What is a risk? How is it different from a hazard?
The hazard posed by some material or situation is its potential to cause harm. Risk is the probability, or chance, that it actually will harm someone. For example, crossing the Atlantic Ocean by plane or rowboat exposes the traveller to the same hazard of drowning, but the risk of drowning is immeasurably higher in the rowboat. It is the risk of drowning (among other things!) not the hazard that discourages people from rowing across the Atlantic. Removing occupational hazards is only one way of improving worker protection. What is often more practical is the control or management of the risks that hazards pose. Sometimes, in addition to the probability of a hazard causing harm, risk includes a consideration of the seriousness of the hazard. The consequences of exposure to some hazards may be so harmful that, even if there is little chance of a worker being exposed, the risk is so great that extreme precautions must be taken to prevent even that small possibility.
