Definition:

A Job Safety Analysis (JSA) is a systematic method used to identify, analyze and record

1) The steps involved in performing a specific job in a sequential manner.
2) Potential safety and health hazards associated with each step during the execution of the job and
3) It gives the recommendations/action plan/guidelines that will help in eliminating or reducing the hazards and the risk of a probable workplace injury or illness.

Hazard Types:

The following hazards should be considered when analyzing a JSA:

• Impact with a falling or flying object.
• Penetration of sharp objects.
• Caught in or between a stationary/moving object.
• Falls from an elevated work platform, ladders or stairs.
• Lifting, twisting, pushing, pulling, reaching, or bending excessively.
• Exposure to vibrating or rotating machinery, excessive noise or toxic gases, vapors, liquids, etc. or higher temperatures or excessive cold.
• Electrical hazards and many others.

What are the four basic steps?

Four basic stages in conducting a JSA are:

• selecting the job to be analyzed
• breaking the job down into a sequence of steps
• identifying potential hazards
• determining preventive measures to overcome these hazards.

Job Safety Analysis Steps

Step One: Select the Job to Be Analysed
Identifying the jobs or tasks that require a Job Safety Analysis e.g charging of sodium methoxide manually in a batch reactor.

Criteria why it is to be kept under JSA because
• This Job have a high accident rate.
• This Job with a simple human error may cause death of the people.
• It is the raw material of new introduced product.
• The procedure of charging the sodium methoxide into the reactor is complex and require written, detailed instruction with safety checklist.

Step Two: Break Down the Individual Tasks of a Job

Each activity or step should be written down one by one sequentially on the worksheet and may be called Standard operating procedure (SOP). Steps should be properly defined e.g

• Dry the reactor and check for presence of moisture in the reactor.
• Start N2 purging into the reactor before the start of charging sodium methoxide into the reactor.
• Train the employee before he performs the job.
• Employee should wear proper PPEs before start charging sodium methoxide into the reactor.
• Reactor and Man should be earthed before charging the material into the reactor.

Step Three: Identify Potential Hazards

At this stage all the possible hazards are analysed associated with each step. Let’s see few questions which can pose a threat to man and machine, if not taken care properly before the charging of sodium methoxide.

• What happen if nitrogen purging not started during charging of sodium methoxide?
• What would happen if batch reactor contains moisture?
• What could go wrong if platform and man is not earthed during charging of sodium methoxide?
• What PPEs are required during charging of sodium methoxide?

Step Four: Develop Ways to Prevent or Eliminate Hazards

To complete your JSA, look over the information you collected in steps two and three and start to develop ways to eliminate or reduce the hazards you’ve identified.

Controls that reduce the chance of a safety incident should be identified for each concern. The following would be the order of sequence while performing 4th step.

Elimination: Changing the procedure in use, substituting a product, adjusting the work environment, or employing alternative tools or equipment can all be used to entirely eliminate the hazard.
Containment: If a hazard cannot be eliminated entirely, actions should be taken to limit it as much as possible. Use guards, fencing or other similar enclosures to prevent direct contact with the hazard.
Revision: If hazards cannot be minimized, eliminated or contained, the work procedure may need to be redesigned by writing proper standard operating procedure that can improve safety at the specific step (SOP).
Reduction: If you can't do any of the above, look for ways to reduce the number of times personnel do a particular task.

• Nitrogen purging causes blanketing hence prevent air entering into the reactor as sodium methoxide reacts violently with water. Here we have eliminated the possibility of air ingression.
• In presence of water sodium methoxide (which is very hygroscopic) decomposes quickly. Here we have arrested the possibility of accident.
• sodium methoxide generates static charge, if nor earthed this static electricity can throw away the man few meters and cause hazard. Here we have arrested the possibility of accident due to static electricity.
• if PPEs like safety googles, safety suit, hand gloves are not used during charging of sodium methoxide into the reactor can cut your skin when sodium methoxide falls by chance on your body. Here we have eliminated the possibility of falling sodium methoxide powder on the body of the person performing the job.

The sole purpose of performing JSA is to help people understand how to work safely while eliminating hazard associated with the job activity, so it necessary to distribute the copies of the JSA to all affected employees. .