Work place inspections - A matter of health and safety

A prevention program includes several types of inspection.

• Spot inspections are carried out on occasion in order to meet a range of responsibilities with respect to work place health and safety. They focus on a specific hazard associated with a specific work station or work area for example, noise made by a shredder, operation of a pump, pressure from a boiler or exposure to a solvent.
• Pre-operation inspections of special equipment and processes are often required before starting the inspection itself, such as equipment checks before working under water or entering a closed area.
• Critical parts inspections are regular inspections of the critical parts of a machine, piece of equipment or a system that have a high potential for serious accidents. These inspections are often part of a preventive maintenance program or hazard control program. Checklists can be used for forklifts, tractor semi-trailers and aircraft, for example.
• New equipment inspections involve series of specific tests and checks that are carried out before starting up any new piece of equipment. This means that prior to starting to operate a recently acquired air compressor, the manufacturer or installer checks to ensure that all the parts are in the right place and are working properly.
• Routine inspections are inspections carried out on a regular basis in a given work area. They cover all working conditions, including work hazards, processes and practices.

This pamphlet covers mainly routine, regular and planned inspections. However, the principles that apply in these types of inspections can easily be adapted to other types of inspections.

Important points to remember

• Routine inspections are a critical component of a good accident prevention, occupational disease and fire prevention program.
• Routine inspections help to ensure that work places are in compliance with the requirements laid out in the Canada Labour Code and the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.

Step one: Planning the action to be taken

Ideally, routine inspections should be performed by a team consisting of the work place manager, the floor supervisor, an employee with a good knowledge of the various processes and procedures, and an employee who is a member of the work place committee or the work place representative.

The composition of the team can vary depending on which work stations are to be inspected and specific technical requirements. When inspecting equipment and work processes and practices, the team should be able to rely on an expert, such as an engineer, an electrician, a mechanic or a material handler.

The effectiveness of an inspection depends on the ability of the team members to identify hazards. This requires a good knowledge and understanding of:

• the nature of industrial processes, tasks and operations
• the relevant safety requirements and standards, whether they are identified in the Regulations made under Part II of the Canada Labour Code, were developed by your organization or are derived from other sources
• the full range of hazards associated with equipment, machines, processes and the work environment
• previous accidents and work areas that are problematic from the standpoint of work place health and safety

If you don't already have them, we strongly recommend developing "floor plan guides" to enable you to identify the main pieces of equipment, workflow and storage and traffic areas; it is also important to note any information that may be relevant for inspection purposes, for example, the location of first aid kits, fire extinguishers, ventilation outlets, sewers, etc. You should also identify work areas that are problematic and pose specific hazards.

Appendix A provides a sample floor plan layout. This guide can also be used for other purposes, such as introductory training for new employees, investigations or the preparation of accident reports.

Step two: Physical inspection of premises

No work place can be considered perfectly safe. As a result, all work places including offices, storage areas and maintenance areas need to be inspected. You should also inspect areas that are not generally used as work places, such as parking facilities, cafeterias and locker rooms. When determining the number of inspections to be performed and how often they will occur, the following points should be considered:

• the number and scale of the processes, operations or tasks to be inspected
• hazardous equipment requiring inspections at fixed intervals
• processes that pose a significant hazard, requiring separate and more frequent inspections
• the number of shifts, because work activities may vary from one shift to another
• introduction of a new process or new machine in the work place, requiring a special inspection

It is important to remember, however, that the entire work place must be inspected at least once a year.

To ensure consistency and avoid possibly disastrous oversights, it is recommended that you prepare checklists that identify all potential hazards. These lists should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that they reflect changes to equipment or processes, as well as accident reports.

Appendix B presents a sample checklist. The most effective lists are those that relate to a particular process, activity or work station. In the case of small businesses, they can even address a particular task or worker. In our view, each work station should have its own checklist.

They are developed gradually, with repeated inspections, so that after several years of intensive effort, all business processes are covered. Your organization should design its own lists, based on the processes in place and the experience it has gained. It is important to remember that your work environment can present unique hazards. Your checklists are your points of reference, but do not limit yourself to the items on the lists. When other hazards are identified, they have to be recorded and appropriate steps taken to address them. Once you have done that, your inspection will be complete.

In conducting inspections, the following basic principles should be considered.

• Although they may need to ask questions, members of the inspection team should not unnecessarily interrupt the work of employees or in any way seek to assign blame for hazards that may have been identified.
• It is important to draw people's attention to any hazard that may exist. Less important hazards can await the final report. There are "risk tables" that can be used to that end (CSA Z796-98).

Step three: Writing reports

If it becomes necessary to take steps to mitigate or eliminate a risk, management must be made aware of the problems in a concise and factual manner. Good reports make it easier to obtain management's support for observations made as a result of inspections. While the Canada Labour Code does not spell out what an inspection report should contain, we recommend that you develop and use a form for that purpose (Appendix C).

Inspections will only be truly effective if the findings are quickly passed on to stakeholders and corrective action is immediately contemplated and implemented.

It is important to identify those persons who will be receiving inspection reports.

They may include:

• work place manager
• department managers
• supervisors
• members of the work place committee
• work place health and safety representative
• health and safety coordinator
• maintenance manager

Step four: Following up on recommendations

In order for inspections to be a meaningful part of any prevention program, the information collected must be analyzed and put to use. To that end, a person must be designated to take responsibility for analyzing the situation and determining what action is required.

No matter how well conducted, an inspection will only be worthwhile if the concerns noted by the team are carefully examined and appropriate corrective action is taken.

The reporting and the skill levels of the individuals given this responsibility will vary from one organization to the next, but it is important to remember the following points when assigning responsibility for reviewing inspection reports.

• Analyzing of inspection reports is one of the primary functions of the work place committee and the work place health and safety representative.
• At least one of the persons responsible for reviewing inspection reports should have the authority to take or determine the necessary corrective measures and to delegate that authority, as appropriate.
• Certain issues may require the opinion of an expert, such as an engineer or an industrial hygienist.
• It is important to inform those performing the inspections of any follow-up measures that are to be taken, in order to boost their motivation.
• If, during an inspection, concerns are raised that pose an immediate danger, these concerns should be immediately reported to the responsible supervisor or manager, and corrective action should be taken at once.

It is just as important to ensure that those who are responsible for performing inspections receive timely feedback. Clearly, if there is no feedback or demonstration of interest, they will quickly conclude that inspections are a pointless exercise.

Finally, information obtained from regular inspections should be subject to a comprehensive analysis in order to determine which areas are in need of general corrective measures, and to identify trends as part of the effectiveness auditing program. Diligent analysis of inspection reports has the potential to accomplish, in particular, the following:

• identify the need for training in certain areas
• explain why certain types of accidents occur in certain areas
• establish an order of priority for corrective action
• help to establish healthy work methods or improve existing methods
• identify areas, equipment, tasks, etc., for which a more in-depth risk analysis would be helpful

The guidelines and basic principles laid out in this booklet deal with how to establish and perform effective work place inspections as part of a prevention program. Anyone responsible for carrying out work place health and safety inspections, particularly work place health and safety committee members and representatives, will find it useful.