The objectives of risk assessment

The main objective of risk assessment is to determine the measures required by the organization to comply with relevant health and safety legislation and, thereby, reduce the level of occupational injuries and ill-health. The purpose is to help the employer or self-employed person to determine the measures required to comply with their legal statutory duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 or its associated Regulations. The risk assessment will need to cover all those who may be at risk, such as customers, contractors and members of the public. In the case of shared workplaces, an overall risk assessment may be needed in partnership with other employers. 

In Chapter 1, the moral, legal and financial arguments for health and safety management were discussed in detail. The important distinction between the direct and indirect costs of accidents is reiterated here. 

Any accident or incidence of ill-health will cause both direct and indirect costs and incur an insured and an uninsured cost. It is important that all of these costs are taken into account when the full cost of an accident is calculated. In a study undertaken by the HSE, it was shown that indirect costs or hidden costs could be 36 times greater than direct costs of an accident. In other words, the direct costs of an accident or disease represent the tip of the iceberg when compared to the overall costs (The Cost of Accidents at Work HSG96). 

Direct costs are costs that are directly related to the accident. They may be insured (claims on employers and public liability insurance, damage to buildings, equipment or vehicles) or uninsured (fines, sick pay, damage to product, equipment or process). 

Indirect costs may be insured (business loss, product or process liability) or uninsured (loss of goodwill, extra overtime payments, accident investigation time, production delays). 

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Figure 1 is the sketch of the arrangement of Increased Type according to Rules for Natural Gas Fuelled Ships (2013), merely showing the portside, which is set as the object of risk assessment. 

While the objectives of risk assessment are common to both gene therapy products and products for other therapies, the methods used may differ greatly. Those for gene therapy frequently will require both the development of techniques and the assessment of endpoints unique to the particular therapy under evaluation. It is... 

A special assessment procedure that aims at tackling uncertain consequences of human activities is called risk assessment (RA). The main objective of risk assessment is to use the best available information and knowledge for identifying hazards, estimating the risks and making recommendations for risk management (World Bank, 1997). 

Risk assessment uses the resuits of the hazard identification and vuinerabiiity anaiysis to determine the probabiiity of a specified outcome from a given hazard that affects a community with known vuinerabiiities and coping mechanisms (risk equais hazard times vuinerabiiity). The probabiiity may be presented as a numericai range (i.e., 30% to 40% probabiiity) or in reiative terms (i.e., iow, moderate, or high risk). Major objectives of risk assessment inciude... 

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations already require risk assessments of work activities to be carried out to identify risks arising from the use of lifting equipment and the appropriate precautions required to deal with these risks. The level of precaution will depend on the degree of risk assessed, and should reduce the risk to as low a level as is reasonably practicable. Particular hazards to be considered are equipment striking a person or object and the consequences of equipment failing. 

The risk assessment is a primary component of the risk management process. The objective of a risk assessment is to identify risks to organizational assets and propose an achievable level of protection that is commensurate with the level of risk, without exceeding that level of risk so that it will be cost effective. Risk is a function of the values of threat, vulnerability, and collateral damage via loss occurrence. The objective of risk management is to create a level of protection that mitigates vulnerabilities to threats and their potential consequences, thereby reducing risk to an acceptable level. Ideally, all risk would be eliminated. However, in practicality the elimination of risk is not feasible (Department of Homeland Security, 2008). 

The understanding of risk assessment concepts is essential to the accepting of risk. One of the primary objectives of the JHA is to locate and identify the risk inherent in the completion of a job, its steps and tasks. Several models provide suggested the steps to follow in the review of risk. 

The objective of consequence analysis is to evaluate the safety (or quality) consequences to the system of any human errors that may occur. Consequence Analysis obviously impacts on the overall risk assessment within which the human reliability analysis is embedded. In order to address this issue, it is necessary to consider the nature of the consequences of human error in more detail. 

The Rijnmond area is that part of the Rhine delta between Rotterdam and the North Sea. The Commission for the Safety of the Population at large (COVO) commissioned the study for six chemicals and the operations associated with them acrylonitrile, liquid ammonia, liquid chlorine, LNG, propylene, and part of a separation process (diethanolamine stripper of a hydrodesulfurizer). The study objectives were to evaluate methods of risk assessment and obtain experience with practical applications of these methods. The results were to be used to decide to what extent such methods can be used in formulating safety policy. The study was not concerned with the acceptability of risk or the acceptability of risk reducing measures. 

In essence, the earlier components of this overall assessment process are mainly deterministic in character (albeit with some probabilistic elements), whereas the later stages are mainly probabilistic. Not all elements of the process are quantifiable (with any degree of confidence), however and the socicii-political-cultural context of any downstream decision-making process may be intensely uncertain. Such uncertainties make the process of risk communication and debate a complex and sometimes unpredictable undertaking. It is essential therefore that those elements of the risk management process that cein be objectively einalysed and evaluated (either qualitatively or quantitatively, as appropriate) are so assessed. 

For human health risk assessment, it is necessary to elaborate realistic scenarios. Knowledge of real scenarios where the contaminant is emitted to the environment will help to obtain information about the fate and transport of the contaminant once emitted to the environment and the route of exposure for the human beings living in this scenario of concern. There are different types of exposure, i.e., direct, indirect (as is the case of food contaminated by the air, water, or soil contaminated by the emission), occupational exposure, and consumer goods coming from outside the scenario of concern. Depending on the objective of the study, it will be necessary to consider in the exposure assessment one or more types of exposure. 

The assessment of acute and chronic adverse effects induced by chemicals in both human and ecological (plants, animals, ecological chains, and ecosystems) targets is one of the most important scopes of environmental toxicology and sciences. In particular, the evaluation of the risk derived from the exposure to complex mixtures from environmental and diet sources is a challenging task which needs strategies, efforts, and time to reach the objectives of health protection. 

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