BRIE, a tool to detect and assess risks in small and medium sized enterprises

Introduction
Serious accidents are most prevalent in small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s). Despite their efforts, SME’s don’t have the knowledge to manage occupational safety. Hence, SME’s should be guided during risk-assessments and development of subsequent preventive measures. Therefore, the non-profit organisation IDEWE organises periodic visits with the online risk-assessment tool “BRIE”, “Bedrijfsbezoeken Risico Inventarisatie en Evaluatie” (i.e. Company screenings Risk Inventarisation and Evaluation). BRIE-features are twofold: 1) it is an analytic tool to evaluate specific occupational risks at sector level; 2) allowing prevention workers to formulate advice concerning good practices, legal information and preventive actions.

Methods
As an external service for prevention and protection at work, IDEWE services 27.200 SME’s and their 440.000 employees with ”BRIE”. For this study we focused on risk-assessments by trained prevention experts in SME’s within the automotive sector during the period 2009-2011. BRIE assessed following safety factors: 1) general health & safety policy including risk-analysis and year action plans; 2) safety instructions regarding chemicals and machinery. Each factor was scored with “1” (present) or “0” (absent). Descriptive statistics were performed and the prevalence was calculated using frequency tables.

Results
Idewe performed 636 risk-assessments. Not all factors were scored in each of the SME’s. 62% of the SME’s (46/73) fail to register occupational risks. 72 % (27/38) did not have a year plan with preventive measures, and 40% (40/101) lacked material safety datasheets. Safety instructions regarding chemicals and machinery were missing in 63% (37/59) and 32% (23/71) of the SME’s respectively.

Discussion
Based on these results, IDEWE initiated 3 actions by providing 1) standard risk profiles to sensitize SME’s for risk-assessments; 2) future visits with BRIE for more in depth analysis; 3) tools on ‘chemical substances’ (i.e. brochures, instructions, ,…). Hence, BRIE is a practical tool, allowing prevention workers to guide SME’s in their occupational health and safety policy.