AbstractsMedical & Health Science

Risk assessment techniques in the worksites of occupational health – safety systems with emphasis on industries and constructions

by Panagiotis Marhavilas




Institution: Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH); Δημοκρίτειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θράκης (ΔΠΘ)
Department:
Year: 2015
Keywords: Ασφάλεια εργασίας; Risk assessment
Record ID: 1153009
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/10442/hedi/35612


Abstract

Occupational accidents have a major impact upon human integrity and also bring about high costs for the social health and insurance system of a country. In addition, risk analysis is an essential process for the safety policy of a company, having as main aim the effacement of any potential of damage in a productive procedure, while the quantified risk evaluation presumably is the most crucial part of the whole procedure of assessing hazards/unsafe situations in the work (Marhavilas 2009c ; 2010b).The aim and the contribution of this dissertation are concentrated: (i) on the determination and elaboration of existed, and (ii) on the development of new, risk analysis and assessment techniques in occupational health-safety systems (OHSS), along with the application of them in the worksites of industries and constructions, where the work conditions are unstable. The development of an integrated risk analysis scheme, which will combine a well-considered selection of widespread techniques, would enable companies to achieve efficient results on risk assessment. More specifically, in the frame of this thesis the following new results and findings are achieved: A) Scientific-literature reviewing: We determine and study, analyze and elaborate, classify and categorize, the main risk analysis and assessment (RAA) methods regarding the worksites of Occupational Health-Safety Systems (OHSS), by reviewing the scientific literature. The last action is constituted as essential for helping us in the implementation of new RAA techniques and consists of two phases: (i) investigation, presentation and elaboration of the main risk assessment methodologies and (ii) statistical analysis, classification, and comparative study of the corresponding scientific papers published by representative scientific journals covering the decade 2000-2009. The reviewing showed that the risk analysis and assessment techniques are classified into three main categories: (a) the qualitative, (b) the quantitative, and (c) the hybrid techniques (qualitative-quantitative, semi-quantitative). Qualitative techniques are based both on analytical estimation processes, and on the safety managers-engineers ability. According to quantitative techniques, the risk can be considered as a quantity, which can be estimated and expressed by a mathematical relation, under the help of real accidents’ data recorded in a worksite. Hybrid techniques, present a great complexity due to their ad-hoc character that prevents a wide spreading. The statistical analysis, shows that the quantitative methods present the highest relative frequency (65.63%) while the qualitative a lower one (27.68%). Furthermore the hybrid methods remain constantly at a very low level (6.70%) during the entire processing period (Marhavilas et al. 2010a ; 2011a ).B) Development of two new quantitative risk assessment techniques - Application in industries and constructions: The risk estimation is the most crucial part of the entire procedure of assessing hazards/unsafe situations in the work, and especially…