• Title/Summary/Keyword: risk assessment

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Risk Assessment in the UK Health and Safety System: Theory and Practice

  • Russ, Karen
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.11-18
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    • 2010
  • In the UK, a person or organisation that creates risk is required to manage and control that risk so that it is reduced 'So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable (SFAIRP).' How the risk is managed is to be determined by those who create the risk. They have a duty to demonstrate that they have taken action to ensure all risk is reduced SFAIRP and must have documentary evidence, for example a risk assessment or safety case, to prove that they manage the risks their activities create. The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not tell organisations how to manage the risks they create but does inspect the quality of risk identification and management. This paper gives a brief overview of where responsibility for occupational health and safety lies in the UK, and how risk should be managed through risk assessment. The focus of the paper is three recent major UK incidents, all involving fatalities, and all of which were wholly avoidable if risks had been properly assessed and managed. The paper concludes with an analysis of the common failings of risk assessments and key actions for improvement.

Multi-unit risk assessment of nuclear power plants: Current status and issues

  • Yang, Joon-Eon
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.50 no.8
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    • pp.1199-1209
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    • 2018
  • After the Fukushima-Daiichi accident in 2011, the multi-unit risk, i.e., the risk due to several nuclear power plants (NPPs) in a site has become an important issue in several countries such as Korea, Canada, and China. However, the multi-unit risk has been discussed for a long time in the nuclear community before the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident occurred. The regulatory authorities around the world and the international organizations had proposed requirements or guidelines to reduce the multi-unit risk. The concerns regarding the multi-unit risk can be summarized in the following three questions: How much the accident of an NPP in a site affects the safety of other NPPs in the same site? What is the total risk of a site with many NPPs? Will the risk of the simultaneous accidents at several NPPs in a site such as the Fukushima Daiichi accident be low enough? The multi-unit risk assessment (MURA) in an integrated framework is a practical approach to obtain the answers for the above questions. Even though there were few studies to assess the multi-unit risk before the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident, there are still several issues to be resolved to perform the complete MURA. This article aims to provide an overview of the multi-unit risk issues and its assessment. We discuss the several critical issues in the current MURA to get useful insights regarding the multi-unit risk with the current state art of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) technologies. Also, the qualitative answers for the above questions are addressed.

The Quantitative Risk Assessment for Railroad-tunnel Fire Incidents by using CFD code (CFD code를 이용한 철도터널 화재 위험도 평가)

  • Kim, H.B.;Lee, D.H.;Jang, Y.J.;Jung, W.S.
    • 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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    • 2011.05a
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    • pp.169-172
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    • 2011
  • Recently, railroad long tunnels are increasing and growing longer due to topological feathers like a lot of mountain in Korea. But fire disaster of a long tunnel cause many people to injury and death. For that reason, at the early design stage of a long tunnel, risk assessment and mitigation measure of risk for satisfying tunnel safety are required. According to the railroad facility safety standard (Korean MLTM Announcement No. 2006-395), risk assessment for railroad-tunnel fire should be performed when design stage. Therefore, various methods of risk assessment for tunnel fire have been studied and applied. In the paper, QRA(Quantitative Risk Analysis) for fire risk assessment by using CFD code is presented and the usefulness of CFD is discussed.

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A Study on the Development of Railway Risk Assessment Information Management System (철도 위험도평가 전산시스템(RAIMS)의 설계 및 개발에 관한 연구)

  • Park, Chan-Woo;Kwak, Sang-Log;Park, Joo-Nam;Wang, Jong-Bae
    • Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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    • 2006.11b
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    • pp.1059-1064
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    • 2006
  • Risk assessment of a railway system should be periodically conducted managing a large amount of accumulating accident/incident data and scenarios, which generally requires enormous time and efforts. Therefore, special information management system is essential for railway risk assessment, where data needed for decisions on managing the railway safety could be promptly supported. In this study, we develop the framework of a railway risk assessment information management system (RAIMS). The RAIMS is composed of two main modules: 1) hazard data processing module; 2) and risk assessment module. Hazard data could be turned into risk information using these two modules. The RAIMS will be useful in finding hazard conditions, quantitatively assessing the risk, and providing pertinent risk measures, eventually serving to prevent railway accidents and reduce severities of railway accidents.

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A Study on the Optimization Effectiveness of Risk Assessment in Construction Industry (건설업 위험성 평가 실효성을 위한 최적화 연구)

  • Paek, Chung Hyeun;Cho, Ur Ryong
    • Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.15-22
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    • 2015
  • The risk assessment carried out on the construction site at the beginning of the implementation depends on the subjective judgment of risk of general contractor and subcontractors, whose opinion about frequency and intensity of risk is different. In this paper, research the awareness of general contractors and subcontractors about process of risk assessment at the construction site and its effectiveness. Researching of the main factors "frequency", "intensity" which determines the degree of risk gives the opportunity to find an option for improving the effective implementation of risk assessment.

Risk Assessment in Finland: Theory and Practice

  • Anttonen, Hannu;Paakkonen, Rauno
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.1-10
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    • 2010
  • The Finnish risk assessment practice is based on the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act aiming to improve working conditions in order maintain the employees' work ability, and to prevent occupational accidents and diseases. In practice there are hundreds of risk assessment methods in use. A simple method is used in small and medium sized enterprises and more complex risk evaluation methods in larger work places. Does the risk management function in the work places in Finland? According to our experience something more is needed. That is, understanding of common and company related benefits of risk management. The wider conclusion is that commitment for risk assessment in Finland is high enough. However, in those enterprises where OSH management was at an acceptable level or above it, there were also more varied and more successfully accomplished actions to remove or reduce the risks than in enterprises, where OSH management was in lower level. In risk assessment it is important to process active technical prevention and exact communication, increase work place attraction and increase job satisfaction and motivation. Investments in OSH are also good business. Low absenteeism due to illness or accidents increases directly the production results by improved quality and quantity of the product. In general Finnish studies have consistently shown that the return of an invested euro is three to seven-old. In national level, according to our calculations the savings could be even 20% of our gross national product.

A Study on the Improvement of Risk Assessment Method in Laboratory (연구실 위험성평가방법 개선에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Soo-Tae
    • Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.444-456
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    • 2022
  • Purpose: Laboratories require Preliminary Risk Analysis of Hazard Factors, but there are many laboratories that do not. For the purpose of securing the safety of the laboratory, it is intended to find improvements so that the Risk Assessment can be easily applied. Method: Research papers and data from the Laboratory Safety Management Survey Report by the Ministry of Science and ICT were used. The study was conducted by comparing Preliminary Risk Analysis of Hazard Factors and Risk Assessment under the Occopational Safety and Health Act. Result: A technique for Risk Assessment of a laboratory was proposed. When Risk Assessment of the laboratory, a method was proposed to estimate the size of the possibility(frequency) and severity(intensity). Conclusion: For easy application in the laboratory, a checklist-type Risk Assessment technique was presented and actual evaluation was conducted. It is expected that the laboratory will improve through Risk Assessment to help prevent safety accidents.

Assessment of the Risk of Exposure to Chemical Carcinogens

  • Purchase, Iain F.H.
    • Toxicological Research
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    • v.17
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    • pp.41-45
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    • 2001
  • The methods used for risk assessment from exposure to chemicals are well established. in most cases where toxicity other than carcinogenesis is being considered, the standard method relies on establishing the No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL) in the most sensitive animal toxicity study and using an appropriate safety factor (SF) to determine the exposure which would be associated with an acceptable risk. For carcinogens a different approach is used because it has been argued there is no threshold of effect. Thus mathematical equations are used to extrapolate from the high doses used in ani-mal experiments. These methods have been strongly criticised in recent years on several grounds. The most cogent criticisms are a) the equations are not based on a thorough understanding of the mechanisms of carcinogenesis and b) the outcome of a risk assessment based on such models varies more as a consequence of changes to the assumptions and equation used than it does from the data derived from carcinogenicity experiments. Other criticisms include the absence of any measure of the variance on the risk assessment and the selection of default values that are very conservative. Recent advances in the application of risk assessment emphasise that measures of both the exposure and the hazard should be considered as a distribution of values. The outcome of such a risk assessment provides an estimate of the distribution of the risks.

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A Case Study on Health Impact Assessment from Petroleum Refinery Plant Operation - Human Risk Assessment due to Chemicals Inhalation - (석유정제시설 운영에 대한 건강영향평가 사례 연구 - 화학물질 흡입에 따른 인체 위해도 평가 -)

  • Myung, Nho-Il;Lee, Young-Soo;Shin, Dae-Yewn
    • Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.259-270
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    • 2010
  • We conducted human risk assessment for exposure to inhalation of chemical substances emitted from the storage tanks of petroleum refineries. To assess human risk, this study calculated chemical emissions from the external floating roofs on storage tank at petroleum refineries, as well as concentrations thereof in the ambient air using the K-SCREEN model, and then determined risk in accordance with the Reference Concentration (RfC) values and Inhalation Unit Risk criteria developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The results indicated that non-carcinogenic chemicals have a hazard quotient of less than 1, meaning they have an insignificant effect on human health for residential areas near the storage tanks. Among the known carcinogens, the hazard risk for benzene slightly exceeded $10^{-6}$, indicating the need for corrective reduction measures. The methodology for health impact assessment devised herein provides findings useful in decision making for policy makers and the general public with respect to construction of industrial complexes. However, the methodology proposed herein does have limitations, including discrepancy in results induced by use of U.S. data (due to the lack of usable domestic data). More systematic studies from related researchers will be needed to address these issues and produce more reliable outcomes.

Ecotoxicity Test of Wastewater by a Battery of Bioassay and Toxicity Identification Evaluation (다양한 시험생물종을 이용한 산업폐수 생태독성 평가 및 원인물질 탐색)

  • Ryu, Tae-Kwon;Cho, Jae-Gu;Kim, Kyung-Tae;Yang, Chang-Yong;Joung, Ki-Eun;Yoon, Jun-Heon;Choi, Kyung-Hee
    • Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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    • v.25 no.3
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    • pp.207-214
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    • 2010
  • Toxicity identification and quantification are important factors to evaluate the effect of industrial effluent on the aquatic environment. In order to measure the potential and real toxicity of mixed chemicals in the effluents, the biological method (i.e., WET test) should be used as well as chemical analysis method. In this study, we conducted WET test for various kinds of industrial effluents using aquatic organisms such as water flea (Daphnia magna), algae (Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata), fish (Oryzias latipes, Danio rerio), and microorganism (Vibrio fisheri). In addition, we carried out chemical analysis and TIE (Toxicity Identification Evaluation) for effluents in order to identify the substances causing toxicity. Among the 30 kinds of wastewater, S13 showed the highest eco-toxicity and $Ca^{2+}$ and $Cl^-$ ion were suspected as major compounds causing toxicity for aquatic organisms. In order to confirm these suspected compounds, various confirmation procedures need to be carried out.