Risk assessment preventive decision-making

PRIO is a web-based tool intended to be used to preventively reduce risks to human health and the environment from chemicals. The aim of PRIO is to facilitate in the assessment of health and environmental risks of chemicals so that people who work as environmental managers, purchasers and product developers can identify the need for risk reduction. To achieve this PRIO provides a guide for decision-making that can be used in setting risk reduction priorities. 

Another view explores the limits of the risk assessment-based approach to decision-making and what a precautionary paradigm might look like. The precautionary principle calls for preventive actions when there is reasonable scientific evidence of harm, although the nature and magnitude of that harm may not be fully understood scientifically. While a highly contentious term, proponents of the precautionary approach see this as a means to make better, more health protective decisions in the face of highly uncertain and complex risks. 

Conclusions. This section has outlined the problem of uncertainty in preventing risks from chemical exposures and the limitations of current scientific and decision tools based on the concept of risk assessment. It has outlined a new paradigm for decision-making for sustainability embodied in the precautionary principle. This approach has several key aspects ... 

The role of risk assessment is to provide the necessary information on which to make decisions regarding the cost-effective commitment of resources to prevent loss. Risk assessment can also be used to determine if appropriate action is acceptable where it is impractical to totally eliminate hazards. Risk assessment will indicate where the greatest gains can be made with the least effort, and which action(s) should be given priority. This prioritization will bring about greater safety with the minimum level of effort. 

The method adopted in many industries is to use a Value of Preventing a Fatality (VPF). The VPF is the amount that an organisation will spend to reduce risk by a single fatality, and is used in cost benefit analysis (CBA) to assess reasonable practicability. The costs and benefits of a potential risk control are evaluated, and if the cost per life saved is less than or roughly equal to the VPF, the risk control is regarded as reasonably practicable and must therefore be implemented. The quantitative approach was formalised by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in its 1988 paper (updated in 1992) The Tolerability of Risk from Nuclear Power Stations and its 1989 paper Quantified Risk Assessment its Input to Decision Making Whilst the 1988 paper was developed for the nuclear industry, its principles have been applied widely. 

The identification and the analysis of risk, and making rational decisions based on the known risk, are the best preventive management tools a maintenance workforce can use. The risk assessment will allow a company to maximize its safety program and thus reduce accidents. The risk assessment process should be formalized in order to reduce accidents that could cause injuries, death, machine damage, and longer equipment stoppage. One must learn in maintenance that one must reduce risk at all times. In any task there are risk and thus the reduction or elimination of risk will make all tasks more successful and safe. 

Risk analyses are performed to provide data for decision making, e.g., about the necessity of fire prevention actions with regard to compliance. In this case a qualitative risk assessment is carried out as only specified attributes of the prevention systems and hazards are necessary. 

Workplaces have hazards that present a risk of injury or illness from the dangers that exist. At times, the hazards cannot be removed and the dangers exist and can result in an accident. Risk is the probability of an accident occurring. The amount of risk you deem as acceptable will do much to define the extent of your injury prevention effort. Risk related to safety and health is often a jndg-ment call. However, even a jndgment call can be quantified if you develop criteria and place value upon them. W. Fine has provided a mathematical model for conducting a risk assessment that results in a numerical value, which can be used to compare potential risks from accidents as well as determine if the amount of fix justifies the cost involved to fix or remove the hazard. Fine s approach for this book has been simplified and updated. Most of his basic components are present, which will allow you to assess the risk of a hazard as well as make decisions on whether it is logical and economically feasible to fix the hazard. 

Early safety and health assessment will not only benefit from the safety and health performance but also contribute to lowering the overall plant costs (Edwards and Lawrence, 1993 Kletz, 1998 Shah et al., 2003). Besides, the cost of fixing a problem (e.g., making changes or modifications on the process) is lower when done at the earlier phases of the process lifecycle. Analyses made by Kletz (1988) revealed that the cost increases tenfold as one progresses through each phase. This is because hazard and risk assessments will eventually lead to decisions that require necessary preventive actions to either eliminate or reduce the hazards and risks as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP). The decisions cover diverse elements including alternative process routes, plant layout, and plant... 

The intention of this Council Act is to ensure that data generated in the safety testing of chemicals are of high quality and are based on internationally harmonized methods. Such data can then be used to assess chemical hazards and to make decisions on appropriate activities to prevent or reduce risk to human health or the environment. Where the need for duplicative testing is minimized through MAD, testing costs can... 

In conclusion this case study has highlighted the benefits of the quantified analyses within the domain of Loss Prevention. By using QRA and RAM we are able to assess the design of a plant from a safety and performance perspective. The values of Risk and Production Efficiency and by performing sensitivity analyses we are able to make informed decisions about the impact of changes to design over a base case. 

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