Reporting Nearmiss

Whether there is no injury, a small bruise or scratch, or an amputation, the consequences of unsafe acts and conditions are left to chance. A ratio showing a relationship between the number of near-miss incidents and injury incidents reported by researchers shows that for every 15 near-miss incidents, there will be one injury. In other words, there are 15 missed opportunities to prevent an injury.

Hundreds of near misses go unreported each month at our facility. Many of you may not think of an incident as a near miss, but it is more often human nature that keeps these lessons from being reported and improving the safety system. Reasons employees don’t report near misses include:

- They do not want to be blamed for problems or mistakes;
- They do not want to create more work;
- They do not want to be perceived as a troublemaker or careless.

It takes time to report a near miss and there are several reasons people don’t do it. However, it is truly important you report them. If not, what is lost is a free lesson in injury prevention. The few minutes spent reporting and investigating near-miss incidents can help prevent similar incidents, and even severe injuries. The difference between a near miss and an injury is typically a fraction of an inch or a split second.

Seven steps in conducting EIA on a project

1. Description of the project

• Description of actual project and site description
• Break the project down into its key components, ie construction, operations, decommissioning
• For each component list all of the sources of environmental disturbance
• For each component all the inputs and outputs must be listed, e.g, air pollution, noise, hydrology

2. Alternatives that have been considered

• Examine alternatives that have been considered
• Example: in a biomass power station, will the fuel be sourced locally or nationally?

3. Description of the environment

• List of all aspects of the environment that may be effected by the development
• Example: populations, fauna, flora, air, soil, water, humans, landscape, cultural heritage
• This section is best carried out with the help of local experts

4. Description of the significant effects on the environment

• The word significant is crucial here as the definition can vary
• 'Significant' needs to be defined
• The most frequent method used here is use of the Leopold matrix
• The matrix is a tool used in the systematic examination of potential interactions
• Example: in a windfarm development a significant impact may be collisions with birds

5. Mitigation

• This is where EIA is most useful
• Once section 4 has been completed it will be obvious where the impacts will be greatest
• Using this information ways to avoid negative impacts should be developed
• Best working with the developer with this section as they know the project best
• Using the windfarm example again construction could be out of bird nesting seasons

6. Non-technical summary (EIS)

• The EIA will be in the public domain and be used in the decision making process
• It is important that the information is available to the public
• This section is a summary that does not include jargon or complicated diagrams
• It should be understood by the informed lay-person

7. Lack of know-how/technical difficulties

• This section is to advise any areas of weakness in knowledge
• It can be used to focus areas of future research
• Some developers see the EIA as a starting block for good environmental management

Nigeria: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Decree No 86

This law states that before undertaking any project (public or private) which is likely to have a substantial impact on the environment, an Environmental Impact Assessment must be done in order to establish what these impacts will be and how best to cope with them.

These projects include construction of airports, oil refineries, sky-scrappers, and all projects embarked upon that has positive and adverse effects on the lives of human beings and the environment.

Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is defined as the measure of our activities as they affect our physical environment, habitats, flora and fauna, people and community and environmental quality.It is an assessment of the possible impact—positive or negative—that a proposed project may have on the environment, together consisting of the natural, social and economic aspects.
Environment is the external factors in which human beings live in. The environment is made up of biotic and abiotic factors. Abiotic factors include air, water, land,buildings etc while biotic factors include plants,trees, animals etc.
EIA is the measure of both beneficial and adverse effects of our activities on the environment.
Beneficial effects are not quite much, it includes
-generation of employment to the local people
-recovery of resources
-improves efficiency of the company


The adverse effect is what we deal with in EIA.It is to be reduced to the bearest minimum.We then introduce Environmental Management Plan in order to reduce the adverse effect and propose mitigation measures.