Risk Assessment Summary Assessing and controlling the risks of a laboratory procedure is a four-step process that involves listing the materials and processes involved, identifying the hazards associated with each, selecting appropriate safeguards based on the hazards present, and preparing for spills, personal contamination, and other mishaps. This process should be repeated for an experiment or procedure whenever changes in materials or processes are made, reactions are scaled up, control equipment fails, or results deviate dramatically from what is expected.