Understanding the Hierarchy of Controls

The Hierarchy of Controls was developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to identify the effectiveness of safety measures, ranging from most to least effective. In the diagram, you can see that the most effective control is total elimination of the hazard; the least effective is to use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to protect workers from the hazards that cannot be removed.

In between these two are three other options: substitution, engineering controls, and administrative controls. If there is more than one option for control, the best option is obviously the one that is higher on the chart (and therefore more effective).

When using the Hierarchy of Controls, consider the following tips:

• Immediately eliminate or control all serious hazards that cause (or may cause) death or serious harm.
• Implement interim controls while creating a longer-term solution.
• Do not implement controls that could (or will) create new hazards (for example, using PPE to protect from a known chemical when this PPE impedes hearing and therefore makes it difficult for workers to hear emergency alarms).
• Present workers with the proposed plan and get their feedback on plan feasibility.
• Use a combination of controls when one control method alone will not work.

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