Job Safety Analysis (JSA)/Job Hazard Analysis (JHA)

JSA and JHA Requirements on a Construction Project

Construction projects most often now require a JSA/JHA for the required activity at the project site.  This is certainly the case with government-related work such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) projects, Bureau of Reclamation, and state-funded projects.  Now many public-and private-work on buildings and hazardous waste operations (HAZWOPER) also required a JHA as part of the site-specific Health and Safety Program (HASP).  A JHA fulfills an important part of any construction project—anticipate worker hazards on a job before the work starts in order to prevent injuries/illnesses.

The Process

The JSA process can be quite daunting when you have to anticipate every task that can occur on a job site.  Often there are hundreds—even thousands—of individual tasks.  Anticipating what could go wrong where someone could get injured is equally complex.  The only reasonable way to develop a true JSA/JHA is to involve the experienced workers, supervision and safety specialists.

In a project with a limited number of tasks/steps, it is best to start—at—the—start, but often there are just too many tasks to take this approach.

What should you do?

• Set priorities.

List history of jobs where injuries occurred.

Close calls.

OSHA citations.

New activities—never done before.

Complex tasks requiring written instructions.

• List the tasks needing a JHA/JSA.
• Break the tasks into individual steps.
• For each individual step, the possible hazards.

What can go wrong?

What are the possibilities of an injury?

How often can this happen?

Are there any contributing factors? (Weather, time of day, adjacent activities, equipment/materials used).

• For each hazard.

• How to prevent the hazard from occurring.

Different method.

Different equipment/materials.

Changes to equipment or materials.

• How to protect the worker. (Note: “Eliminate hazard” is better than “protect the worker”).

PPE.

Change process or administrative controls.

• Review the JHA/JSA with involved employees.

Make changes based on employees input.

• Assign Responsibility.

Accountability for implementation.

Accountability for training/re-training.

Accountability for equipment, supplies, PPE.

Supervision of workers to follow JSA actions.

• Follow-Up.

Make changes to JHA/JSA where not feasible, practical or ineffective.

Make changes if “near miss” or injury occurs.

Use JHA/JSA as a training/re-training tool.

Use in accident investigation.

• Review.

Annual review or when job changes.

New project applicability.

There are many available references of how to develop JHA/JSA’s such as OSHA www.osha.gov/publications\OSHA 3071.html. Also, many states (Maine, California, Washington) and insurance carriers have provided excellent examples of JHA/JSA methods that can be found on-line.