Needs and challenges for assessing the environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs).

The potential environmental impact of nanomaterials is a critical concern and the ability to assess these potential impacts is top priority for the progress of sustainable nanotechnology. Risk assessment tools are needed to enable decision makers to rapidly assess the potential risks that may be imposed by engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), particularly when confronted by the reality of limited hazard or exposure data. In this review, we examine a range of available risk assessment frameworks considering the contexts in which different stakeholders may need to assess the potential environmental impacts of ENMs. Assessment frameworks and tools that are suitable for the different decision analysis scenarios are then identified. In addition, we identify the gaps that currently exist between the needs of decision makers, for a range of decision scenarios, and the abilities of present frameworks and tools to meet those needs

Occupational screening

Medical screening of workers is one of the tools often used to assess suitability for work and to attempt to reduce worker ill-health. This article outlines the objectives of the screening process and the basic criteria to be followed in developing a quality programme. It describes the different types of medical examination used in this setting. Screening programmes should be related to hazards specific to the work place as well as to the physical and mental requirements of the job. The guiding principle in the prevention of occupational disease should always be the control of hazardous exposure to prevent harmful effects occurring rather than early detection of harmful effects after they have occurred. The importance of being aware of and abiding by these principles is particularly applicable in the local context.peer-reviewe

Safer selection and use of pesticides: Integrating risk assessment, monitoring and management of pesticides

Crop Production/Industries,

Current Approaches of Occupational and Safety Health Management in Work Environments Containing Nanoparticles

The development of nanotechnology is particularly in recent years very dynamic and is applied in many not only technical branches. This is not possible to say about monitoring of possible health and environmental undesirable influence. The first area of possible risk assessment is work environment because there is a lot of possible ways to exposition. The aim of the paper is to analyze current situation in the field of occupational safety and health management in the workspace with occurrence of nanoparticles not only like the engineered nanomaterials. Because there is a lot of influence which could have the negative impact on the employee's healt

Risk Assessment and Sustainable Development: Towards a Concept of Sustainable Risk

Dr. Mehta examines two dominant approaches for managing health and environmental risks and suggests that they would better serve if integrated

Guidelines for Process Safety Hazard Assessment Based on Process Information

In any new chemical process development and design, process safety is a critical aspect to be considered besides economic and technical feasibility of the manufacture of the product. A lack of proper hazard assessment during the design phase may later result in accidents with disastrous consequences to workers, the public as well as the environment. Many methods have been introduced to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the safety level of processes. Despite the availability of a large amount of methods, a systematic framework that details guidelines for hazard identification, risk assessment, safety measure design, and safe critical decision-making is still missing. To address this issue, the main objective of this study was to propose a systematic framework that outlines comprehensive guidelines for assessing the safety performance of processes based on information from the piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID). Apart from proposing the framework, appropriate strategies for minimizing safety hazards and risks are also recommended. In addition, the user is assisted in selecting the most appropriate assessment method according to his or her needs and the scope and constraints of the assessment. A case study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed framework

Policy Analysis for Natural Hazards: Some Cautionary Lessons From Environmental Policy Analysis

How should agencies and legislatures evaluate possible policies to mitigate the impacts of earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and other natural hazards? In particular, should governmental bodies adopt the sorts of policy-analytic and risk assessment techniques that are widely used in the area of environmental hazards (chemical toxins and radiation)? Environmental hazards policy analysis regularly employs proxy tests, in particular tests of technological feasibility, rather than focusing on a policy\u27s impact on well-being. When human welfare does enter the analysis, particular aspects of well-being, such as health and safety, are often given priority over others. Individual risk tests and other features of environmental policy analysis sometimes make policy choice fairly insensitive to the size of the exposed population. Seemingly arbitrary numerical cutoffs, such as the one-in-one million incremental risk level, help structure policy evaluation. Risk assessment techniques are often deterministic rather than probabilistic, and in estimating point values often rely on conservative rather than central-tendency estimates. The Article argues that these sorts of features of environmental policy analysis may be justifiable, but only on institutional grounds-if they sufficiently reduce decision costs or bureaucratic error or shirking-and should not be reflexively adopted by natural hazards policymakers. Absent persuasive. institutional justification, natural hazards policy analysis should be welfare-focused, multidimensional, and sensitive to population size, and natural hazards risk assessment techniques should provide information suitable for policy-analytic techniques of this sort

Guidelines for process safety hazard assessment based on process information

In any new chemical process development and design, process safety is a critical aspect to be considered besides economic and technical feasibility of the manufacture of the product. A lack of proper hazard assessment during the design phase may later result in accidents with disastrous consequences to workers, the public as well as the environment. Many methods have been introduced to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the safety level of processes. Despite the availability of a large amount of methods, a systematic framework that details guidelines for hazard identification, risk assessment, safety measure design, and safe critical decision-making is still missing. To address this issue, the main objective of this study was to propose a systematic framework that outlines comprehensive guidelines for assessing the safety performance of processes based on information from the piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID). Apart from proposing the framework, appropriate strategies for minimizing safety hazards and risks are also recommended. In addition, the user is assisted in selecting the most appropriate assessment method according to his or her needs and the scope and constraints of the assessment. A case study is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed framework