Perceived safety

To obtain an answer to the research questions posed, pro-active safety indicators used in today s chemical process industry were analysed and the deviations upon which they are based were compared with deviations present in the accident trajectories of 70 recent accidents. By comparing these two sets of deviations, it was observed that although re-occurring deviations with no direct perceived safety related consequences were present in the majority of accident trajectories they were nevertheless not addressed by the commonly used pro-active safety indicators. These so-called indirect perceived safety related deviations may therefore be more important indications of a possible accident than was thought previously. 

On the use of metrics for indicating safety, likelihood and consequence have a principal role and they form the two basic dimensions. When indicating risks, from historical facts and figures, simulations and knowledge, the likelihood and consequences can be established. The actual likelihood and consequence can never be derived exactly and they will always be based on perceptions of risks as discussed in Chapter 1. This perception of risks will in this Chapter be referred to as the perceived risks , which is the defined as the (perceived) likelihood and the perceived consequences of an event. The Sis attempt to indicate this perceived safety related risk in terms of the perceived likelihood and the perceived safety-related consequence of an event. For reasons of clarity the term risk will refer to the perceived safety related risk and consequences will refer to the perceived safety related consequences in the remainder of this Chapter. The consequences are always based on people s perception of how great the damage to people, environment, or assets might be. The likelihood of an event will sometimes be estimated (perceived). 

In the previous Chapter it was shown that most accidents are preceded by deviations in the operational process, e.g. Heinrich (Heinrich, 1959), Turner (Turner, 1978), Leplat (Leplat, 1987), Reason (Reason, 1997), etc. Additionally, it was shown that a specific class of deviations is present which is not covered by current pro-active safety indicators. These deviations are characterised by a high likelihood and low perceived safety related consequences and were defined as precursors and re-occur in the operational process of the organization prior to an accident. In order to find these deviations in a real life operation and to eventually find their underlying causes, the concepts of re-occurring deviation and operational process have to be explained in more detail. The various definitions and concepts derived in this Chapter are necessary to understand the next Chapters, which shows how they are applied in practice. 

The second step, of sorting the selected precursors according to their perceived safety related consequences, is achieved by studying safety reports and confronting the precursors with multi-disciplinary experts, i.e. experts from production, maintenance and safety. The expert group provided the identified precursors with perceived safety related consequences, by formulating possible scenario s, from which the consequences could be obtained. From both the likelihood (see Table 17) and perceived consequences, the perceived risk class is obtained, as discussed in Chapter 5. Figure 42 shows the risk matrix for the precursors presented in Table 17. 

Most of the forementioned studies which examined the influence of various dietary fiber on the bioavailability of calcium by human subjects have depended upon the comparative measurements of calcium content of diets and calcium contents of stools and urine. As reviewed by Allen (3), calcium balance studies have distinct limitations relative to accuracy and precision. However, their ease of application and cost, laboratory equipment requirements, and real (or perceived) safety in comparison to available radioactive or stable isotope methods continue to make their use popular. In calcium balance studies, calcium absorption is assumed to be the difference between calcium excretion in the feces and calcium intake. Usually this is expressed as a percent of the calcium intake. This method assumes that all fecal calcium loss is unabsorbed dietary calcium which is, of course, untrue since appreciable amounts of calcium from the body are lost via the intestinal route through the biliary tract. Hence, calcium absorption by this method may underestimate absorption of dietary calcium but is useful for comparative purposes. It has been estimated that bile salts may contribute about 100 g calcium/day to the intestinal calcium contents. Bile salt calcium has been found to be more efficiently absorbed through the intestinal mucosa than is dietary calcium (20) but less so by other investigators (21). 

Although the company has very limited safety resources onsite, management perceives safety as added value and hires individuals from organizations with a good safety culture. The management commitment to safety is clearly evident in each aspect of the safety program. 

DTCA mitigates undertreatment of the condition, but it also appears to encourage marginal and possibly inappropriate treatment. Which of these effects dominates is at this point unclear, but it is reasonable to assume that the direction and size of the net impact varies across therapeutic classes and drugs. There is also some preliminary nonexperimental evidence suggesting that consumers adherence to treatment is affected considerably by perceived safety risks, particularly when emphasized in television advertisements. 

This study was the first epidemiological study to document the long-term negative mental health sequelae of exposure to war and chemical weapons among civilians. The authors argue that exposure to chemical weapons is an extreme traumatic event that can result in acute helplessness and anxiety, loss of perceived safety, and chronic physical disabihties. The study had a number of limitations including the rehance on self-reported data however, self-reported chemical exposure was verified with medical records. 

Baculoviruses play a central role in the natural control of insect pest populations, chiefly Lepidoptera. This has sustained an interest in the commercial potential of these as larvicides in several pest control situations however, performance drawbacks have limited their general usefulness. Modification of the viruses through genetic engineering is anticipated to greatly increase their effectiveness. How this may be accomplished will be discussed. The effect modifications may have on the well-established safety of these agents as well as their perceived safety will also be covered. 

Gillen, M. D., Baltz, D., Gassel, M., Kirsch, L., Vaccaro, D. (2002). Perceived safety climate, job demands, and coworker support among union and nonunion injured constiuction workers. 

Figure 5.1 shows the probable causal nature of the research findings presented in Table 5.1. The top box in Fig. 5.1 represents employee s perceptions of their organization s recraitment and selection processes. Positive perceptions of these processes were found in all three studies to be associated with an increase in trust in new employees to work safely, a decrease in the perceived safety risk associated with new employees, and a reduction in perceived safety risk from new employees was associated with a reduction in behaviors toward the new employee to ensure their (and everyone s) safety. 

Study Sample Correlation between trust in selection processes and trust in new employees to work safely Correlation between trust in new employees and perceived safety risk from new employees Correlation between perceived safety risk from new employees and compensatory behaviors to ensure new employee safety... 

Perceived safety risk from new employee decreases... 

Table 9.11 Items to measure the perceived safety behavior of new employees...

This brief overview has been considered here in order to illustrate the importance of how we talk about safety. Our contemporary understandings of safety have developed and crystallised through these dominant channels - the way we perceive safety to work is highly influential, and often more so than the mundane realities of how it actually works - as well as other more specific and individual influences, and has consequently permeated through society and into its workplaces. The context of safety on construction sites is therefore made up of much more than the industry structure, ways of working and the site rules as implemented by the... 

Believed risk from plant was less than it really was. Assumed past perceived safety guarantees future safety... 

The static, no-loss return of the various tranches in this case might have the profile shown in Exhibit 22.6. Here the equity tranche constitutes the first 50 million of risk, and is compensated for its position in the capital structure with a very high notional spread of 20.5%, or 10.25 million per year on 50 million notional. This spread represents the annual return to the equity holder in the scenario where no losses are incurred. Conversely, the most senior tranche of risk receives only 1.05 million per year on a notional position of 700 million. The low spread return of only 15 bps ( 1.05 million/ 700 million) underscores the perceived safety of the super-senior tranche. 

Another related concept is the idea of an order-losing characteristic. An orderlosing characteristic is a characteristic that when present will cause potential customers to refuse to consider the product. Lack of safety is often an orderlosing characteristic. If there is publicity about catastrophic failures of a product, many customers will not consider purchasing the product. So, the lack of perceived safety is an order-losing characteristic. 

A manufacturer may also choose to add capacity with additional modules or entire packs in parallel rather than a parallel cell arrangement. All these options are available within BatPaC however, parallel cells result in the lowest cost battery pack. The use of parallel modules or packs may be for a number of reasons including manufacturing simplicity, perceived safety advantage, or volumetric constraints in the end product. 

As a first step, the group distributed a survey to active members of SPS to collect frequency/type data on the commonly used ion channels in their laboratories to obtain qualitative information on their relevance to drug-induced cardiac safety concerns, with a specific focus on proarrhythmia. The survey was critical in identilying seven ionic currents that are routinely studied because of perceived safety concerns I, /ks, to, h, ca, Na[ st], Hud /Na[iate] these currents were described in Table 9.1. Consequently, protocols are being developed for each of these ionic currents, with the intent of gathering key data to be used for in siUco action potential reconstructions. 

Poor management of health and safety may, in mai r cases, be attributed to perceiving safety as a separate function to other functions within an organizatioa As a result, maty health and safety programmes have tried to promote safely through slogans such as Safety First . Ask yourself the question why should safety be first, or last for that matter . 

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