Hazard

A hazard is a situation that poses a level of threat to life, health, property, or environment. Most hazards are dormant or potential, with only a theoretical risk of harm; however, once a hazard becomes "active", it can create an emergency. A hazardous situation that has come to pass is called an incident. Hazard and possibility interact together to create risk.

Identification of hazard risks is the first step in performing a risk assessment.

Modes of a hazard

Hazards are sometimes classified into three modes:

Hazards (magazine)

Hazards is an independent, award-winning occupational safety and health magazine. Published quarterly, it is the trade union recommended magazine for UK union health and safety representatives. Hazards has also jointly developed a NewsWire with LabourStart which provides health and safety news headlines for union websites as an RSS feed.

History

Hazards was conceived in January 1976 as the Hazards Bulletin by Charlie Clutterbuck, Alan Dalton and Tony Fletcher - all members of the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (BSSRS) - in response to the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The three had been involved in the production of the BSSRS magazine Science for People (SfP), which "provided brief coverage of topical science matters from a radical standpoint as well as reporting on the work of BSSRS", and increasingly found themselves addressing organised labour events on the subject of industrial hazards. Clutterbuck said later: "We recognised that there was a lot of different people becoming more interested in health and safety matters, because it was more "political". We saw health and safety at the very core of the crunch between capital and labour. We wanted those people to keep connected with each other and thought a magazine may help." The title of the magazine was inspired by the book The Hazards of Work: How to Fight Them (1974; Pluto Press) by Patrick Kinnersley.