Accidents environmental factors

Radiation is one of the most important known environmental stimuli of cancer development. This environmental factor becomes especially dangerous for humans living in the areas affected by irradiation from nuclear accidents. Earlier we found that the administration of a mixture of vitamin E and a-lipoic acid to children living in the area of Chernobyl nuclear accident significantly and synergistically suppressed leukocyte oxygen radical overproduction [211]. Thus a-lipoic acid and a-lipoic acid + vitamin E supplements may be of interest as antioxidant preventive agents for the treatment of radiation-induced cancer development. 

Driving is a complex task that requires vigilance, attention, visual skills, and motor coordination. Accidents are also multicausal and involve behavioral and environmental factors (e.g., weather, mechanical, road conditions). Evaluating driving skills is therefore always difficult. 

This chapter focuses on safe practice in relation to educational activities and experiences that take pupils away from the school and into the outdoor classroom. Here, the complex interplay of human and environmental factors is a significant issue and one which differentiates the learning context from that found on the school site and within the classroom. Drawing on case studies and research on accidents in the outdoors, this chapter begins by considering the unique nature of the outdoor classroom and what can be learned from tragedy in terms of understanding accidents in the outdoors. It also identifies supervision as the basic principle of safe practice and discusses elements of this and the... 

Finally, analysing the anatomy of accidents in the outdoors reveals that certain combinations of environmental factors can lead to dynamic circumstances (see Hale, 1983 Priest, 1996 Thomas and Raymond, 1996). Factors such as the weather, environmental vagaries and seasonal variations are significant considerations for those who work in the outdoor classroom because they create dynamic and sometimes unpredictable hazards for the unwary. Many incidents affecting pupils have occurred by or in the sea and open water environments are particularly susceptible in this respect and are, therefore, potentially very hazardous. It is the presence of... 

Natural factors account for a small percentage of accidents. Tornadoes, thunderstorms, volcano eruptions, earthquakes, and floods are examples of natural or environmental factors that can lead to major losses. These can be attributed to neither high-risk behavior nor an unsafe work environment. 

The enterprise defines the utilization environments for each of the operational scenarios. All environmental factors, natural or induced, which may affect system performance, should be identified and defined. Factors, which ensure that the system minimizes the potential for human or machine errors or failures that cause injurious accidents or death, and impart minimal risk of death, injury, or acute chronic illness, disability, and/or reduced job performance of the humans who support the system life cycle, are identified. Specifically, weather conditions (e.g., rain, snow, sun, wind, ice, dust, and fog), temperature ranges, topologies (e.g., ocean, mountains, deserts, plains, and vegetation), biological (e.g., animal, insects, birds, and fungi), time (e.g., day, night, and dusk), induced (e.g., vibration, electromagnetic, acoustic, and chemical), or other envi-... 

Electrical accidents on construction sites are almost always caused by unsafe equipment and/or installations, unsafe workplaces caused by environmental factors, or rmsafe work practices. Protection from electrical hazards is one way to prevent accidents. According to OSHA, protective methods that may be employed on your jobsite include insulation, electrical protective devices, guarding, grounding, personal protective equipment (PPE), and safe work practices. 

When working with electricity, accidents and injuries are caused by one or more of the following factors (1) unsafe equipment and/or installation, (2) unsafe workplaces caused by environmental factors, (3) unsafe work practices. 

One variation of the Multiple Causation Theory is R. J. Firenzie s Theory of Accident Causation. Firenzie s theory is based on interaction among three components person, machine, and environment. Human variables of information, decisions, and perception of risks combine with machine hazards and environmental factors affecting the likelihood of an accident. 

In any accident investigation, consider the aspect of multiple causation. The contributing factors surrounding an accident, as well as the unsafe acts and unsafe conditions, should be considered. If only the unsafe acts and conditions are considered when investigating an accident, little will be accomplished toward any accident prevention effort because the root causes still remain. This leaves the possibility for an accident to recur. The root causes are items such as management policies and decisions, and the personal and environmental factors that could prevent accidents when corrected. 

Accidents are usually complex and are the result of multiple causes. A detailed analysis of an accident will normally reveal three cause levels basic, indirect, and direct. At the lowest level, an accident results only when a person or object receives the release of an amount of energy or exposure to hazardous material that cannot be absorbed safely. This energy or hazardous material is the direct cause of the accident. The second causal areas are usually the result of one or more unsafe acts or unsafe conditions, or both. Unsafe acts and conditions are the indirect causes or symptoms. In turn, indirect causes are usually traceable to poor management policies and decisions, or to personal or environmental factors. These are the basic causes. 

Employees are less likely to stray from the facts when they are telling about the occurrence at the scene of the accident. When not at the scene, some employees are inclined to exaggerate the role of environmental factors as contributors to the accident. 

We said that although unsafe acts and conditions appear to be the basic causes of accidents, they can actually be traced to such things as management safety policies and decisions, and personal factors. These things (managanent policies and decisions, personal and environmental factors) are the basic causes of accidents. 

We often think of unsafe acts and unsafe conditions as the basic causes of accidents. They are only symptoms of failure. The basic causes are poor management policies and decisions, and personnel and environmental factors. Fortunately, most employers now realize that safety and health must be a necessary part of the total operating system. These anployers take the responsibility to prepare a written safety policy and guidelines to instill safety awareness in their employees. Selection of best employees for the job, training, employee plaeanent, and the purchase of safe equipment and supplies are important to a successful accident prevention program. 

Figure 1 (quoted from Lind 2009) describes a schema of maintenance operations, including the development of the need for maintenance (on the left) with possible unwanted consequences. These can be environmental emissions and/or impaired safety. The right side of the schema summarizes the main stages of a maintenance operation. Other main components in the schema are the direction of the analyses in the event of an occurred accident the analysis has to be top-down (e.g. fault tree analysis). In order to identify possible accident contributing factors beforehand, the analysis can be started from the unwanted outcome and then the model chain of contributing events leading to the accident (Lind 2009). 

The external faces of a mineral are therefore partly an accident of growth changes imposed by environmental factors do not alter the fundamental properties of the crystal, although other effects may be noticed. The regular ordered structure of the crystal means that it may have different properties in different planes and directions. 

Heinrich detailed his model using five factors that show the sequence of events Hereditary and social environmental factors lead to a fault of the employee constituting the proximate reason for either an unsafe act or unsafe conditions (or both) that result in the accident, which leads to the injury [2]. 

For a major accident to the environment to occur, polluting substances must be able to migrate away from source and into the environment surrounding the APIOOO site. Mobility in the environment is greatest for substances lost as either gas/vapours (including entrained particulates) or in liquid/aqueous form. Pollutants present in the solid phase are less mobile and are unlikely to migrate into the environment (to any significant extent) unless exposed to environmental factors such as rain (or other precipitation) and wind. 

The integrity of pipelines is very important to companies, government agencies, consumers, and other stakeholders, due to the potential adverse consequences related to public health, safety, the environment and financial expenditure on correcting whatever type of system failure may occur. However, a pipeline is subject to deterioration due to age, aggressive environmental factors, inadequate design and improper maintenance and protection. In this context it is observed that some accidents have occurred over the years, which have often generated critical consequences. 

It should be noted that these values seem to be rather low. Each fatality prevented on British roads represents an approximate overall saving of 1,3 m and each serious injury prevented represents a saving of 150,000 (Farmer 2004). These analyses are based on economic as well as social and environmental factors including loss of earnings, costs of hospital treatment and other social costs. The value of preventing the road traffic accident may be estimated on the basis of cost-benefit analysis, see e.g. recently revised ISO/CD 2394 (2014). 

Some accident investigations result only in the identification and correction of indirect causes, but indirect causes of accidents are symptoms that some underlying causes exist, which are often termed basic causes. By going one step further, accidents can best be prevented by identifying and correcting the basic or root causes. Basic causes are grouped into policies and decisions, personal factors, and environmental factors, as found in Tables 8.3 through 8.5. 

Table 8.5 Basic Causes of Accidents due to Environmental Factors ...

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