lesson 3 hazard basic concept of HAZARD

• Again, hazards may cause disasters. They either increase or decrease the risk of disasters in a certain community.
• are events that pose threat, danger, or risk to any element exposed to them.


  Hazards
• Hazards are

  possibilities
• hazards result in disasters if a community is left both 


  exposed and vulnerable to that hazard.
• Hence, it should be remembered that extreme hazard events are not always associated with disaster. It is actually the circumstance of that community that causes a hazard to bring in disaster.
• Types of Hazards

  natural and man made hazards
• are those that are caused by physical and biological elements in the environment. These are natural

  events that may not be controlled by humans such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, tornadoes, tsunamis, typhoons, and wildfires.


  Natural hazards
• Natural hazards are inevitable. They are part of the natural processes of Earth operating throughout Earths history. Hence, it would be best to leave them to operate on their own rather than intervening or altering their natural course.
• also called technological hazards, are those caused by factors that are generally traced to human errors, intent or negligence, or glitches in technology.


  Man-made hazards
• Most hazards have caused disasters in human history. Typhoons are considered one of the most powerful of the natural hazards because they travel across a wide area, last for a longer time, and thus create more destruction.
• Common Examples of Hazards

  chemical hazards

  noise hazards

  radiation hazards

  electrical hazards

  lightning hazards

  vibration hazards

  temperature hazards

  biological hazards

  ergonomic hazards

  physical hazards

  other hazards
• • can affect the skin by contact or the body either through the digestive system or through

  the lungs if air is contaminated with chemicals, vapor, mist or dust. There can be an acute (immediate) effect, or a chronic (medium to long-term) effect from the accumulation of chemicals or substances in or on the body

  Chemical hazards
• • Excessive noise can disrupt concentration, interfere with communication, and result in loss of hearing.

  High impact noises are particularly damaging. Noise can also mask out signals, affecting communication or danger warnings


  Noise hazards
• Equipment such as radioactive gauging devices or the radioactive trace element used in analytical

  chemistry produce ionizing radiation. Non-ionizing radiation covers infrared radiation (heat-producing processes), lasers, ultraviolet radiation (welding, sunlight), and microwaves (high-frequency welders, freeze drying)


  Radiation hazards
• These include the risk of injury from all forms of electrical energy

  Electrical hazards
• Inadequate lighting levels are a potential safety hazard. A common problem area is the reaction time needed for the eyes to adjust from a brightly lit to a darker environment - such as a forklift driver coming indoors from bright sunlight. Temporary lighting is often inadequate


  Lighting hazards
• This includes whole-body vibration - for example, truck drivers, people standing on vibrating

  platforms, and operators of mobile equipment - and also more localized vibration effects from such equipment as hand tools, chainsaws, and pneumatic hammers


  Vibration hazards
• Extremes of cold or heat can cause problems such as tiredness, vulnerability to infections or

  reduced capacity to work


  Temperature hazards
• These include insects, bacteria, fungi, plants, worms, animals and viruses. For example, poultry

  workers exposed to bird feathers and droppings to which they are allergic can contract a medical condition.

  Biological hazards
• • Ergonomics (the fit between people and their work) covers risk of injury from manual handling

  procedures, incorrectly designed desks or workstations, audio and visual alarms, and color-coding control mechanisms

  Ergonomic hazards
• These include a wide range of injury risks- as diverse as being caught in or by machinery, buried in

  trenches or hurt by collapsing machinery. This category also includes the hazards from working in confined spaces, being hit by flying objects, caught in explosions, falling from heights and tripping on obstacles

  Physical hazards
• Include stress, fatigue, the effects of shift work, and even assaults from other people

  Other hazards
• is important in predicting the possible disasters that a certain hazard can bring. They are useful in

  planning for a disaster especially if the same impacts are likely to be brought by a hazard that frequents a certain place.


  Profiling Hazards
• Hazards can be profiled in different ways:

  magnitude of event (high-scale or low-scale),

  frequency (number of times in a year),

  duration (short-term or long-term), and

  causality of effects (direct or indirect).
• can be assessed by the measurements obtained from scientific instruments. Sometimes,

  scaling can vary depending on the reference tables used per country.

  Magnitude or Strength of the Event
• hazard to occur in an area is important because it tells its proneness to that hazard. This is usually,

  but not always, associated with the area geographical location on Earth or its topographical condition.


  Frequency
• The impact of hazards varies in duration. The assessment of the duration is either short or long. In earthquakes for

  example, the length of shaking, trembling, and even the after-shocks are recorded.

  Duration of Impact
• whether the exposed element receives

  the likely disaster directly or indirectly. Sometimes, other elements that are not visibly present in the site of event also suffer some degree of consequences because all communities interact within and outside their territory.


  Causality of Events
• Because the impacts of hazards vary from place to place and season to season, it is important to assess the impact of every hazard so that similar events in the future may be prevented.
• a location where a natural hazard is likely to happen if preventive measures are not implemented,


  hazard-prone area
• Due mainly to its geography, the Philippines is considered prone to natural hazards, and hence natural disasters as well. It is situated along the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area surrounding the basin of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanoes have formed.
• Another reason the Philippines is considered prone to disasters is its major tectonic feature, the


  Philippine Fault Zone (PFZ).
• is a crack or break in Earths crust along which rocks have moved.

  fault
• sudden shaking of the ground is called an

  earthquake.
• The PFZ is a series of interrelated faults that cut across the country from northwestern Luzon to southern Mindanao.
• Another reason the Philippines is considered a hazard-prone area is its location in the Western Pacific Basin, the part of the world that is most often visited by typhoons. The region is also called the typhoon belt. This explains why an average of 20 typhoons hit the country every year.
• The impacts of hazards are the likely outcome of disaster.
• IMPACT OF HAZARDS

  physical elements

  socioeconomic elements

  environmental elements
• People, buildings, roads, poles, bridges and all other material objects may be ruined by hazards.

  Physical elements.
• The positive impacts of hazards on the socioeconomic elements may be in the form of introducing new habits, practices, systems, or values that may be geared toward the values of resiliency and recovery.


  Socioeconomic elements.