Evaluating the Control Banding Nanotool: a qualitative risk assessment method for controlling nanoparticle exposures

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 global pandemic brought several challenges to occupational safety and health practice. One of these is the need to (re)assess the occupational risks, particularly, biological risks. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this work is to promote guidance to occupational safety and health practitioners when conducting a biological risk assessment in this context. METHODS: The main steps of the biological risk assessment are explained with some inputs regarding the novelty posed by SARS-CoV-2 and an example of a qualitative risk assessment method is presented. Also, its application to two different activities was exemplified. RESULTS: In both cases, the assessment considered that vulnerable workers were working from home or in medical leave. The results showed low or medium risk level for the assessed tasks. For medium risk level, additional controls are advised, such maintain social distancing, sanitize instruments/equipment before use, use proper and well-maintained PPE (when applicable), and promote awareness sessions to spread good practices at work. Employers must be aware of their obligations regarding biological risk assessment and OSH practitioners must be prepared to screen and link the abundance of scientific evidence generated following the outbreak, with the technical practice. CONCLUSIONS: This paper could be an important contribution to OSH practice since it highlights the need to (re)assess occupational risks, especially biological risk, to ensure a safe return to work, providing technical guidance.

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A Methodology for Harmonizing Safety and Health Scales in Occupational Risk Assessment

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18094849 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (9) ◽

pp. 4849

Author(s):

Zuzhen Ji ◽

Dirk Pons ◽

John Pearse

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Assessment Process ◽

Successful Implementation ◽

Health Issues ◽

Public Health Perspective ◽

Chronic Health ◽

Risk Assessment Method

Successful implementation of Health and Safety (H&S) systems requires an effective mechanism to assess risk. Existing methods focus primarily on measuring the safety aspect; the risk of an accident is determined based on the product of severity of consequence and likelihood of the incident arising. The health component, i.e., chronic harm, is more difficult to assess. Partially, this is due to both consequences and the likelihood of health issues, which may be indeterminate. There is a need to develop a quantitative risk measurement for H&S risk management and with better representation for chronic health issues. The present paper has approached this from a different direction, by adopting a public health perspective of quality of life. We have then changed the risk assessment process to accommodate this. This was then applied to a case study. The case study showed that merely including the chronic harm scales appeared to be sufficient to elicit a more detailed consideration of hazards for chronic harm. This suggests that people are not insensitive to chronic harm hazards, but benefit from having a framework in which to communicate them. A method has been devised to harmonize safety and harm risk assessments. The result was a comprehensive risk assessment method with consideration of safety accidents and chronic health issues. This has the potential to benefit industry by making chronic harm more visible and hence more preventable.

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Comprehensive Risk Assessment Method for Distribution Network Dispatching Considering Equipment Risk

2021 3rd Asia Energy and Electrical Engineering Symposium (AEEES) ◽

10.1109/aeees51875.2021.9403041 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xin Wei

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Distribution Network ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Risk Assessment Method

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An intelligent quantitative risk assessment method for ammonia synthesis process

Chemical Engineering Journal ◽

10.1016/j.cej.2021.129893 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 420 ◽

pp. 129893

Author(s):

Zijian Liu ◽

Wende Tian ◽

Zhe Cui ◽

Honglong Wei ◽

Chuankun Li

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Ammonia Synthesis ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Quantitative Risk Assessment ◽

Synthesis Process ◽

Risk Assessment Method

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An immune-based risk assessment method for digital virtual assets

Computers & Security ◽

10.1016/j.cose.2020.102134 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 102 ◽

pp. 102134

Author(s):

Junjiang He ◽

Tao Li ◽

Beibei Li ◽

Xiaolong Lan ◽

Zhiyong Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Risk Assessment Method

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Risk Assessment Method for Balancing Safety, Security, and Privacy in Medical IoT Systems with Remote Maintenance Function

2020 IEEE 20th International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability and Security Companion (QRS-C) ◽

10.1109/qrs-c51114.2020.00040 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ryoichi Sasaki

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Security And Privacy ◽

Remote Maintenance ◽

Risk Assessment Method

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Absolute mortality risk assessment of COVID-19 patients: the Khorshid COVID Cohort (KCC) study

BMC Medical Research Methodology ◽

10.1186/s12874-021-01340-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Hamid Reza Marateb ◽

Maja von Cube ◽

Ramin Sami ◽

Shaghayegh Haghjooy Javanmard ◽

Marjan Mansourian ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Hospital Admission ◽

Mortality Risk ◽

Regression Models ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Point Of View ◽

Statistical Point ◽

Hazard Regression ◽

Risk Assessment Method ◽

Discharge From Hospital

Abstract Background Already at hospital admission, clinicians require simple tools to identify hospitalized COVID-19 patients at high risk of mortality. Such tools can significantly improve resource allocation and patient management within hospitals. From the statistical point of view, extended time-to-event models are required to account for competing risks (discharge from hospital) and censoring so that active cases can also contribute to the analysis. Methods We used the hospital-based open Khorshid COVID Cohort (KCC) study with 630 COVID-19 patients from Isfahan, Iran. Competing risk methods are used to develop a death risk chart based on the following variables, which can simply be measured at hospital admission: sex, age, hypertension, oxygen saturation, and Charlson Comorbidity Index. The area under the receiver operator curve was used to assess accuracy concerning discrimination between patients discharged alive and dead. Results Cause-specific hazard regression models show that these baseline variables are associated with both death, and discharge hazards. The risk chart reflects the combined results of the two cause-specific hazard regression models. The proposed risk assessment method had a very good accuracy (AUC = 0.872 [CI 95%: 0.835–0.910]). Conclusions This study aims to improve and validate a personalized mortality risk calculator based on hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The risk assessment of patient mortality provides physicians with additional guidance for making tough decisions.

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