Set Standards of Accountability

Standards of accountability are now set by delegating authority to certain positions for ongoing safety work to be done. Coordination and management of the safety system needs to be allocated to certain departments and individuals, and this standard dictates who must do what, and by when, to run and maintain the system. 

Traditionally the function of safety was given to the safety department, and it was told to manage the safety. Safety does not belong in the safety department, but with line management. 

Perhaps one of safety s biggest stumbling blocks is the responsibility for safety has been pushed down to the safety department. As soon as there is a safety issue, it becomes the responsibility of the safety department. Safety belongs with the line management, from the lowest level of management to the chief executive officer. Safety is their function. The safety department should only coordinate the safety activities and not accept responsibility for the entire safety function. (McKinnon, 2007, p. 135) 

Setting standards of accountability is where the management team states who must do the work and by when. This would entail appointing certain responsible people, such as  

Safety coordinator Occupational hygiene coordinator Health and safety representatives Divisional safety committees Central safety committees Accident investigators Responsible engineers Internal safety auditors Fire coordinator Permit issuers 

By carrying out safety inspections, the actual condition of the workplace and the ongoing activities of employees are now measured against the accepted safety standards. Physical inspection of the workplace will highlight instances of property damage accidents and will trigger a follow-up on the control systems to ascertain if there has been a report and consequent investigation. 

What gets measured gets done, and if there is no formal system of measurement, then management does not know how well the NEMIRR system is doing compared to its own standards and best practice. 

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When setting standards of accountability, it must be remembered that accountability for safety can never be delegated. The individual worker remains ultimately... 

The management work of setting standards of accountability is of utmost importance to the success of the organization. If permit systems are needed, for example, then employees must be given the responsibility to devise these systems, modify them, and implement them. This gives them the satisfaction of helping to achieve a high standard of safety. Some assistance can be achieved by ... 

IDENTIFYING WORK TO BE DONE. SETTING STANDARDS OF MEASUREMENT. SETTING STANDARDS OF ACCOUNTABILITY. MEASURING AGAINST THE STANDARD. EVALUATING CONFORMANCE. CORRECTIVE ACTION PLANS... 

Another widely used system, launched in the 1970s, which sets standards of measurement, is the International Loss Control Institute s International Safety Rating System (ISRS). This system has set standards of conformance as well as standards of accountability for safety work. It incorporates physical inspection guidelines and precise instructions to accredited auditors on how to allocate scores. In one version of the ISRS there are 20 main element headings, each one composing a number of elements. The total score for this version is 13,000 points. 

The nomination of safety committee members should be done on a democratic basis, and the chairperson likewise elected, where applicable. One of the most important committees to be established under these standards would be the joint management and union safety and health committee. This committee would assist in the setting of standards of accountability of the various persons. It also offers a platform for open and frank safety discussion between management and employee representatives. 

Marcus has introduced a model for, S N 2 reactions of the ET type based on two interacting states which takes into account the relevant bond energies, standard electrode potentials, solvent contributions, and steric effects.87 The rate constant for intramolecular electron transfer between reduced and oxidized hydrazine units in the radical cation of the tetraazahexacyclotetradecane derivative (43) and its analogues has been determined by simulation of then variable temperature ESR spectra.88 The same researchers also reported then studies of the SET processes of other polycyclic dihydrazine systems.89,90... 

Alternative methods for setting standards where several possible food routes are involved include probabilistic modelling which can take into account the proportion of a particular foodstuff that might be contaminated at a particular level. 

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which set standards for the privacy of individually identifiable health information, was signed into law in 1996 and went into effect in 2003. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was required by Congress to promulgate the privacy stan-... 

The generic standard of the safety community is IEC 61508, Functional Safety of E/E/PE safety-related Systems. The engineering community has built a set of standards based on IEC 61508 for specific sectors, taking into account the experiences, background knowledge and requirements the process control sector, medical sector, nuclear, railways, and is still continuing (e.g., automotive in progress). But this standard takes only the safety view, security is not even mentioned ... 

We argue that those involved in standard setting need to respond to these concerns. Specifically, we need to ensure that the process for delivering standards takes account of any unintended consequences (e.g., the costs of meeting a standard), and that the outcome provides a reasonable balance between environmental protection and regulatory costs. Furthermore, the process must be transparent and auditable. This means it should be participatory, communicative, and inclusive. If this can be achieved, the outcomes are more likely to be trusted by all those who are affected by the standards that are eventually introduced. 

Mixture assessment is not possible given the assessment problem. In such cases, safety factors can be applied, but these are not derived from mixture assessment data. An example is the application of an extra safety factor when setting standards for single compounds in order to account for... 

In the United States, federal legislation called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to make patient information more strictly protected than before. Although most pharmaceutical companies have limited access to patient names and other health information, any patient information must be carefully guarded to avoid violation of HIPAA statutes, which address the use and disclosure of individuals medical information by covered entities , and set standards for individuals rights to control the use of their medical information. Violations can result in fines and/ or, in some instances, imprisonment. 

The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) represents standards of nutrition set by the Food and Nutrition Board of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (Feltman, 1990). It contains the levels of essential nutrients that are adequate to meet the nutritional needs of the normal, healthy population. Individuals may differ in their precise nutritional requirements. To take these differences into account, the... 

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