Risk Assessment, 2nd Edition

6 Preliminary Hazard and Risk Analysis

Bruce Lyon¹ and Georgi Popov²

¹ Brown & Brown

² University of Central Missouri

OBJECTIVES

• Introduce Preliminary Hazard and Risk Analysis
• Review Process
• Practical Application
• Examples
• Practice Exercises/Questions

6.1 Introduction

As the name indicates, a Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA) is a “preliminary” or initial analysis of a system design, facility, or process that is used in many industries and applications. PHA is used by safety professionals to identify hazards and necessary control measures and allow for risk levels to be prioritized for further risk assessment and management. It is one of the eight risk analysis and assessment techniques listed in the American National Standard, ANSI/ASSP Z590.3, Prevention through Design, Guidelines for Addressing Occupational Hazards and Risks in Design and Redesign Processes. The ANSI Z590.3 standard makes note that PHA, along with Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and What‐If methods are sufficient to address most risk situations. This chapter will offer a careful review of the preliminary hazard analysis process and evaluation of prevention measures.

Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA) is a systematic approach originally developed in the 1960s by the United States Army and published in the MIL‐STD‐882 standard as a method to identify hazards, assess the initial risks, and identify potential mitigation measures early in the design stage. It is referred to as a “preliminary” ...