Elimination: Physically Remove the Hazard

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Eliminating hazards are the most effective early in the design process to prevent exposures that can result in illness or injury. It is more difficult to implement for an existing process when major changes in equipment or processes may be required. Complete hazard elimination is most difficult to achieve and requires implementation of other control strategies.

Examples include:

• Discontinue using non-safety engineered devices
• Removing hazardous chemicals
• Discontinue using cuspidors, saliva ejectors
• Removing asbestos in dental procedures (previously in dental tape; some small quantities may still be available)
• Removing old non-functioning equipment and electrical devices