Compared to Accident

Most people confuse accident and injury. Not all accidents result in injury, and there is a definite distinction between the terms accident and injury. 

An accident is the event and an injury is a consequence or end result of the event. The end result may have multiple consequences, such as property or equipment damage, process interruption, etc. The severity of the injury caused by an accidental event is difficult to predetermine or define. The luck factors referred to previously explain how the severity is sometimes determined by absolute fortune, either good or bad. 

Trying to reduce the severity of the injury is a post-contact safety control. Quick evacuation, prompt medical treatment, adequate medical facilities, and trained personnel all contribute to the reduction of the severity of the injury. The recuperation time after an injury depends on numerous factors. It also determines the number of shifts lost as a result of the accident. These losses in turn determine the total cost of the accident. 

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The objectives of this standardized observational technique are risk assessment as well as effectiveness evaluation of traffic facilities, not estimations regarding the quantity of accidents [35]. Thereby, conflicts have a probability to become accidents, which does not mean that accidents can be predicted with the method [35]. The transition probabilities between conflicts and accidents, as needed, for example, in the above-mentioned fault tree analyses, can be assessed [42]. Compared to accident analysis, investigating conflicts has the following advantages [35] ... 

Kunkel (1973) defines accident proneness as an "interindividually differing, personality constant, time-stable tendency to become involved into accidents", (p. 27). The proneness results in an interindividually different accident risk. Farmer Chambers (1926) reached the conclusion that the results of accident statistics allow to differentiate between accident proneness and accident liability. According to them accident proneness is a narrower term compared to accident liability and means a personal tendency predisposing the individual to a relatively high accident rate. Accident liability includes all the factors determining accident rates technical, organizational, and personal factors. 

If in fact accident proneness remains stable because of its attachment to individual and ability characteristics, there will be also differences in characteristics according to groups of accident-free people compared to accident-repeaters. 

Analysis of the Elderly Driver Index showed that, compared to accident-free drivers, accident repeaters tended to have lower opinions of their driving,... 

Risk indices are usually single-number estimates, which may be used to compare one risk with another or used in an absolute sense compared to a specific target. For risks to employees the fatal accident rate (FAR) is a commonly apphed measure. The FAR is a singlenumber index, which is the expected number of fatalities from a specific event based on 10 exposure hours. For workers in a chemical plant, the FAR could be calculated as follows ... 

Another approach is to use government and private mortality and injury statistics. Calculated absolute risk estimates (the probability per year of a worker being injured or killed) can be compared to those de facto worker risk standards. For example, in the United Kingdom, industry and government alike are using the fatal accident rate (FAR, see Glos-... 

Core damage and containment performance was assessed for accident sequences, component failure, human error, and containment failure modes relative to the design and operational characteristics of the various reactor and containment types. The IPEs were compared to standards for quality probabilistic risk assessment. Methods, data, boundary conditions, and assumptions are considered to understand the differences and similarities observed. 

There will be comparatively little interest in the imderlying causes of errors leading to accidents. This is because the TSE view assigns virtually all errors to unsafe acts that are preventable by the individual workers concerned. There is therefore little incentive to delve into other causes. 

When comparing different cabinets, there are a few clues as to which ones provide the best value. First of all, a manufacturer of laboratory furniture should have data on the chemical resistance of finishes used. Even though nobody expects to splash reagents over the fronts of the cabinets, accidents do happen. Resistance data should be compared to a list of chemicals to be handled in the laboratory. A costly finish with outstanding resistance may not be needed in all cases. 

STABREX Stabilized Liquid Bromine9 is far more stable than liquid chlorine bleach. For example, several tons of the new product were shipped to India and stored for one year above 90 °F. The product remained within specification (less than 10% degraded) for the entire year, after which it was successfully used to control fouling in an industrial water system. Chlorine would have completely degraded in this time under these conditions. Chemical wastage was eliminated. Accident risk in transporting oxidant was reduced because less volume was necessary. Table 2 shows the stability of the new product compared to industrial strength chlorine bleach in well-controlled laboratory tests. 

Populations of soil mites were reduced in the Chernobyl area, but no population showed a catastrophic drop in numbers. By 1987, soil microfauna — even in the most heavily contaminated plots — were comparable to controls. Flies (Drosophila spp.) from various distances from the accident site and bred in the laboratory had higher incidences of dominant lethal mutations (14.7%, estimated dose of 0.8 mGy/h) at sites nearest the accident than controls (4.3%). Fish populations seemed unaffected in July/August 1987, and no grossly deformed individuals were found. However, 34+ i 37( s levels were elevated in young fishes. The most heavily contaminated teleost in May 1987 was the carp (Carassius carassius). But carp showed no evidence of mutagenesis, as judged by incidence of chromosomal aberrations in cells from the corneal epithelium of carp as far as 60 km from Chernobyl (Sokolov et al. 1990). 

Compared to people in a noncontaminated area, plasma IgG levels were also significantly decreased in proportion to increasing plasma levels of TCDD in a cohort exposed in an industrial accident in Seveso, Italy.118 There was no effect on IgM or IgA levels, or on complement levels IgE was not measured. In separate studies, in vitro exposure to TCDD enhanced the spontaneous production of IgE by B cells isolated from atopic but not non-atopic individuals, but did not affect the levels of other isotypes.119 Other recent studies have reported small changes in immune cells from individuals exposed occupationally to PHAH.120121 For example, compared to unexposed controls, a cohort of men exposed occupationally to TCDD had diminished IFNy production in a recall response to tetanus toxin, while IFNy production following polyclonal activation was unaffected.120 This observation is consistent with mouse studies, in which antigen-specific responses are highly suppressed by TCDD, but mitogen-driven T cell responses are less susceptible to impairment.83 88122123... 

This sketch briefly addresses the problem that many companies in the chemical process industry are currently dealing with regarding safety. In spite of the various kinds of safety measures and indicators used, major catastrophes still occur. In this example, all the indicators and measures implemented showed an excellent safety performance compared to other companies. So why did this accident still occur in spite of all the outstanding indicators Were there no signs indicating that an accident was on its way What was wrong with the safety measures and indicators that they didn t predict the accident ... 

At first sight many more soft deviations were expected to be found compared to hard deviations, because from accident analysis it is known that in many cases, events triggering the accident are very often human errors, Reason (Reason, 1997). However, considering that soft deviations are often not explicitly reported or known, it makes sense that more hard deviations are present. Retrieving soft deviation information is... 

For all 17 accidents of this study, precursors could be identified. None of the 17 accidents could be classified as unforeseen . A total number of 39 precursors were identified in these 17 accidents which seems extremely low compared to normal accident analysis experience. Detailed accident analysis normally retrieves dozens of near misses and deviations leading to the final accident (e.g. van der Schaaf (Schaaf van der, 1992)), implying the existence of many more precursors. However, the limited amount of detailed information present in the FACTS database is the restricting factor here. The FACTS database reflects the kind of accident information companies and government agencies collect. It demonstrates clearly that detailed information about the period before the accident is not often collected. 

Compared to the general population, Adventists have an exceptionally low risk of fatal lung cancer and other diseases which are strongly related to cigarette or alcohol use. They also appear to have a marked reduction in risk of death from large bowel cancer, coronary disease, stroke, diabetes, and nontraffic accidents. 

The analysis of industrial accidents provides an indication of the damage potential in an RPT, but, in many instances, data are fragmentary and definitive conclusions are difficult to draw. Whenever possible, the RPT criteria, developed from laboratory tests, are compared to conditions existing in industrial accidents. 

Whereas one might classify the LNG-water studies as a response to a concern that industrially sized operations might result in a large-scale spill on water with subsequent RPTs, studies of molten salt-water explosions were carried out because industrial accidents had taken place. Emphasis has been placed on events occurring in the paper industry where molten smelt is produced in recovery boilers. This smelt is primarily a mixture of sodium chloride, sodium carbonate, and sodium sulfide. In normal operations, the molten smelt is tapped from the furnace, quenched, treated, and recycled to the wood digestors. Accidents have taken place, however, when water inadvertently contacted molten smelt with severe explosions resulting. The smelt temperature is much higher than the critical point of water 1100 K compared to 647 K (see Section IV). 

Given an understanding of the definition of a near miss, enhanced by specific examples for a facility, it may be possible to estimate how many near misses one might expect to be reported compared with the number of accidents that occur. A greater number of erroneous acts or undesirable conditions may occur compared to the number of near misses. Figure 5-1 illustrates the relationships among accidents, near misses, and nonincidents. 

Nasal abnormalities (ineluding injeetion, telangectasia, paleness, cobblestoning, edema, and thick mucus) were observed in 13 individuals (1 man and 12 women) who had been accidently exposed to chlorine dioxide from a leak in a water purifieation system pipe 5 years earlier (Meggs et al. 1996). These individuals also exhibited sensitivity to respiratory irritants. Nasal biopsies revealed chronic inflammation in the lamina propria of 11/13 ehlorine dioxide-exposed individuals, compared with 1/3 control individuals. The severity of inflammation was significantly increased in the ehlorine dioxide exposed group, compared to eontrols. 

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