Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

Cutting Hazards
Shear Hazards
Crushing Hazards

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Introduction to Health and Safety at Work
168
Machinery movement basically consists of rotary, 
sliding or reciprocating action, or a combination of these. 
These movements may cause injury by entanglement, 
friction or abrasion, cutting, shearing, stabbing or 
puncture, impact, crushing, or by drawing a person into 
a position where one or more of these types of injury can 
occur. The hazards of machinery are set out in BS EN ISO 
12100 – Part 2: 2003 which covers the classifi cation of 
machinery hazards and how harm may occur. The follow-
ing machinery hazards follow this standard.
A person may be injured at machinery as a result of:
➤
a 
crushing hazard
through being trapped between 
a moving part of a machine and a fi xed structure, 
such as a wall or any material in a machine
➤
a 
shearing hazard
which traps part of the body, 
typically a hand or fi ngers, between moving and 
fi xed parts of the machine
➤
a 
cutting or severing hazard
through contact with 
a cutting edge, such as a band saw or rotating cut-
ting disc
➤
entanglement hazard
with the machinery which 
grips loose clothing, hair or working material, such 
as emery paper, around revolving exposed parts 
of the machinery. The smaller the diameter of 
the revolving part the easier it is to get a wrap or 
entanglement
➤
a 
drawing-in or trapping hazard
such as between 
in-running gear wheels or rollers or between belts 
and pulley drives
➤
an 
impact hazard
when a moving part directly 
strikes a person, such as with the accidental move-
ment of a robot’s working arm when maintenance is 
taking place
➤
a