Introduction
The efforts of some paper mills to improve their health and safety performance in
response to the PABIAC Initiative and reduce the incidence of injury and ill health
has been undermined by weaknesses in the application of risk assessment. This
stems in part from the fact that risk assessment is conducted in isolation rather
than being viewed as one ingredient, albeit an essential one, of an overall
approach in reaching decisions on the management of risks, preferably
expressed as a value judgement rather than a number. The effect of this
weakness in some mills has been to demoralise management and employees
who have often made considerable efforts to participate and make progress, and
prevent the introduction of the controls needed to achieve compliance with the
law.