Chemical risk ranking and evaluation: case study in a paint manufacturing company

As economies grow and the use of chemicals becomes more and more widespread, the adoption of effective control measures allows for safer use of chemicals on an industrial scale. Chemical hazards can have severe negative consequences for both the health of employees, the safety of personnel and facilities (fire and explosion risk) and the environment. To characterize them, it is necessary to combine the inherent hazards associated to chemicals with their conditions of use that may generate emissions and exposures. Various methods, both qualitative and quantitative are available worldwide for chemical risk assessment, but unfortunately in Romania this important aspect is treated in a minimalist manner, which can often be considered as insufficiently rigorous. In this perspective, the present paper aims to validate through a practical case study conducted in a Romanian paint manufacturing company, the application of a simplified method of chemical risks prioritization and assessment. The obtained results allowed the substantiation of the control measures of these risks, being also able to constitute an instrument of raising awareness for all the interested parties (occupational safety and health inspectors, managers, safety officers, supervisors, workers), in the effective management of the chemical risks

Quantitative risk assessment and safety databases in Romanian coal mining: preliminary systematic approach

Risk management is becoming increasingly more complex. Risk assessment, approached quantitatively, requires a factual database to define the likelihood of adverse health effects of workplace-related injuries and exposures, and it attempts to balance scientific knowledge with concerns of staff, investigators and administration. Practical guidance should be provided for Romanian coal mining companies to make progress in risk assessment process. Guidance is given on how to effectively introduce quantitative risk assessment in mining industry, the main goal being to highlight that the most valuable resource remains experience gained by effectively performing the process. Analyzing how various parameters are described/used, the paper aims to establish the place and role of quantitative risk analysis mining. Possibilities of developing safety/reliability database in coal mining are investigated. The block diagram describing the conceptual structure of a database on failures, safety of equipment and workers in the mining industry was developed. Because mining relies heavily on complex technologies - permanent mining facilities and large mobile equipment and support services - often located in isolated and hostile environments, the implementation of quantitative risk analysis and the development of a realistic database could be considered as a resilience business strategy and conversion of available knowledge into management actions

Chemical risk ranking and evaluation: case study in a paint manufacturing company

As economies grow and the use of chemicals becomes more and more widespread, the adoption of effective control measures allows for safer use of chemicals on an industrial scale. Chemical hazards can have severe negative consequences for both the health of employees, the safety of personnel and facilities (fire and explosion risk) and the environment. To characterize them, it is necessary to combine the inherent hazards associated to chemicals with their conditions of use that may generate emissions and exposures. Various methods, both qualitative and quantitative are available worldwide for chemical risk assessment, but unfortunately in Romania this important aspect is treated in a minimalist manner, which can often be considered as insufficiently rigorous. In this perspective, the present paper aims to validate through a practical case study conducted in a Romanian paint manufacturing company, the application of a simplified method of chemical risks prioritization and assessment. The obtained results allowed the substantiation of the control measures of these risks, being also able to constitute an instrument of raising awareness for all the interested parties (occupational safety and health inspectors, managers, safety officers, supervisors, workers), in the effective management of the chemical risks

A model for integrating work safety into the design of technical equipments

The paper proposes a model unfolded for occupational safety aspects inclusion in the design and management of change stages for a piece of machinery. The “Integrated Safety - Technical Equipment” (ISTE) model substantiates a logical connection between various task-based features to be fulfilled, hazardous areas and occurrences, hazards, risk assessment, ways to wedge in, workplace characteristics, the effect of the working environment, work crew as well as apparatus, tools and/or basically corresponding to and following a set of prior theoretically grounded guidelines, found in literature. At the same time, the paper gives the outline of the case study performed to give proof of the practical model’s, illustrating operational safety design for a mechanical press line, used for sheet metal milling. Resorting to the developed model, it was performed the design, construction and assembling of the automatic press line which is compliant in terms of occupational safety