Lesson Overview
Lesson 02 took you through the risk assessment: identify the hazards, decide who might be harmed and how, evaluate the risk by likelihood multiplied by severity, record it, and review it, with dynamic re-judging running on top throughout the activity. That process tells you where the danger lies and how serious it is. It does not, on its own, make anyone safer. The work of actually bringing the risk down to a level you can run training at is the subject of this lesson, and it is the third step of the assessment, "evaluate the risk and decide control measures," opened up and made practical.
This lesson teaches you how to choose controls and how to put them in place so they hold. The heart of it is the hierarchy of control, a fixed order of preference for how you deal with a hazard: eliminate it, reduce it, isolate people from it, control it with procedures, and only last fall back on personal protective equipment. From the controls you choose you then build a safe system of work, an agreed way the activity will run that keeps the risk down, and you put it into people's heads with the safety brief before they ever start: the hazards, the controls, the boundaries, the emergency plan, and the stop procedure, with no one taking part who has not had the brief.
This is the knowledge layer. Choosing the right control under time, writing a safe system that a tired section will actually follow, and delivering a brief that lands and is understood are skills, and skills are mastered by practice. Where the course requires it, your control of a real activity and your delivery of a real safety brief are watched and signed off in person by a qualified safety officer before you run training for real. By the end you will be able to apply the hierarchy of control in the correct order and explain why the order matters, choose a sensible control measure for a given hazard rather than reaching first for PPE, assemble the chosen controls into a safe system of work, deliver a complete safety brief covering the hazards, the controls, the boundaries, the emergency plan, and the stop procedure, and confirm that everyone taking part has had the brief and understood it.
Key Terms
- Control measure: any action taken to remove a hazard or to reduce the risk it presents. Also called a control.
- Hierarchy of control: the fixed order of preference for control measures, from the most effective to the least: eliminate, reduce, isolate, control by procedure, then personal protective equipment.
- Eliminate: to remove the hazard altogether, so that it is no longer present to harm anyone. The most effective control.
- Reduce: to lower the hazard itself, for example by using less of it, a weaker form of it, or a safer alternative.
- Isolate: to separate people from the hazard in space or time, by barriers, distance, exclusion zones, or sequencing, so the two do not meet.
- Control by procedure: to manage a hazard that remains by the way the activity is run, through rules, drills, supervision, limits, and training. Also called administrative or procedural control.
- Personal protective equipment (PPE): equipment worn by the individual to protect against a hazard that could not be removed, reduced, isolated, or controlled away, such as eye protection, gloves, or a helmet. The last line of defence, never the first.
- Safe system of work: an agreed, planned way of carrying out the activity that brings together the chosen controls so the task is done safely from start to finish.
- Safety brief: the briefing given to everyone before a practical activity, covering the hazards, the controls, the boundaries, the emergency plan, and the stop procedure.
- Boundaries: the agreed limits of the activity in ground and in conduct, the area people may use, the area they may not, and the things they may and may not do.
- Stop procedure: the agreed means by which anyone may halt the activity instantly on seeing danger, usually a clear safety word such as "STOP".
The hierarchy of control, and why the order matters
When you have evaluated a risk and judged it too high to run training at, you have to bring it down. The hierarchy of control is the order in which you should try to do that. It is not a menu to pick from freely. It is a ladder, and you start at the top and work down only as far as you must, because the controls at the top are more effective than the controls at the bottom, and they are more effective for a reason worth understanding.
The reason is that the controls at the top of the ladder do not depend on a person doing the right thing in the moment, and the controls at the bottom do. If you eliminate a hazard, it is gone, and no error, no lapse, no tired or distracted national can bring it back. If you only put a national in PPE against a hazard you left fully in place, the protection holds exactly as long as the equipment is worn correctly and works, and the hazard is still there waiting the instant it is not. Every step down the ladder hands more of the safety over to human behaviour, which is the part most likely to fail under fatigue, pressure, and the friction of a real exercise. That is why we climb down reluctantly and only as far as forced to.
Take the five rungs in order. Eliminate asks first whether the hazard needs to be there at all. Can the dangerous part of the activity simply be removed? If a stretch of a route crosses a fast river and you do not need that ground, change the route, and the water hazard is gone, not managed, gone. Reduce asks, if the hazard must stay, whether it can be made smaller: a lower airsoft velocity, a lighter training load, a shorter exposure to the cold, a slower phase of a drill. Isolate asks whether you can keep people away from the hazard you could not remove or shrink: a safety zone behind a firing point, a barrier round a vehicle area, a one-way system, running the dangerous serial while everyone else is elsewhere. Control by procedure asks how the activity will be run so that the hazard that remains is managed by rules, drills, supervision, and limits: a weapon-handling drill, a buddy system, a marshal on the lane, a cap on numbers, a rule that no one moves until called. And PPE, last, protects the individual against whatever danger is left when the four better controls have done all they can: eye protection, gloves, a helmet, warm and waterproof clothing.
THE HIERARCHY OF CONTROL (climb DOWN only as far as you must)
most
effective
(hazard +---------------------------------------------+
handled by | 1 ELIMINATE remove the hazard entirely | does not
the system) +---------------------------------------------+ depend on
^ | 2 REDUCE use less / a safer form | a person
| +---------------------------------------------+ getting it
| | 3 ISOLATE barriers, zones, distance, | right in
| | sequencing | the moment
| +---------------------------------------------+ |
| | 4 CONTROL rules, drills, supervision, | |
| | (procedure) limits, training | v
least +---------------------------------------------+ depends
effective | 5 PPE eye/face, gloves, helmet, | wholly on
(hazard left; | cold-weather kit | the person
person +---------------------------------------------+ and the kit
protected)
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Start at rung 1. Use the lowest rung only for the danger the higher
rungs could not remove. PPE is the LAST line, never the first.
Choosing controls in practice
The hierarchy tells you the order to think in. Choosing the actual controls for a real activity takes a little more. Work hazard by hazard, taking each significant hazard your risk assessment found and asking the five questions of it from the top: can I eliminate this, if not can I reduce it, if not can I isolate people from it, if not can I control it by procedure, and what PPE remains necessary after all that. You will usually end with not one control but several, from more than one rung, layered against the same hazard, and that is right. The controls combine.
Two errors are worth naming because they are common. The first is reaching straight for PPE. PPE is visible, cheap, and easy to issue, so the lazy answer to any hazard is to hand out a piece of equipment and feel that something has been done. But PPE leaves the hazard fully in place and protects only the person wearing it correctly, and only against the one thing it is made for. Eye protection is essential on an airsoft field, but it is the last control, not the plan. The velocity limit, the marshals, the safe zones, and the surrender rule are doing the real work; the eyewear is the backstop for when something still gets through. Ask the four higher questions before you settle on PPE, always.
The second error is choosing a control the activity cannot actually sustain. A control only counts if it will hold for the whole activity, with real, tired people, under the conditions you will really meet. A rule that no one will keep, a marshal you do not have, a barrier that will be stepped over within the hour, a procedure too complicated to follow when cold and wet, these are not controls, they are wishes. When you choose a procedural control especially, ask whether the section can and will keep it for the duration, and if they cannot, find a higher control that does not lean so hard on them. A simple control that holds beats a clever one that fails.
CHOOSING CONTROLS | work each hazard down the ladder
HAZARD: airsoft projectile to the eye or face
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Eliminate ? No - eye/face exposure is inherent to the activity
Reduce ? Yes - cap muzzle velocity to the standard limit
Isolate ? Yes - safe zones where eye-pro may come off; firing only
outside them; minimum engagement distance
Control ? Yes - marshals on the field; surrender rule; the stop word;
brief and check eye-pro before entry
PPE ? Yes - rated eye and full-face protection, worn at all times
on the field <-- the LAST layer, not the plan
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Result: FIVE controls layered, not one. The higher rungs do the work;
the PPE is the backstop. This is a safe system of work taking shape.
Building the safe system of work
The controls you have chosen do not yet make a safe activity. Laid out as a list they are just a set of good intentions. The safe system of work is what turns that list into a way of actually running the thing: an agreed, planned sequence of how the activity will go from start to finish, with the controls built into it at the points they bite. It is the difference between "we will keep a safety zone behind the firing point" written on a sheet and the firing point actually being laid out with the zone marked, a person posted to hold it, and a rule that rounds are only loaded once everyone is in front of the line.
Build the safe system by walking the activity through in your mind from the moment people arrive to the moment they leave, and at each phase fixing how it will be done safely. Who does what, in what order, within what limits, watched by whom. Where does the dangerous serial sit and who is clear of it while it runs. What is the sequence that keeps people and hazards apart, the loading and unloading, the moving on and off the lane, the entry to and exit from the field. A good safe system is simple enough to follow under fatigue, specific about who holds each control, and ordered so that the hazard and the people are never in the same place at the same time without a control between them. It is the plan the safety brief then communicates, and it is the thing your supervision, in the next lesson, exists to hold.
The safety brief
Everything so far lives in your head and on your assessment. The safety brief is how it gets into the heads of the people who will actually do the activity, and it is the moment your control of the risk either takes hold or does not. Before any practical activity, you brief everyone taking part, and the brief covers five things in plain order: the hazards they face, the controls that are in place, the boundaries of the activity, the emergency plan, and the stop procedure. Cover all five, simply and audibly, and confirm they have understood before you begin.
Take them in turn. The hazards are what could hurt them, named honestly and without drama, so they know what they are up against: the ground, the weather, the water, the weapons, the cold, the activity itself. The controls are how those hazards are being managed and what each person must do to keep the controls working: wear this, do that, do not do the other. The boundaries are the limits in ground and in conduct, the area they may use and the area they must not enter, and the things they may and may not do. The emergency plan is what happens if it goes wrong, where the first aid is, how help is called, the route out, and who is in charge of the response. And the stop procedure is the word anyone may call to halt the activity instantly, "STOP", what it means, and that everyone, of any rank, has both the right and the duty to call it the moment they see danger. The brief ends with confirmation: you check understanding with a question or two, not "any questions, no, good," and you account for who is present, because the rule is firm. No one takes part who has not had the brief. A national who arrives late, or whose attention wandered, gets the brief again before they step onto the ground. There are no exceptions, because the person who missed the brief is the person who does not know where the boundary is or that the water is fast or that "STOP" means stop.
SAFETY BRIEF CHECKLIST | before ANY practical activity
Activity: ____________________ Safety officer: ____________ Date: ______
[ ] HAZARDS named plainly: ground / weather / water / weapons /
cold / heat / the activity itself
[ ] CONTROLS what is in place AND what each person must do to keep
it working (wear this, do that, do not do the other)
[ ] BOUNDARIES ground you may use / ground you may NOT enter;
conduct allowed / not allowed
[ ] EMERGENCY where the first aid is; how help is called; the route
PLAN out; who runs the response
[ ] STOP the word is "STOP"; anyone, any rank, may call it;
PROCEDURE activity halts at once, danger is dealt with, then resumes
[ ] CONFIRM check understanding (ask, do not assume)
[ ] ACCOUNT everyone present is counted AND has had this brief
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RULE: no one takes part who has not had the brief. Late or distracted?
Brief them again before they step on. No exceptions.
In Practice: a safety officer controlling a river-crossing serial
Sergeant Tolan is the safety officer for a fieldcraft exercise, and the planned route crosses a stream that recent rain has turned fast and waist-deep at the obvious ford. Her risk assessment marks the water as the most serious hazard on the exercise: drowning and cold-water shock against a section of young nationals carrying kit. She has the controls to choose and a brief to give, and she works the hazard down the ladder rather than reaching for the easy answer.
Eliminate comes first. Does the exercise need that crossing at all? She checks the aim of the serial, which is movement and navigation, not water confidence, and finds it does not. So she changes the route to a footbridge half a kilometre upstream, and the drowning hazard is gone, removed, not managed. That single decision does more for safety than any amount of equipment would have. Where she cannot eliminate, she layers down the rungs for the hazards that remain: she reduces the load nationals carry on the wet, uneven approach; she isolates by keeping the section back from the bank, crossing the bridge one at a time with a clear space; she controls by procedure with a buddy pairing, a counted head check on the far side, and herself posted at the crossing; and only then does she settle the PPE that remains sensible for cold and wet ground.
Then she briefs, and she briefs everyone, including the two who arrive five minutes late, whom she briefs again before they move. She names the hazard plainly: the stream is fast and cold and we are not fording it. She gives the controls: bridge only, one at a time, stay back from the bank, buddy with your pair. She marks the boundaries on the ground: this is the line, no one goes below it toward the water. She gives the emergency plan: first aid is with Private Ren, help is called on the radio, the route to the road is back up the track, she runs any response. And she gives the stop procedure: anyone, any rank, who sees someone near that water or in trouble calls "STOP" and we all stop at once. She confirms with two quick questions, counts the section, and only then moves them. The crossing passes without incident, not because nothing dangerous was near, but because the most dangerous thing was eliminated, what remained was controlled in layers, and every national on the ground knew the plan, the limits, and the word that stops everything.
Check Your Understanding
List the five levels of the hierarchy of control in the correct order, from most to least effective, and explain in your own words why the order matters, that is, why elimination is preferred to PPE.
A hazard cannot be eliminated or reduced. Walk through how you would still try to control it before you fall back on personal protective equipment, and explain the common error of reaching for PPE first.
Name the five things a safety brief must cover before a practical activity, and state the firm rule about who may take part. What do you do about a national who arrives after the brief has been given?
Reflection (write a short paragraph):
Think of a practical activity you have taken part in, in the Army or before it. Was the danger handled high on the ladder, removed or designed out, or low on it, left in place and managed by rules and equipment and the hope that everyone would behave? If something had gone wrong, which control would have been the one keeping you safe, and how much was that control depending on a person getting it right in the moment?
Summary
- Choosing controls is the practical heart of the risk assessment's third step, evaluating the risk and deciding control measures, taken from a list of intentions to a way the activity will actually run.
- The hierarchy of control sets the order: eliminate, reduce, isolate, control by procedure, then PPE. Start at the top and climb down only as far as you must.
- The order matters because the higher controls do not depend on a person getting it right in the moment, while the lower ones do, and human behaviour is the part most likely to fail under fatigue and pressure. PPE is the last line, never the first.
- Choose controls hazard by hazard, layering several rungs against the same hazard. Avoid reaching straight for PPE, and never choose a control the activity cannot actually sustain.
- The chosen controls are assembled into a safe system of work, an agreed, ordered way of running the activity that keeps people and hazards apart with a control between them.
- The safety brief puts the system into people's heads before they start, covering the hazards, the controls, the boundaries, the emergency plan, and the stop procedure, confirmed and understood, with no one taking part who has not had the brief.
- This lesson builds on Lesson 02 · Risk Assessment (identify, evaluate, control) and leads into Lesson 04 · Safety in the Army's Practical Training and Lesson 05 · Supervision, Emergencies, and the Stop, which hold the system in place once the activity begins.
- It applies directly across the Army's practical training: the Airsoft Milsim Component and its safety standard, FLD 210 · Weapon Handling and Safety, FLD 240 · Cold-Weather Operations, FLD 360 · Physical Training Instructor, and MED 201 · Combat First Aid for the emergency plan, and it connects to LDR 420 · Command Responsibility and Ethical Leadership for the duty of care that the whole hierarchy serves.
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