On 22 September 2026, Prevencionar México published a practical explanation of a widely used method for systematically evaluating and prioritizing workplace risks. The approach combines four elements into a well-founded decision-making tool for HSE professionals: deficiency, exposure, probability and consequences.
Four elements, one risk picture
The method starts by identifying hazardous conditions through checklists: the so-called deficiencies on the shop floor. Next, exposure is assessed, meaning how often workers are actually exposed to that condition. Combining deficiency and exposure yields the probability, i.e. the likelihood that an accident will occur. The fourth element, consequences, maps the expected severity of the outcome should the incident actually happen.
The core principle is simple to state: the greater the probability and severity of the expected consequences, the higher the priority for intervention should be. Prevencionar México stresses that the numerical scores produced by this calculation are meant as a decision-making aid rather than an automatic final verdict. According to the article, historical accident data, the number of exposed workers, the effectiveness of measures already taken, and the involvement of workers themselves should all be weighed as well before a priority is finally set.
Context
The combination of deficiency, exposure, probability and consequences described in the article matches, almost word for word, the classic NTP-330 method of Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo (INSST), formally titled “Sistema simplificado de evaluación de riesgos de accidente”. This method dates from 1993 and has since become one of the most widely used risk assessment systems in Spanish-language occupational safety practice, from Spain to Latin America. NTP-330 works with exactly the same four building blocks — deficiencia, exposición, probabilidad and consecuencias — which are multiplied together into a risk level that can be used to rank interventions. Prevencionar México’s article does not name the standard itself, but the methodological overlap is too great to be coincidental: it is, in effect, a practice-oriented explanation of a standard that has been established for decades. That places the piece not as a new method, but as an accessible reintroduction of an existing tool for a Mexican audience. Additional research: INSST, “NTP 330: Sistema simplificado de evaluación de riesgos de accidente”.
Practical significance
For HSE teams in Mexico and beyond, the method offers a low-threshold starting point for ranking risks without a heavy quantitative risk analysis. Precisely because the scores are an aid rather than a final verdict, expert interpretation remains essential: a checklist flags deficiencies, but the final prioritization requires knowledge of the process, the exposed population and previous incidents. Organizations applying this type of system would do well to combine it with periodic reassessment and direct involvement of shop-floor workers, as Prevencionar México also advises.
Source: Cómo evaluar y priorizar los riesgos de accidente en el trabajo, 22 September 2026
