At a busy workshop, someone notices that workers are reaching around a machine guard to clear a stubborn jam. The immediate response is predictable. Remind everyone of the procedure, schedule another safety meeting and make sure the signs are visible. The supervisor may have done all of those things with good intentions. The trouble is that the machine still jams. The hierarchy of controls offers a better way to ask what should happen next. It ranks ways of reducing exposure to hazards according to how effectively they address the danger, rather than how easy they are to announce. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety describes five broad levels, beginning with elimination, followed by substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls and personal protective equipment. At the top is elimination. If the dangerous task can be removed entirely, workers no longer need to rely on remembering how to perform it safely. Maybe the jam occurs because the workshop is processing a material on equipment it was never meant to handle. Could that operation be redesigned so the exposure doesn't arise?
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