside of the University to help determine the likelihood the hazard will result
in the severity of the harm defined.
The answers to these questions and the risk rating matrix will help you determine the risk
rating level for your experiment or project. The risk rating is subjective and based on the
knowledge and experience that you and your co-workers have. The primary goal is for
researchers to analyze and evaluate risks, mitigate them effectively, and differentiate
unacceptable and high-level risk steps from those with a lower level risk. This will help drive
additional consultation and control measures where needed. You and the PI should decide
if the risk level is acceptable before proceeding with a test run. If the risk level is not
acceptable, then return to Phase 2 of the risk assessment tool and use the hierarchy of
controls to design a safer process.
HOW DO YOU TEST YOUR PROCESS?
Think of how you can test your experimental design by doing a dry run, doing a run with
less hazardous materials, or testing the design on a smaller scale. It is particularly
important to review your assessment if an accident or incident occurs. Based on the
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circumstances, you may determine that you need to change the procedure to prevent similar
incidents or near misses in the future. Record notes from any trial runs and evaluations of
the experiment or procedure in Phase 4 of the risk assessment tool.
WHEN IS YOUR RISK ASSESSMENT COMPLETE?
When it is time to run your experiment or new procedure, be sure to use the appropriate
controls you’ve identified. Evaluate and critique all the controls and hazards as you work.
If changes are needed, update your risk assessment tool and re-evaluate the process. Do this
whenever there are changes in scale, reagent, equipment, or conditions that affect the
hazard / risk level. Share the new version of your assessment with your PI and peers for the
next iteration of the experiment.
Periodically reviewing your risk assessment ensures that it remains current and continues to
help reduce accidents and injuries. Even if the experiment or procedure has not changed, it is
possible that you will identify hazards during runs that were not identified initially. These
findings should be documented and managed.
HOW CAN YOU START DOING YOUR RISK ASSESSMENT?
Start your risk assessment by downloading the Laboratory Risk Assessment Tool (Lab
R.A.T.) here:
[Link]
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