Risk, defined generally

A fire protection strategy serves as a bridge between the company s perceptions of fire-related risks and the details of howto manage specific risks. The fire protection strategy should be considered as the tool that defines when certain protection levels are required for a facility. The fire protection strategy should attempt to define general performance requirements or controls for specific situations. Below are examples of the types of statements that could be used in the fire protection strategy. 

Over the years, scientific research with human subjects has provided valuable information to help characterize and control risks to public health, but its use has also raised particular ethical concerns for the welfare of the human participants in such research as well as scientific issues related to the role of such research in assessing risks. Society has responded to these concerns by defining general standards for conducting human research. As an example, studies carried out for the authorization of a medical product, have to be conducted in line with the World Medical Association s Declaration of Helsinki, which describes the general ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects (World Medical Association 2004). The Helsinki Declaration was first issued by the World Medical Association in 1964 and has been revised several times since then. 

Risks are generally defined in terms of the probability of an event that adversely affects the... 

Whenever possible, human data should be used/considered in the risk assessment. However, since risk assessments generally rely on test animal data, comparative studies into the toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics of animals and humans are important for extrapolating test animal data to the human situation. Moreover, in the case of children s risk assessment, it is important to define the comparative adult/child toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics at different life stages. 

HRAs are a means of estimating the potential for an adverse effect on a select population upon exposure to a single chemical or mixture of chemicals. This risk is generally defined as a function of the concentration of chemical(s) to which an individual of known size and specified characteristics is exposed, for a given period of time, via ingestion, inhalation, or dermal contact. HRAs are performed for acute and chronic exposures of both on-site and off-site populations. 

Since 1970 the field of healtli risk assessment lias received widespread attention within both the scientific and regulatory communities. It has also attracted the attention of the public. Properly conducted risk assessments liave received fairly broad acceptance, in part because tliey put into perspective the terms toxic, liazard, and risk. Toxicity is an inlierent property of all substances. It stales lliat all chemiciil tmd physical agents can produce adverse healtli effects at some dose or under specific exposure conditions. In contrast, exposure to a chemical tliat lias die capacity to produce a particular type of adverse effect, represents a healdi hazard. Risk, however, is die probability or likelihood tliat an adverse outcome will occur in a person or a group diat is exposed to a particular concentration or dose of the hazardous agent. Tlierefore, risk is generally a function of exposure and dose. Consequently, healdi risk assessment can be defined as the process or procedure used to estimate die likelihood diat humans or ecological systems will be adversely affected by a chemical or physical agent under a specific set of conditions. 

Based on the above level classification of risk probability and consequence, the risk level of each component is defined in accordance with the failure modes and consequent influence (Table 3). After determination of risk level, a preliminary judgment can be conducted. For low-risk area, generally it is unnecessary to adopt any measures and the devices can be used continuously with proper extension of inspection time intervals With respect to the middle risk area, the devices can be used within the specified inspection period, yet more importance should be attached to inspection or monitoring with moderate arrangement of maintenance plans, wherein the determination of inspection period subject to the fact that the risk level remains middle level in the next inspection As for the midhigh risk area, the reasons for the risks should be analyzed, and the inspection time intervals should be shortened, while the main positions causing midhigh risk should be restricted, or... 

In an industrial context, we often use radioactive isotopes as tracers. These do break down, but the breakdown process is well known, defined, and easy to take into account. The isotopes can be introduced into the system in several ways, which makes it significantly easier to attain the correspondence mentioned above. Keeping in mind the radiation risks, we generally choose isotopes with a relatively short half-life. Species other than radioactive ones with other measurable properties can also be utilized as tracers. 

Risk analysis refers to techniques for identifying, characterizing, and evaluating hazards. The identification of risk, defined in Eq. (12.1), and risk analysis found their way into many applications where they can add value in prioritization and management processes. The application of general risk analysis principles to help prioritize and manage the inspection program for plant equipment, now commonly referred to as risk-based inspection (RBI), is one of the newest applications of risk principles [3]. Some examples of risk criteria and associated units are shown in Table 12.1. 

The general objective of a SLP PSA is broadly similar to the power PSA. This includes a comprehensive overview of the plant risk (defined as a Core Damage Frequency if Level 1 is concerned). Additionally, the objective may include identification of design and operational weaknesses, propose modifications, evaluate Technical Specifications, etc. 

In the veterinary as in the human patient, neoplasms are often metastatic and widely disseminated throughout the body. Surgery and irradiation are limited in use to weU-defined neoplastic areas and, therefore, chemotherapy is becoming more prevalent in the management of the veterinary cancer victim (see Chemotherapeutics, anticancer). Because of the expense and time involved, such management must be restricted to individual animals for which a favorable risk—benefit evaluation can be made and treatment seems appropriate to the practitioner and the owner. In general, treatment must be viewed not as curative, but as palliative. 

Accidents in chemical plants make headline news, especially when there is loss of hfe or the general public is affected in even the slightest way. This increases the public s concern and may lead to government action. The terms hazard and risk are defined as follows ... 

An important and difficult task is concisely translating your requirements into study objectives. For example, if you need to decide between two methods of storing a hazardous chemical in a plant, the analysis objective should precisely define that what is needed is the relative difference between the methods, not the more general I want to know the risk of these two storage methods. And asking your QRA team for more than is necessary to satisfy your particular need is counterproductive and may create unnecessary liabilities. For any QRA to efficiently produce the necessary types of results, you must clearly communicate your requirements... 

The QRA project team can select the appropriate technical approach once you specify the study objectives, and together you can define the scope. A variety of modeling techniques and general data sources (discussed in Section 3.2) can be used to produce the desired results. Many computer programs are now available to aid in calculating risk estimates, and many automatically give more answers than you will need. The QRA team must take care to supply appropriate risk characteristics that satisfy your study objectives—and no more. 

AlUiougli the terms emergency and accident are discussed from a risk analysis point of view in Parts IV and V, Uiey are now defined in relatively general tenns, to help the reader differentiate between the two and to understand their application to the general subject of process occurrences . 

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