Safety decisions

Making safety management decisions is when a manager makes a decision based on safety facts presented to him or her. During the process of safety culture change there will be a multiplicity of decisions that need to be made. 

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S. H. Abramson and C. S. Jablon, EPM Interpretation ofFFDCA De/anej Clause May Point the Way JorFuture Health and Safety Decisions, Special Analysis, Chemical Regulation Reporter, Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington, D.C., Apr. 19, 1991, pp. 51—56. 

The modular design integrates, as far as possible, existing software from member states, to permit the free distribution of the package. Version 1.0 of PSAPACK was used in a IAEA international training course on PSA in safety decisions (1988). Since then, PSAPACK evolved in response to users requirements, and has been widely distributed. 

Adjuncts are often integrated part of regulatory evaluation strategies, but usually the derived information is not sufficient to support a final safety decision. 

Recent advances in chemical plant safety emphasize the use of appropriate technological tools to provide information for making safety decisions with respect to plant design and operation. 

Routine Use of Toxicogenomic Data for Making Safety Decisions.207... 

California section of IFT, Dr. Bidlack has served as councilor, chairman of the scholarship committee, program chairman, and chairman of the section (1988-1989). He has also served as regional communicator for IFT in Southern California. Dr. Bidlack was elected a fellow of IFT in June 1998 and elected as counselor representative to the Executive Committee (2000-2003). He served on the finance committee (2003-2006) and as the chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee (2004-2007). Currently, he chairs the Audit Committee (2006-2009) and is chair of the committee on making food safety decisions when the science is incomplete. ... 

LD50 is a measure of acute toxicity. Over time, many other test requirements have been added to establish safety as shown in the safety decision tree developed by the Food Safety Council (1982). In this system an organized sequence of tests is prescribed (see Figure 12-1). Other tests in this system involve genetic toxicity, metabolism, pharmacokinetics (the pathways of chemicals in the system and their possible accumulation in organs), subchronic toxicity, teratogenicity (birth defects), and chronic toxicity. To all this are added tests for carcinogenicity and... 

The evaluation of autoimmunity potential of drug candidates in animal studies would have value if the results could make an impact on the conduct of clinical trials during drug development, e.g., influence selecting patient population, clinical monitoring, dose selection and/or escalation, stopping criteria, or other safety decisions. 

Figure 1. Safety decision tree. Key +, presents socially unacceptable risk —, does not present a socially unacceptable risk S, metabolites known and safe U, metabolites unknown or of doubtful safety and , decision requires more evidence. Reproduced with permission from Ref. 8. Copyright 1978, Food Cosmet. Toxicol.j...

An increase in management safety culture should have the same impact on safety outcomes as an increase in worker participation in safety decision making, for similar reasons as more management resources are employed toward integrating safety within overall corporate strategy—and as more ways are foimd to minimize post-injury retum-to-work hurdles—accident costs will be reduced. To the extent this happens, the returns to safety investments increase, the level of job safety rises, and time away from work because of injuries falls. Higher values... 

Process safety decisions are often risk-based because they concern issues that are not often controlled by simple rules or covered by existing codes or regulations. A risk-based decision inherently includes economics as one consideration. The processing industry has learned to manage risk. 

Also, there is a chapter in Innovations in Safety Management titled The Safety Decision Hierarchy. It sets forth a decision-making process for risk elimination and control within the context of the principles of good problem techniques. 

Develop hazard control measures, applying the Safety Decision Hierarchy. 

When required by the results of the risk assessment, alternate proposals for the design and operational changes necessary to achieve an acceptable risk level would be recommended. In their order of effectiveness, the action listing shown in The Safety Decision Hierarchy mentioned in Chapter 15, Acceptable Risk, would be the base upon which remedial proposals are made. For each proposal, remediation cost would be determined and an estimate of its effectiveness in achieving risk reduction would be given. 

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