Nebosh-Workplace Hazards and Risks Control

Explore the minimum welfare standards for the workplace, including drinking water, toilets, washing and changing facilities, resting areas, lighting, and temperature extremes to control health and safety risks.

Examine exposure to extremes of temperature and health effects such as hypothermia and frostbite. Learn controls like ventilation, insulation, shielding heat sources, warm refuges, drinking water, PPE, and training.

Practice good housekeeping and a clear storage layout to prevent falling materials. Define spaces, use pallets, install signage, and store flammables in fire-resistant, ventilated areas.

Define workplace violence as abuse, threats, or assault linked to work, and identify at-risk roles. Implement zero-tolerance policies, security measures, training, vetting, and safe home-visit practices.

Explains how alcohol, drugs, and solvents impair performance and safety at work, their health risks, and essential risk controls including policy, testing, rehabilitation access, and training.

Assess and control hazards affecting safe movement of people in the workplace, including slipping, tripping, falls from height, and collisions with moving vehicles and falling objects.

Identify hazards and at-risk groups; perform risk assessments and implement controls for safe pedestrian movement in the workplace, including slip resistance, drainage, walkways, signs, PPE, and training.

Identify the main risks of work at height, including falls, falling objects, fragile and sloping roofs, deteriorating materials, and unprotected edges.

Explore basic hazards of working at height, from unstable access equipment and the need for competent maintenance to weather-related risks and the danger of falling materials.

Plan and assess work at height, eliminate night work when possible, and apply guardrails, two boards, fall protection, permits, and supervision to prevent falls and falling materials.

Learn how to minimize fall distance and consequences using collective protection like safety nets and airbags, plus personal fall arrest equipment, inspection, and training for safe access and head protection.

Explore safe selection and use of work platforms for height, including scaffolding, towers, ladders, and personnel suspended access equipment, with emphasis on stability, guardrails, load integrity, and avoiding falls.

Explore work platforms for working at height, focusing on scaffolds, their components, and safety requirements to prevent falls, collapses, and unsafe use.

Learn to assess light-duty scaffolds and elevated platforms, identify hazards like falls, toppling, and overhead cables, and apply safety measures, guardrails, outriggers, barriers, and routine inspections.

Assess hazards from temporary works, including cement mixers and hand tools, entanglement, dust and diesel exhaust, and apply planning, suitable equipment, trained operators, and banksmen for safe site movement.

Manage temporary works hazards by focusing on site security, electrical safety, and demolition controls to protect workers and prevent unauthorized access.

Identify excavation hazards such as collapses, buried workers, falling materials, flooding, and high voltage cables or pipes, then apply controls like battering, shoring, trench boxes, barriers, and PPE.

Explore transport hazards and risk control in the workplace, including speeding, reversing hazards, poor visibility, quiet machinery, loading and unloading risks, securing loads, coupling, maintenance, and overturn risks.

Identify typical risks in vehicle operation, including loss of control and collisions, with factors like driver error, environmental conditions, vehicle design, and maintenance; highlight high-risk areas and pedestrian-vehicle interactions.

Apply three core control measures: safe environment, safe vehicles, and safe drivers, to control workplace transport risks, with risk assessment and pre-use inspections under health and safety management principles.

Assess and control risks from manual handling activities to prevent musculoskeletal and upper limb disorders, and explain hazards and control measures for lifting and moving equipment.

Explore ergonomics as the study of worker, machine, and environment interactions to optimize task performance, posture, and the design of work systems, shifts, and supervision.

Poor ergonomic design creates health hazards from manual handling, lifting, pulling and pushing loads, repetitive tasks, and vibrating tools, risking musculoskeletal and upper limb disorders, eye strain, and occupational stress.

Identify work-related upper limb disorders caused by repetitive movements, with examples such as tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, and frozen shoulder. Recognize symptoms, risk factors, and occupational groups at risk.

Explore display screen equipment and its ergonomic risks, including musculoskeletal, visual, and psychological problems, with practical setup tips: chair height, desk posture, detachable keyboard, and non-reflective surfaces.

Back injuries from heavy lifting lead to musculoskeletal disorders, the most common cause of absence, driving millions of lost days and billions in UK and european costs.

Explore manual handling hazards and control measures by examining how loads moved by human effort can cause hand injuries, back injuries, sprains, and upper limb disorders from poor technique.

Apply hierarchy of manual handling: avoid task with redesign or automation; if unavoidable, assess risk and reduce injury with mechanical handling and task improvements, considering task, load, working environment, capability.

Analyze the task to cover manual handling, including mechanical assistance, team size, and cost, while assessing load distance, lifting frequency, fatigue, breaks, and workstation layout.

Assess the load's weight, dimensions (over 75 cm), grip, stability, and PPE needs to prevent injuries. Split loads, use handholds or slings, align the center of gravity with the handler.

Enhance workplace safety with manual handling training that covers injury types, assessment findings, recognition of hazardous operations, proper use of mechanical aids and PPE, and safe lifting techniques.

Utilize mechanical lifting aids to lighten loads and reduce injury. Train operators, prevent overloading, maintain equipment, and ensure safe work systems with space, visibility, lighting, and clear forklift communication.

Outlines belt, roller, and screw conveyors and their nip and entanglement hazards, falls, sharp edges, and noise, with guards, trip devices, edge protection, signs, and elevator power drive guards.

Examine forklift hazards and risks, including overturning, overloading, collisions, battery charging risks, which contribute to about 400 injuries and ten fatalities annually, plus silent operation and training gaps.

This lecture outlines causes of tower crane incidents, including brake and lifting ram failures, overturns, jib collapses, dropped loads. It emphasizes site induction, barriers, visibility, and audible warnings during lifts.

Identify hazards in passenger lifts, including overrun, fire risk, and trapped passengers. Implement automatic braking, dual suspension ropes, emergency stop, and direct rescue line with clear emergency procedures.

Identify how to eliminate or control risks in lifting operations. Plan equipment suitability and plan lifts safely, addressing risk assessment and avoiding suspended loads over occupied areas.

Explore how work equipment must meet supply and user law, ensuring CE marking, safe design, correct type, and ongoing maintenance; assess and design out health and safety hazards.

Identify machinery hazards and assess injury severity and likelihood to decide risk levels. Implement access prevention to dangerous parts and provide training, manuals, visuals, and supervision, especially for young workers.

Maintain work equipment to keep it safe and as designed, following manufacturers’ instructions and using preventive, condition-based, or breakdown maintenance to reduce health and safety risks.

Identify hazards from non-powered hand tools, such as broken handles and flying blades, and prevent injuries by using the right tools, inspecting for damage, proper storage, and PPE.

Identify and manage general hazards of handheld power tools, including mechanical entanglement, rotating spindles and flying debris, while addressing electrocution, manual handling, hand-arm vibration, trailing cables, and noise.

Control hazards of hand-held portable power tools by safeguarding exposed moving parts and keeping guards in place; the upper guard covers the blade and the lower guard retracts automatically.

Explore how hand-held power tools use constant pressure and easily accessible on/off switches, vibration-protective handles, and starting and holding mechanisms to reduce musculoskeletal risk.

Practice safety measures when using power tools to prevent electrical shock, injuries, and fires by following pre-use instructions, maintaining a tidy, well-lit area, using PPE, and securing the workpiece.

Identify hazards of pneumatic drills and chisels, such as entanglement, hose failures, flying attachments, noise, dust, electric shock, and use secure connections and face and eye protection to prevent injuries.

Identify hazards from electric drills—entanglement, eye injury, electrocution, electric shock, noise, and vibration—and apply controls such as proper drill bits, securing pieces, and PPE.

Identify hazards of disc cutters and cut-off saws, including high speed discs, eye injury, and electric shock, and apply controls: guards, proper wheels, two-handed grip, proper PPE.

Secure and clamp workpieces, fix sanding attachments, train operators, and use proper PPE when using hand-held sanders with a two-handed grip, acknowledging hazards from noise, entanglement, dust, heat, and fire.

Identify hazards of cartridge and pneumatic nail guns, including flying debris, recoil, nails driven by heavy charge, fire and explosion risks near flammables, high noise, electric shock, and compressor hazards.

Explore cartridge powered nailgun safety: mandatory training, personal protective equipment, guards, and a strict standard operating procedure, plus a two-step misfire protocol, safe unloading, tagging, and secure tool storage.

Inspect powder actuated tools daily and test safety devices before loading. Only load when in immediate use; never leave loaded, never point at anyone, keep hands from the barrel.

Secure pneumatic nail guns to air holes, install a safety flow valve, use a fastener-ejection device, provide eye, head, and hearing protection, set up screens, and never point at anyone.

Examine chainsaws, portable saws with rotating teeth on a guide bar, used for felling, limbing, pruning, cutting concrete or ice, and assess hazards like kickback, burns, and noise.

Identify mechanical hazards in machinery that can cause crushing, trapping, or impact injuries from moving versus fixed parts, falling objects, and stored energy, including vacuum risks.

Identify non-mechanical hazards such as electrical, thermal, noise, vibration, radiation, and substance risks, along with ergonomic and environmental hazards, and learn guard solutions that protect operators from multiple hazards.

Fixed guards provide a simple, always-in-position barrier that prevents access to dangerous machine parts, must be robust and tool-secured if removable, and align with the machinery to minimize gaps.

explains adjustable guards for machine tools, including immovable guards with fixed clearance, and emphasizes trained operators, jigs or push sticks, proper lighting, and maintenance to minimize access to dangerous parts.

Interlocking guards interrupt power when the guard is not closed, eliminating hazards before access. They allow safe operation and maintenance without dismantling safety devices, but require maintenance to stay failsafe.

Trip devices detect danger and stop machinery to prevent injury, using mechanical, electrical, photoelectric, sensing devices or pressure mats; two-handed control protects hands but not body parts in danger zone.

Control devices let machine move only while held and return to stop when released, offering less protection than two-handed controls; push sticks and jack holders limit approach with emergency stops.

Ensure information and written instructions accompany work equipment, including manuals, instruction sheets, warning labels, and training manuals, and provide drawings for correct installation, safe operation, maintenance, in accessible language.

Ensure all personnel, including supervisors, receive adequate health and safety training with regular refresher courses, and provide training and supervision for young workers due to immaturity and unfamiliarity with risks.

Apply PPE as last protection after inherently safe design, safeguards, instructions, and training, and use risk assessment to identify equipment such as footwear, face screens, helmets, and harnesses for risks.

Explain the principles, hazards, and risks of electricity in the workplace, and the legislation, standards, design, installation, maintenance, and supervision to minimize energy-related danger near or underneath overhead power lines.

Explain the basic principles of electricity, including direct and alternating current, the roles of voltage, current, and resistance, and how Ohm's law guides fuse sizing.

Explore basic electricity principles, including conductors, insulators, and circuits, and learn how a short circuit directs current to earth to protect people through proper earthing.

Identify the five hazards of electricity: electric shock, electric burn, electrical fires and explosions, arcing, and secondary hazards, and explain how voltage, skin resistance, and damp conditions influence injury risk.

Electric burns are usually more severe than heat burns, as current travels through the body, with damage depending on pathway, duration, and tissue resistance.

Raise alarm, switch off power if possible, call ambulance after a low voltage shock; if you can't switch off, push away with an insulating object and set recovery position.

Identify that over 25% of fires arise from electrical equipment or wiring malfunction, isolate the power, use a non-conducting extinguisher, beware carbon dioxide risks, and ensure testing by competent electricians.

Electric arcing from high voltage conductors causes flash burns, retinal damage, and temporary blindness; voltage and energy determine arc distance, and insulation reduces arcing.

Discover how static electricity builds on insulators and plastics, generating transient charges that can ignite flammable gases, vapors, or solvent-based inks on high-speed presses.

Identify secondary hazards of portable electrical appliances, including abrasion, noise, vibration, tripping and entanglement, and high risks from poorly maintained equipment, mains work, and live cables.

Learn the electricity at work regulations and code of practice governing design, construction, maintenance, insulation, earthing, joints, protection from excess current, isolation, and safe work near live conductors.

Train personnel at organization levels, from on-the-job instruction to apprenticeships for electrical technicians and supervisory courses for engineers, and equip supervisors with first aid for cardiovascular resuscitation and electric burns.

Implement a management system to ensure safe electrical installation, operation, and maintenance, with managers providing resources and enforcing permit-to-work and three controls: equipment selection, protective systems, and inspections.

Select electrical equipment that suits the task and environment, considering flammable or explosive atmospheres, damp conditions, extreme temperatures, dirty or corrosive processes, and vegetation or animals, with isolation and earthing.

Protect people, plant, and premises from electrical hazards using protective systems. Fuses interrupt overcurrent to prevent overheating and fire, but do not prevent electric shock; inspections verify size and rating.

Implement insulation and enclosures to prevent electric shock and keep live conductors out of reach; apply isolation with dead current, locked and labeled, so only authorized personnel can remove it.

Use reduced voltage systems in severe conditions to minimize electric shock risk and rely on battery-operated tools and RCDs with regular tests to prevent fires.

Explain how double insulation uses two independent layers of insulation over live conductors to provide double protection, preventing exposed parts from making the outer surfaces live in portable appliances.

Activate the emergency plan and notify emergency services, isolate the faulty device, do not touch a shock victim, follow fire procedures, and wait for a competent person to confirm safety.

Identify buried power lines and manage excavation safely by using service plans, locators, and insulated hand digging; assume cables are live, report damage, and update plans.

Overhead lines are uninsulated conductors on poles or towers carrying 230 to 400,000 V. Keep equipment away from live lines or de-energize and barrier work near lines, obtaining permits.

Assess work near overhead power lines and enforce safe clearance with the line owner; restrain cranes, excavators, and tools to stay clear of the line, and supervise plant access.

Identify overhead lines on site, contact power supply and local authority for safe distances, and inform contractors to consult service provider about line divergence and plan work before starting.

Study the fire safety portion of the Nebosh course, covering fire starts and chemistry, fire risk assessment, rapid fire growth, and environmental impact, after the health and safety management system.

Explore how occupational health emphasizes preventing ill health from fumes, dust, and chemicals, and outline risk assessment, exposure limits, controls, and waste handling on sites.

Explore forms of biological agents, including fungi, molds, bacteria, and viruses, and their health impacts such as allergic reactions, infections, and disease transmission in damp environments.

Explore how chemicals travel as dusts and fibers, with respirable particles 0.4–10 microns reach lungs, and gases like steam, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and oxygen affect the bloodstream.

Explore vapours, mists, and fumes as forms of airborne hazards, how inhalation and skin or ingestion exposure can cause short term and long term health effects, including welding fume risks.

Classify irritants, corrosives, and harmful substances in household and workplace products, including irritants like wood and bleaches, and understand that contact can cause sensitization, with protective equipment to reduce risk.

Explore how toxic substances threaten health by concentration, toxicity, exposure frequency, and controls, including lead and carbon monoxide. Examine how state and age, and route of entry, influence impact.

Outline GHS health hazard classifications, including acute toxicity, eye and skin irritation, reproductive and cancer risks, corrosive effects, and environmental harm.

Identify carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reproductive toxin substances and explain acute and chronic health effects, emphasizing strict health and safety rules to protect workers.

Develop a preventive strategy to identify and control health risks before exposure. Address skin contact with irritants, respiratory sensitizers, workstation design, awkward postures, repetitive movements, noise, vibration, and ionizing radiation.

Outline the four routes of entry for hazardous substances, predominantly inhalation, plus skin absorption, ingestion, and rare injection, often involving airborne dust or poor personal hygiene.

Describe how the brain, spinal cord, and nerves coordinate movement and sensation. Explain that neurotoxins like organic solvents and heavy metals can impair mental ability, causing narcosis or epilepsy.

Learn how the heart pumps blood through arteries, veins, and capillaries to deliver oxygen and carbon dioxide to the lungs, and how benzene and carbon monoxide threaten bone marrow.

Explore how the urinary system removes waste from the body and how hazardous substances impact the liver and kidneys, including toxin removal, blood sugar regulation, and kidney filtration.

Shield the body with the skin's first line of defense, regulating temperature and sensing the environment. Apply hygiene, PPE, and barrier creams to control dermatitis.

Learn employers' duties under chemical regulations, including health risk assessment, exposure prevention, health surveillance, control measures maintenance, monitoring, records, and emergency plans, plus employee training.

Gather information on hazardous substances, evaluate health risks, decide exposure controls, record findings, and review the assessment, using labels and MSDS, and monitor air with sampling methods.

Set workplace exposure limits using maximum exposure limit and occupational exposure standard, reduce carcinogenic or asthma-causing substances as far as reasonably practicable, and keep other hazardous substances under the limit.

regulations aim to prevent ill health from hazardous substances by applying a hierarchy of control measures—from elimination and substitution to engineering controls and PPE—with supervision, training, welfare, and health surveillance.

Implement engineering controls by segregating people from processes using local exhaust ventilation to capture fumes. Inspect and maintain equipment, and apply dilution ventilation for low toxicity contaminants not for dust.

Enhance safety culture through supervisory controls and training, reduce exposure, and ensure proper PPE use with fit and ongoing supervision.

Use RPE only when necessary (maintenance, new substances, emergencies) and avoid oxygen-deficient areas; distinguish filtering devices from breathing apparatus, with specialist selection and skin protection (gloves, barrier creams).

Protect eyes from chemicals, splashes, vapors, non-ionizing radiation, dust, and particles with spectacles, goggles, or visors. Spectacles suit low risk; goggles protect dust and vapors; visors resist fogging, cover face.

Explore protective clothing essentials, from aprons and boots to headgear, and learn how safety footwear with metal toe caps protects against hazards while considering the environment and ergonomics.

Health surveillance uses ongoing checks to detect early ill health, reinforce training, support risk assessment, and empower employees to raise concerns about work health.

Use manufacturer datasheets for safe handling and emergency procedures. Load substances in suitable containers, segregate from incompatible materials, attach emergency info to vehicles, and train drivers with aid and PPE.

Identify health hazards from hazardous substances such as diesel exhaust, solar radiation, asbestos, and silica, note work-related cancers causing 8000 deaths, and emphasize tetanus prevention through immunization and wound care.

Understand the risks of leptospirosis and legionella. Learn symptoms, transmission through skin or ingestion, sources like contaminated water, and protection such as impervious protective clothing, boots covering wounds, and vaccination.

Assess hepatitis risks from hazardous substances or viruses, including transmission via blood or feces, and note occupational asthma from wood dust, solvents, solder flux fumes, and animal hair.

Explore common health hazards of ammonia and chlorine, including symptoms of exposure, required eye and respiratory protection, permit-to-work practices, and uses of chlorine in disinfection and chemical manufacturing.

Examine organic solvents, hydrocarbons and non hydrocarbons, and their hazards as irritants, narcotics, and dermatitis risks, with hazard data sheets and protective equipment; note nitrogen’s inert use in pressurizing systems.

Identify colorless, tasteless and odorless carbon monoxide; recognize its undetectability without equipment and its oxygen-restricting effects; note carbon dioxide hazards, prevention by gas safe registered engineers, especially in confined spaces.

Identify diesel exhaust as a carcinogenic emission linked to increased lung cancer risk, and recognize hydrogen sulfide hazards, symptoms, flammability, and the need for ventilation and PPE.

Assess isocyanates and lead hazards in industry, highlighting irritant effects, exposure limits, respiratory protection equipment, ventilation, hygiene, and regular blood tests to monitor nerve, blood, and respiratory health.

Explore silica as the crystalline main component of rocks—quartz, sand, and flint—in construction materials, and learn how respirable dust causes silicosis, fibrosis, pneumoconiosis, and eye injury, with health surveillance.

Guard against burns and eye, nose, and throat irritation from wet cement and dust by wearing gloves, overalls with long sleeves and trousers, waterproof boots, goggles, and respiratory protection.

Explore asbestos statistics, including UK deaths and at-risk trades such as electricians, plumbers, joiners, IT installers, and diseases like mesothelioma, asbestosis, and diffuse pleural thickening.

Identify blue, brown, and white asbestos forms and why colour alone cannot identify products. Learn that respirable asbestos dust damages lungs and that work must stop if asbestos is discovered.

Identify and manage asbestos in premises under duty holder responsibility, assess presence and condition, maintain records, and implement plans to keep worker exposure and air fibre levels within limits.

Implement comprehensive asbestos control through PPE, ventilation, area segregation, method statements and air monitoring procedures, decontamination units, strong supervision, and workforce induction.

Provide medical surveillance for asbestos exposure above the action level, with exam within two years and follow-ups every two years; stop work after accidental exposure, and ensure showers and washes.

Ensure asbestos waste is consigned to an authorised site under hazardous waste regulations, properly packaged, double wrapped, labelled, and contained in a strong, puncture‑resistant container, transported by a licensed carrier.

Explore occupational health hazards, including physical risks such as electricity, noise, vibration, and radiation, and psychological hazards like workplace stress, violence, and substance abuse, with their health effects and controls.

Explore how noise transmits through air and structures to cause ear damage, detailing acute effects: temporary threshold shift, tinnitus, and acute acoustic trauma, with reversible and potential permanent outcomes.

Understand how occupational noise causes chronic effects like noise-induced hearing loss and permanent threshold shift, due to cochlear hair cell damage and prolonged exposure, with possible tinnitus.

Understand how to measure sound pressure levels on decibel scales using base-ten logarithms; three-unit increases double loudness, with b, c, and d scales guiding jet aircraft noise assessment.

Describe exposure action value and exposure limit value for noise, how measurement uses a sound level meter (dba/dbc), and employer actions at lower and upper action levels.

Place personal hearing protection as a last resort, weighing costs and resistance, and compare ear plugs and ear defenders by noise reduction, comfort, hygiene, and compatibility with other protective equipment.

Compare ear plugs and ear defenders, focusing on fit, training, replacement intervals, and maintenance, and explain how they reduce sound while considering bone conduction limits and ppe compatibility.

Handheld vibrating machinery such as pneumatic drills, sanders, and grinders pose hand-arm vibration syndrome, with symptoms like tingling, numbness, and reduced grip, influenced by vibration frequency and exposure duration.

Implement control measures to reduce hand-arm vibration risks by minimizing exposure, conducting risk assessments, maintaining sharp tools, providing anti-vibration PPE and warming clothing, and ensuring training, reporting, health surveillance.

Learn how whole-body vibration from machinery transmits through feet or seats, causing back pain and acute effects, with long-term spinal, nervous system, hearing, and circulatory risks.

Adjust seat and suspension with lumbar support and anti-fatigue mats to minimize whole-body vibration. Regulate speed, use side roadways, ensure maintenance, and train workers on risks and risk assessment.

Understand ionizing radiation from radioactive materials, including alpha, beta, gamma rays, x-rays, and neutrons; learn how high energy penetrates and damages body tissue, via inhalation or ingestion.

Examine how ionizing radiation damages cell deoxyribonucleic acid, with dose size and exposure duration determining acute effects like nausea and skin burns, and chronic risks including anemia and cancer.

Identify non-ionising radiation categories—ultraviolet, visible light, infrared, and microwaves—and how they heat tissue rather than ionize, causing skin and eye burns and requiring protection in laser and fire hazards.

Apply shielding, time, and distance controls to minimize ionizing radiation exposure, using lead, steel, and concrete barriers, and implement training, PPE, emergency plans, and medical surveillance.

Control non-ionizing radiation through eye and skin protection for ultraviolet, infrared, and sun exposure; implement engineering controls, laser shielding, microwave interlocks, risk assessment, exposure limits, and training for health surveillance.

Address work-related stress as a natural response to pressure, highlighting its links to physical and mental ill health, and its economic toll of £3.8 billion and 12.8 million lost days.

Identify physical, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive stress symptoms and describe how work-related stressors: boring, repetitive tasks, unrealistic targets, insufficient training, job insecurity, and poor conditions build up until coping fails.

Implement a stress control strategy with confidential counseling, open communication, and a simple policy in risk assessments; train staff, set realistic targets, rotate jobs, and monitor harassment.

Outline the Nebosh workplace hazards and risks control course and the health and safety management system, covering five chapters and core topics like policy, planning, risk assessment, and auditing.