Distinction Between Hazards and Risks
Hazard is the inbuilt potential of anything to do you harm. Risk is the likelihood that it will cause you harm. To minimise a risk is to make it as small as possible.
In everyday conversation, the words hazard and risk are used as if they mean the same thing. Normally, this does not matter. But, when you are dealing with health and safety matters at work, the law gives different meanings to 'hazard' and 'risk'. It is important that you understand this difference, which is at the heart of all Health and Safety Law and at the heart of the Codes of Practice set up to see that the law is implemented. The distinction between hazards and risks matters because virtually everything you do at work involves a hazard.
On the following pages are examples from everyday tasks which highlight two very simple hazards and risks. It is impossible to remove the hazards from these tasks. But what you can do is to minimise the risk that a task will cause you, or anyone else, harm.
