Argthtjtr

I was just told that the meaning of the word "risk" is something that is dangerous, but that is a necessary evil.

And that "hazard" is something that is dangerous, but that not a necessary evil.

Is that about right?

As quoted on the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety’s website (just the first site I found when looking for a good set of definitions)

What is a hazard?
The meaning of the word hazard can be confusing. Often dictionaries do not give specific definitions or combine it with the term "risk". For example, one dictionary defines hazard as "a danger or risk" which helps explain why many people use the terms interchangeably.

There are many definitions for hazard but the most common definition when talking about workplace health and safety is:

A hazard is any source of potential damage, harm or adverse health effects on something or someone.

What are examples of a hazard?
Workplace hazards can come from a wide range of sources. General examples include any substance, material, process, practice, etc. that has the ability to cause harm or adverse health effect to a person or property.

As an example, a wet floor is a hazard because one could slip on it.

Risk is the chance or probability that a person will be harmed or experience an adverse health effect if exposed to a hazard.

It may also apply to situations with property or equipment loss, or harmful effects on the environment.

The CSA Z1002 Standard "Occupational health and safety - Hazard identification and elimination and risk assessment and control" uses the following terms:

Risk – the combination of the likelihood of the occurrence of a harm and the severity of that harm.

Likelihood – the chance of something happening.
Note: In risk assessment terminology, the word “likelihood” is used to refer to the chance of something happening, whether defined, measured, or determined objectively or subjectively, qualitatively or quantitatively, and described using general terms or mathematically (e.g., a probability or a frequency over a given time period).

For example: the risk of developing cancer from smoking cigarettes could be expressed as:

• cigarette smokers are 12 times (for example) more likely to die of lung cancer than non-smokers", or




• the number per 100,000 smokers who will develop lung cancer" (actual number depends on factors such as their age and how many years they have been smoking). These risks are expressed as a probability or likelihood of developing a disease or getting injured, whereas hazard refers to the agent responsible (i.e. smoking).

To continue the wet floor example, the risk associated with a wet floor is fairly high because the likelihood of people slipping on it is fairly high and the severity is high because it could result in a broken hip, a concussion etc.

Not trying to limit the answer to what i write here, but this is also one way of looking at it that risk is something that happens as a result of what one does, but the source of hazard is outside of one's decision.