Glossary · Risk assessment and risk reduction
Harm
In machine safety, harm is physical injury or damage to health. It is the outcome that risk assessment tries to prevent, and its severity is one of the two elements of risk.
- Machine safety
- Risk assessment
In one sentence
Harm is the physical injury or damage to health that a hazard can cause; how bad it can be determines the severity used in risk estimation.
Example
On a press brake, the possible harm from the closing tool is crushing or amputation of fingers, which is rated as a serious, irreversible injury.
How it applies
- Risk assessment: Estimate harm realistically for each hazard: the most severe credible injury, not only the most likely one. The severity of harm feeds directly into risk estimation.
- Scope: ISO 12100 limits harm to injury and damage to health. Damage to property, the machine or the environment may be assessed as well, but should be kept separate so that safety decisions are not diluted.
- Technical documentation: A good warning message names the consequence, that is, the harm, in concrete terms (“can crush fingers”), not only the hazard.
- Evidence: Accident and near-miss data from the field help validate the assumed harm.
Harm vs. hazard
A hazard is the potential source (a closing tool); harm is the result for a person (a crushed finger). Risk connects the two through probability and severity.