Risk Assessment and Hazard Management Flashcards

What is the definition of a 'hazard' in a Queensland mining context?

Answer: A situation, thing, or substance with the potential to cause harm

A hazard is any situation, thing, or substance that has the potential to cause harm, injury, or illness — it does not need to have caused harm yet.

In Queensland mining, 'risk' is best defined as:

Answer: The likelihood and consequence of harm arising from a hazard

Risk combines both the likelihood that a hazard will cause harm and the severity of the consequence if it does.

Under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 (Qld), who has a responsibility to identify and manage hazards at a mine site?

Answer: Everyone at the mine site

The Act places a duty of care on everyone at the mine site — workers, supervisors, managers, and contractors — to identify and manage hazards.

Which control measure is considered most effective in the hierarchy of controls?

Answer: Elimination of the hazard

Elimination permanently removes the hazard from the workplace and is the most effective control because it removes the risk entirely.

What does a risk matrix help mining workers determine?

Answer: The likelihood and severity of a risk to prioritise control actions

A risk matrix plots likelihood against consequence to give a risk rating, allowing workers to prioritise which hazards require the most urgent controls.

What is a 'near miss' in mining terminology?

Answer: An unplanned event that did not cause injury or damage but had the potential to do so

A near miss is an unplanned event with no injury or damage that occurred, but under slightly different circumstances could have caused serious harm.

Which term describes a control that physically reduces a hazard rather than relying on worker behaviour?

Answer: Engineering control

Engineering controls are physical modifications to equipment, plant, or the work environment that reduce or eliminate exposure to a hazard without relying on worker action.