Precaution against possible risks

Where there is a risk of about 10 year that individuals may become casualties, steps are usually taken to reduce the risk if possible—thus, the present day concern of society to reduce the death toll from traffic accidents. As the risk diminishes, concern and countermeasures become less in evidence. For risks less than 10 year , the individual does not appear to worry much, and so elaborate precautions against the risk are seldom taken—we do not pass our lives in constant fear of being struck by lightning. Some consider that in these thoughts lies a possible clue to the level of risk from nuclear power that may be acceptable to the individual. This may well be true, and we discuss the matter further below however, experience of debate about reactor siting, and common experience of life and of the daily news which most affect people s actions and reactions may persuade us that it is the collective risk of numbers of people or a group that should provide the basis of a criterion of overriding importance in relation to risk from nuclear power. This also is discussed further in this section. 

During isolation of the di-A-oxide of 2,5-dimethylpyrazine [1] and of the mono-A-oxide of 2,2-bipyridyl [1], prepared by action of hydrogen peroxide in acetic acid on the heterocycles, violent explosions occurred on evaporation of the excess peroxy-acetic acid. In the preparation of 3-bromopyridine A-oxide, the necessity to take adequate precautions against the possibility of explosion while vacuum distilling off excess reagents from a water bath maintained at 50°C is stressed [3]. For a method not involving this considerable explosion risk,... 

Once the precautions that are needed to control exposures are determined, the next step is to compare the level of controls needed against what controls are already in place. There frequently are multiple control strategies that will minimize the potential for exposure. The determination of which control strategy is the best to use is determined by the hierarchy of control principle. Our particular approach to managing risk is to use this hierarchy to evaluate possible risk management approaches for a specific project in conjunction with a modified layer of protection analysis (LOPA) approach.5... 

A wise precaution is to seek professional medical advice and institute a vaccination programme to protect staff against as wide a range of identified risks as possible. 

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