Safety Acronyms

Health and Safety Acronyms (HSA’s)

As we all know, acronyms are shorter forms of words or phrases that are useful when you need to repeat the same word or phrase a number of times throughout the same piece of writing. Or maybe to make you look smarter or more important when they are printed on your name on your business card? They have become common place in the world of social media but can be misinterpreted eg the Mother who recently texted her son to say “Your Aunty just died, LOL” – she thought LOL meant “Lots Of Love”.

Rather than encourage trust and inclusion, Safety seems dtermined to encourage exclusion with its crazy language. See: Making Safety Language Meaningful

Apart from in the IT industry, the safety world seems to have more three-letter acronyms (TLA’s) than any other. I hear new ones every day, they roll easily off the tongue and those in the game spit them out assuming we all know what they mean. But, most of us are too proud to admit our ignorance and slink off to google it on the iphone. As a lad we took great delight in making up our own derogatory meanings for any acronym we didn’t understand. Then there was our under performing Safety Health Improvement Team (took ages for the boss to wake up to that one). I’ve taken to always asking what a TLA means – its amazing how many people using them don’t even know!

I couldn’t find any web page or resource devoted to Safety Acronyms so I decided to start one and hope it helps – PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTRIBUTE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.

More Safety Jargon, Safety Acronym and Safety Talk Articles and Resources which may cause you to rethink your discourse:

• Weasel Words in Safety – by George Robotham
• They’re Only Words….Aren’t They? – by Rob Sams
• Jargon Killed the Astronauts – by Phil LaDuke
• WHS Harmonisation Jargon – by The Safety Nerd
• OHS and WHS ACRONYMS – Our list of safety acronyms and their meaning (well some of them)
• The Crazy Words of Health and Safety – by Mark Taylor
• The Workers Compensation Discourse – by James Ellis
• How Can I Get The Boss To Listen – by Sheri Suckling
• Your Safety Talk Matters – by Rob Long
• Jargon-less Safety Talk
  

  Here are a few Safety Acronyms to get the ball rolling and hopefully the list will grow over time:

  1. AART – Apply Advanced Resuscitation Techniques
  2. AFARP – As far as reasonably practical
  3. ALARA – As Low As Reasonably Achievable
  4. ALARP – As Low As Reasonably Practicable
  5. ASSE – American Society of Safety Engineers
  6. BBS – Behavioural Based Safety
  7. COP – Code of Practice
  8. CBT – Competency Based Training
  9. CIAED – Course In Automated External Defibrillation
  10. DGHS – Dangerous Goods and Hazardous Substances
  11. DIFR – Disabling Injury Frequency Rate
  12. DoL – Department of Labour NZ
  13. EHSR – Elected Health and Safety Representative
  14. ELCB – Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker
  15. EMP – Emergency Management Plan
  16. ERT – Emergency Response Team
  17. FAI – First Aid Incident
  18. FIFR – Fatal Injury Frequency Rate
  19. HAZOP – Hazard and Operability
  20. HFA – Hazard Factor Assessment
  21. HIRA – Hazard Identification Risk Assessment
  22. HSE – Health & Safety Executive UK
  23. HSR – Health and Safety Representative
  24. HSSE – Health, Safety, Security & Environment
  25. ISHR – Industry Safety & Health Representative
  26. JSA – Job Safety Analysis (risk assessment before starting work)
  27. JSEA – as for JSA but includes Environmental risks
  28. L2RA – Level Two Risk Assessment
  29. LOTO – lock out tag out
  30. LTFR – Lost Time Frequency Rate
  31. LTI – Lost Time Injury
  32. MSDS – Material Safety Data Sheet
  33. MTI – Medically Treated Incident
  34. NLTPHRW – National Licence To Perform High Risk Work
  35. NMI – Near Miss Incident
  36. NSCA – National Safety Council of Australia
  37. NSFW – Not Safe For Work
  38. OFA – Occupational First Aid
  39. OHS – Occupational Health and Safety
  40. OHSC– Occupational Health and Safety Committee
  41. OSHA – Occupational Safety & Health Administration
  42. OHSMS – Occupational Health and Safety Management System
  43. PCBU – Person conducting a business or undertaking
  44. PHMP – Principal Hazard Management Plan – defined term in Qld coal mining legislation. A Principal Hazard is one capable of causing multiple fatalities. No coal mine in Qld can start without a PHMP for all PHs relevant to its operations.
  45. PHP – Personal Hearing Protection
  46. POCL – Pre Operation Check List
  47. PPE – Personal Protective Equipment
  48. PTW – Permit to Work
  49. RA – Risk Assessment
  50. RACE – Rescue, Activate alarm, Confine the fire, Evacuate/Extinguish
  51. RCA – Root Cause Analysis
  52. RCD – Residual Current Device
  53. SFA – Senior First Aid
  54. SHE – Safety Health and Environment
  55. SHIT – Special High Intensity Training, Safety & Health Improvement Team
  56. SHMP – Safety & Health Management Plan (action plan to implement the SHMS)
  57. SHMS – Safety & Health Management System
  58. SIA – Safety Institute of Australia
  59. SIFR – Serious Injury Frequency Rate
  60. SINA – Safety Is No Accident
  61. SIT – Safety Improvement Team
  62. SMP – Safety management Plan
  63. SOP – Standard Operating Procedure (defined in Queensland mining legislation)
  64. SSOP Safe Standard Operating Procedure
  65. SSHR – Site Safety & Health Representative
  66. SWI – Safe (or Standard) Work Instruction – short summary of the SOP, usually one page, listing risks and risk controls.
  67. SWL – Safe Working Load
  68. SWMS – safe work method statement
  69. SWP – Safe Work Procedures, Safe Work Platform
  70. TRI – Total Recordable Injuries, Total Reportable Injuries
  71. TRIFR – Total Reportable Injury Frequency Rate
  72. VRDs – Voltage Reduction Devices
  73. W@H – Work at Heights
  74. WAH – Work at Heights
  75. WHS – Workplace Health and Safety
  76. WHSO – Workplace Health and Safety Officer
  77. WICS – Work In Confined Space
  78. WMS – Work Method Statement

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Barry Spud

Safety Crusader, BBS Fanatic, Zero Harm Zealot, Compliance Controller and Global Pandemic Expert at Everything Safety

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