IOSH Managing Safely Location Hazards

It's fair to say that under normal circumstances you wouldn't need to differentiate between various hazard types in your risk assessment of your workplace. So why do IOSH insist on asking you to identify hazards that are specific to a location, an equipment, substance or activity? Well the controls for each would be different

Here's a location hazard in a fictitious  administration office. Hazard description - the lighting level in the office space is too low for the completion of paperwork. This is a location hazard because these lights, in this space provide an inadequate level of light for the work carried out in this space.

Here's another location hazard, this time based on a 8 foot by 6 foot storage room, which has no windows or other ventilation - this small, poorly ventilated space is used for the storage of paint products. The trapped vapors in this room can cause harm to the liver and urinary tract. Under normal conditions the vapor would be dissipated. 

It may be the substance that causes the harm in this case but the hazard description makes the point that it is the confined nature of the space that causes the buildup of harmful amounts of vapor.

Good luck with your project