ALGORITMO PER LA VALUTAZIONE OGGETTIVA DELLE BUONE PRASSI

Il lavoro su cui qui si riferisce ha tratto spunto dall’iniziativa – supportata da Inail Piemonte – del concorso “meno carta più sicurezza”, un concorso nato per valorizzare le buone prassi vantaggiose anche in termini di gestione economica dei rischi ed estendibilità a situazioni assimilabili. Sin dalle prime fasi di attività della giuria, ci si è resi conto della mancanza di metodiche formalizzate di valutazione, essendo la maggior parte dei criteri adottati a livello nazionale ed europeo, basati su un approccio qualitativo, non esente da valutazioni soggettive. Inail Piemonte e Politecnico di Torino hanno, quindi, ritenuto utile impostare un metodo formalizzato per: a) individuare un criterio di organizzazione dei dati di ingresso, b) identificare nei progetti parametri valutabili, oggettivi e numericamente quantificabili, c) sviluppare un algoritmo di elaborazione dei valori di detti parametri, per una valutazione motivata delle proposte. Detto metodo è stato testato su una serie di casi reali tratti dal citato concorso e sviluppato in forma di tecnica computer assistita

Anti-collision systems in tunneling to improve effectiveness and safety in a system-quality approach: A review of the state of the art

Tunnelling and underground construction operations are often characterized by critical safety issues mainly due to poor visibility and blind spots around large vehicles and equipment. This can lead to collisions between vehicles or between vehicles and pedestrians or structural elements, causing accidents and fatalities. To improve the OS&H conditions, it is important to investigate the possible introduction of innovative techniques and technologies to reduce the occurrences and consequences of shared spaces (spaces used by both vehicles and pedestrians). For this reason, research was conducted to investigate the possible use of different technologies of anti-collision systems in tunnelling operations. First, to achieve this goal, an extensive review of the literature was carried out in accordance with the PRISMA statement to select the current techniques and technologies used by general anti-collision systems in civil and mining construction sites. Then, the operating principles, the relative advantages and disadvantages, combinations, and costs were examined for each of these. Eight types of systems and many examples of applications of anti-collision systems in underground environments were identified as a result of the analysis of the literature. Generally, it was noted that the anti-collision techniques available have found limited application in the excavation sites of underground civil works up to the present day, though the improvement in terms of safety and efficiency would be considerable

Computer-assisted technique for airborne dust sampling data representativeness and worker's exposure assessment - CAT-ReADS

Nowadays, occupational exposure to airborne dust is still one of the most concerning problems our society should face, since both airborne dust is a common pollutant in almost all the NACE sectors activities, and the occupational exposure quantification is critical. One of the possible causes can be identified in determining the real conditions of dust pollution in the workplaces, attributable to the delicacy of the various phases of acquisition of the measures, and on the variability of operations carried out by workers, affecting the pollutant emission rates. A research project in progress discusses the causes of uncertainty attributable to laboratory and sampling activities, and to the identification of the most appropriate techniques of the results’ representativeness assessment. A recent result is the development of an original Computer-Assisted Technique for Airborne Dust Sampling data representativeness and worker's exposure assessment - CAT-ReADS, MS-Excel Vbasic developed - it supports the companies and external audit technicians, from the setting of the surveys and the laboratory activities to the verification, in a rigorous statistical approach, of compliance/noncompliance of the field measurement results vs the limit values. The resulting workplaces pollution and workers’ exposure assessment are free from subjective simplifications: CAT-ReADS includes various sections of guided selection and data analysis, covering Instruments and their calibration, Recording of environmental parameters and activities carried out by the workers during the samplings, Calculation of concentrations, Calculation of expanded uncertainty, Statistical tests for estimating the probability of exceeding the limit value, both referring – as is common practice- to the mean value, and, in a more cautionary way, to the upper uncertainty values (assuming a confidence level of 95%). The paper provides some examples of the implementation of CAT-ReADS in different production scenarios, and an in-depth discussion of the results

The role of basic and applied research activities for the improvement of OS&H conditions and the dissemination of the Culture of Safety

Although the European panorama is experiencing a profound change in advance to the Industry 4.0, revolutionizing the world of work with technical, technological and information innovations, in Italy even today we have to deal with the "old" problem of work related injuries and fatalities. In particular, the accident indices of the last few years do not seem to differ much from those typical of the 1970s. The cultural effort matured with the enforcement of the European Directives, with the consequent passage from a rigid prescriptive approach to a flexible one based on risk analysis, is therefore not sufficient to face without “trauma” such rapid technological development accompanied by legislative, productive changes and increasingly widespread reassignment of tasks within the Companies. In this context, the role of scientific research is essential to contribute to technological transfer and scientific knowledge by reconciling the essential aspects of Occupational Safety and Health, through a rigorous and devoted analysis of working scenarios. Furthermore, the dissemination of a Culture of Safety at all levels (Management and Staff roles) can encourage a bilateral synergy "Industry-University" from an OS&H point of view. The present work discusses in more detail the results of the research carried out by the “young” OS&H researchers of the Polytechnic University of Turin presented on the second day of the Conference Dissemination of The Culture of Safety and Health at Work - “Eras of OS&H Development from early ’50 to industry 4.0”

An open source physiologically based kinetic model for the chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus): Calibration and validation for the prediction residues in tissues and eggs.

Xenobiotics from anthropogenic and natural origin enter animal feed and human food as regulated compounds, environmental contaminants or as part of components of the diet. After dietary exposure, a chemical is absorbed and distributed systematically to a range of organs and tissues, metabolised, and excreted. Physiologically based kinetic (PBK) models have been developed to estimate internal concentrations from external doses. In this study, a generic multi-compartment PBK model was developed for chicken. The PBK model was implemented for seven compounds (with log Kow range −1.37–6.2) to quantitatively link external dose and internal dose for risk assessment of chemicals. Global sensitivity analysis was performed for a hydrophilic and a lipophilic compound to identify the most sensitive parameters in the PBK model. Model predictions were compared to measured data according to dataset-specific exposure scenarios. Globally, 71% of the model predictions were within a 3-fold change of the measured data for chicken and only 7% of the PBK predictions were outside a 10-fold change. While most model input parameters still rely on in vivo experiments, in vitro data were also used as model input to predict internal concentration of the coccidiostat monensin. Future developments of generic PBK models in chicken and other species of relevance to animal health risk assessment are discussed. Keywords: Risk assessment, Chicken, Physiologically based kinetic model, In vitro to in vivo extrapolation, Global sensitivity analysi

Chromosome analyses in dairy cows exposed to dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs using the SCE test

Peripheral blood cultures were performed to study the sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) in samples from 15 cows (Valdostana x Piedmontese crossbreds) showing average milk values of dioxins+furans+PCBs higher (18.56 pg/g of fat as WHO-TEQ) than those permitted (6.0 pg/g of dioxins+furans+PCBs as WHO-TEQ) and the results were compared with samples from 16 Valdostana dairy cows (1.75 pg/g of fat as WHO-TEQ) used as control. Significant (P<0.01) higher mean number of SCE/cell (7.10±2.8) were found in cows showing higher levels of dioxins and PCB compared to those achieved in the controls (SCE/cell=5.24±2.51)