Risk Assessment

The legislator requires implementing a risk assessment. First the risk assessment was required in the Labour Protection Law and later in the Operational Safety Act, the Ordinance on Hazardous Substances, the Noise- and Vibration Protection Act, as well as in the Biological Substances Act. Therefore today the risk assessment is the most important element of Health & Safety.

Especially when testing tools and appliances, by means of a risk assessment, the testing details- and terms, as well as the required competence of the inspector should be met. Why is that? The employers or operators must provide safe working environments. The present Work Protection Law includes different regulations which are intertwined. These are the Labour Protection Law, Regulations from the Employer’s Liability Insurance Association and the German Regulations on Work Places, etc.

The part particularly important for Health & Safety Officers of the operational safety at work is the Operational Safety Regulation which came into force in 2002. Under the §3 to §11 the operation of safe tools is regulated. In order to define the risk assessments more precisely the legislator published the Technical Guidelines for Operational Safety (Act 1111).

Whether the responsible persons implement the documentation in hardcopy form or electronically make no difference. More efficiently for larger amounts of tools is of course the DP- method.