Hazard is any factor or situation that has an adverse effect on man's health while risk is the probability of an unfavorable event occurring on someone. So does this imply that hazard is a dormant risk? What then is the threshold (ceiling) for hazard to be converted into risk?
Dear Jia,
It's all about definitions I guess... Hazard is an intrinsic property of an object, substance or situation. Hazard only becomes a risk when you are exposed to it (sharks can be very hazardous, but as long as you stay away from the water, you're not at risk). The risk level depends not only on the hazard, but also to the level of exposure to it and your (quantitative) definition of both hazard and risk. I think how you translate hazard to risk, once you're exposed, is therefore very case specific...
Dear Jia,
Total risk = (Sum of the elements at risk) x (hazard x vulnerability)
Jia,
Hazards and risks are often interchangeable used by most people. The fact is that risk will never be assessed if there is no absolute measure of the degree of harm or danger. Every form of hazard (no matter the degree of harm associated) is always directly related to some form of risk when exposed to it. The risk of been exposed to danger in my opinion will increase or decreased based on factors such as: ignorance, lack of respect for law, accident, education, poverty, etc.
For example, a snake in cassava farm for security can bite a person who enters the farm without the consent of the owner. Thus the risk associated with being bitten by a snake is in this case, is to avoid the farm or only enter when invited by the owner of farm. Failure to obey exposes you to danger and increases the risk of been bitten by the snake. So, in my opinion, there is no risk without danger or harm associated to it.
The more the risk and the less respect for danger ahead = Total danger
Thus the best way to avoid risk is to avoid danger..
risk is a combination of the probability of an unfavorable event and its severity in case of occurrence which is simply represented as: risk = propability x seveirty. hazards are the reason of having unwanted consequences which is also called loss (this loss is varied from low to high depend on the scenarios): however, the occurrence of these scenarios have probability which is also in from low to high. Therefore, both severity and probability have to be considered in the same time to estimate risk. Then the obtained risk is compared with criteria to know whether your risk is accepted or not. For instant, there is risk for being in you room due to many scenarios that probably take place (earthquake, falling of ceiling fan, .....etc); if both severity and probability are low then fine, sometimes one is so high while the another is very low then this can bring risk to an accepted risk. hope this help
Dear Jia, I agree with all the colleagues that wrote earlier.
Tha fact that a hazard (inherent property) represent a risk for a person, an asset or the environment it strictly related to the exposure, and of course to the vulnerability.
Once the exposure is present a risk has to be assessed - that dependently on the level of risk - can be more (fully quantitative) or less (semi-quantitative) detailed. This assessment can bring to a tolerability judgment or not, with the consequent intervention to be taken.
The confusion between hazard and risk is common, but it is easely overcome by the definition of technological risk that Ali Hasan gave to you R=F(frequency)xM(magnitude).
This definition has usually many declination depending on the field of application, but that is.
Hoping this summary has been of help.
http://www.thecqi.org/Community/Special-Interest-Groups-SIGs/Integrated-Management-Group/Research-and-reports/
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