Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is the key element in workplace occupational safety and health (OSH) provision. It forms the basis for successful, systematic safety and health management.

A woman and a man with a laptop carry out a risk assessment in a warehouse
© iStock | AnnaStills

Since 1996 the German Occupational Safety and Health Act (Arbeitsschutzgesetz, ArbSchG) has placed a duty on all employers to conduct assessments of working conditions and the risks associated with them in order to identify the measures necessary for the protection of their employees.

These pages supply information about the factors that have to be taken into consideration in risk assessments, as well as offering practical guidance.

BAuA makes the online version of its Handbook on Risk Assessment (Handbuch Gefährdungsbeurteilung) available free of charge. A Key Indicator Method developed at BAuA can also be used for the risk assessment of physical workload.

Research Projects

Project numberF 2498 StatusOngoing Project Consideration of psychosocial risks in Occupational Safety and Health. Fundamental revision of the BAuA specialist book

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Research ongoing

Project numberF 2483 StatusCompleted Project Simplified risk assessment of incoherent high-power spotlights

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Research completed

Project numberF 2399 StatusOngoing Project Project cluster: Physical inactivity in the workplace - etiology, risk assessment & prevention, Project 1a Scoping review; Project 1b Systematic review

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Research ongoing

Project numberF 2391 StatusCompleted Project Interactive guidance for the measurement of physical agents within the scope of risk assessment

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Research completed

Project numberF 2358 StatusCompleted Project Psychosocial risk management in company practice

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Research completed

Project numberF 2339 StatusCompleted Project Psychosocial risk management in the EU: Context, strategies and implementation at establishment level - a comparative European study

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Research completed

Publications

Search results

Risk assessment of handling rigid carbon nanotubes at a technical centre in Berlin

Article 2017

The complete article can be purchased in German at the website of the Journal "Gefahrstoffe - Reinhaltung der Luft", 77(2017) …

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Psychosocial risk management in company practice

Article 2017

The German Occupational Safety and Health Act obliges employers to ensure that psychosocial risks of work are identified and …

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Psychosocial risk management in more and less favourable workplace conditions

Article 2017

The complete article "Psychosocial risk management in more and less favourable workplace conditions" can be downloaded at the …

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Risk assessment of manual handling operations at work with the key indicator method (KIM-MHO)

Article 2017

Note: Key indicator method for assessing physical workload during manual handling operations, version 2011. New version from …

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