Minimising the risk

Having identified the hazards and assessed the risks tire action needed to prevent injury and harm should be agreed with the manager and operators of the area concerned and implement. While nothing can be absolutely and unequivocally safe and free from risk, the aim must be to achieve, so far as is reasonably practicable (see Edwards v. National Coal Board ), a standard that reduces risks to a minimum whilst maintaining the viability of the process. 

Within the strategy outlined in section 4.Z.4.2 above, there are a number of techniques that can be used to ensure the hazards, and consequently the risks, are reduced to a minimum. 

With hazardous materials, the first and most basic question that must be asked is Do we have to use this substance Depending on the answer, there are a hierarchy of factors to consider before deciding on the action necessary to ensure safe working  

If a substitute can be found it must meet the following criteria  

Ensure that only the minimum quantity of the substance is used in the process. This has the additional benefit of reducing wastage to a minimum. Also the plant should be designed and maintained to minimise the generation of dust, vapours, micro-organisms etc. and, in case of spillage or leakage, be provided with an area for containment. 

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NDT has a very important formal status. Requirements for performanee of NDT, acceptance criteria and requirements for personnel qualification are implemented in codes and standards. The NDT procedure is part of the contract. During the many years that NDT methods have been used in industry a well-established situation has evolved, enabling the use of NDT for the evaluation of welds against Good Workmanship Criteria on a routine basis, thus maintaining workmanship standards and minimising the risks of component failure. 

Plant and process design, where the materials of construction, equipment design, process conditions and recommended operating practice can all be influenced to minimise the risk of corrosion. This is the most important phase. 

Glass is one of the engineer s most useful and versatile materials. There are many types of glass to choose from to provide a wide range of physical, mechanical, electrical and optical properties for practically every type of environmental condition. The transparency of glass facilitates inspection of process operations and minimises the risk of failure due to unsuspected corrosion, while the hardness and smoothness contribute to easy cleaning. 

Chartered Institntion ofBnilding Services Engineers, Minimising the Risk of Legionnaires Disease, Technical Memorandnm 13, CIBSE, Eondon,1988... 

The aim of this chapter is to enable the reader to evaluate danger related to the instability of any chemical substance, despite these difficulties, in order to work out the prevention measures needed to minimise the risk of accidental instability. 

There are now in the UK regulations and guidelines which prescribe the practice to be adopted to minimise the risk of outbreak of disease associated particularly with Legionella Pneumophila00. 

The use of on-line treatments has therefore been adopted in many instances as the means of minimising the risk of Legionella proliferation. The most commonly used treatment is to inject chlorine (usually in the form of hypochlorite) into the system to maintain a reserve of 2ppm free chlorine. In many cases this proves to be effective. However the use of chlorine raises a number of concerns. 

There is thus a requirement for a disinfection system which will assist in minimising the risk from Legionella in hot and cold water services without the problems associated with chlorination. 

When relating this to a control system that aims to minimise the risk of disappointing the consumer, we need to distinguish the following kinds of problems that can arise from the need to address the social and ethical concerns of consumers ... 

Have all the possible measures been taken to minimise the risk from temporary continued use ... 

Nabumetone selectively inhibits COX-2. It is metabolised into 6-methoxy-2-naphthylacetic acid (MNA), that is a potent inhibitor of COX-2. It has no inhibitory effect on COX-1 which is responsible for prostaglandin synthesis in gastric mucosa, thereby minimising the risk of problems like ulcers and hypertension. After oral administration 80% of dose is excreted in the urine. Peak plasma concentration is reached after 2.5 to 4 hours. 

Also known as recombinant tissue Plasminogen Activator (rt-PA). It is produced by recombinant DNA technology from human tissue culture. It specifically activates plasminogen bound to the fibrin clot. This minimises the risk of systemic bleeding. 

There are two major alternatives to sharing needles—abstinence, and the supply of free needles. Not all drug abusers can achieve total abstinence, and many do not even want to. The supply of free needles is essential to ensure that anyone who has not yet reached the stage of being able to give up drugs can at least minimise the risks. 

Finally, we would like to reiterate our own view, that however much we may deplore the abuse of drugs, our primary aim should be to promote a healthier life-style in our clients and minimise the risk of HIV infection. 

European Union (2004), Note for guidance on minimising the risk of transmitting animal spongiform encephalopathy agents via human and veterinary medicinal products (EMEA/410/01 Rev. 2—October 2003) adopted by the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP) and by the Committee for Veterinary Medicinal Products (CVMP), Off. J. Europ. Union, C24/26-C24/19. 

Electric cables treated with a thin layer of metallic selenium are flame-proof to a remarkable degree, thus minimising the risk of fire through short-circuiting of heavy currents. The cotton or rubber used for covering the wire may itself be treated with the selenium and so rendered non-inflammable flame-proof switchboards, etc., may also be constructed. 

Figure 8.4 shows a layout suitable for a complex aseptic production facility each of the operations is carefully controlled to minimise the risk of crosscontamination. The material, people and waste flows have been superimposed on this layout in Figures 8.5-S.7. In many cases this layout is too expensive and... 

Solvents moderate the reaction and minimise the risk of pyrolysis. 

However, problems associated with the reproducibility between electrodes derived from the screen-printing process and the partial electrode fouling have compromised the sensitivity of the biosensors. Work is in progress to improve both the reproducibility and the limits of detection by the use of new types of electrodes. The toxin overestimation observed with the amperometric biosensor, in the case of the microcystin analysis, suggests the use in parallel to other analytical techniques in order to minimise the risk of false-positive results. Nevertheless, the electrochemical strategy is appropriate to discriminate between toxic/non-toxic samples. 

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