Assessing the Threat of Violent Employees

Conflict in the workplace is not a new phenomenon. Almost every worker, anywhere in the world will have encountered a colleague who is unfriendly, unpleasant and even hostile. However, there are occasions when an employee goes beyond those levels and they are aggressive, menacing and dangerous. This paper will explore the very rare incidents of work-related murder as well as the much more common low levels of violence, sexual harassment and workplace bullying. It will discuss the importance of good risk assessment and actions to be taken when such behaviour occurs.

Bridging Gaps in the Development of CBRN Defense Technologies Through Multi-Sectorial Collaboration–A Call for Action

The past decade brought about a dramatic change in the global Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) risk with a reduction of the threat of war and an increase in risk of terrorism. These changes have a considerable influence on the development of CBRN defense technologies: from highly predictable scenarios with relatively good risk assessment and intelligence capabilities, to a wide variety of scenarios with limited predictive capabilities in the case of terrorism. First responders are challenged to deal with multilateral issues, which are more complex than ever before. As long as the threat was state-posed and in a war context, CBRN technologies were developed in light of defense authorities’ demands. Nowadays, with the diminishing wartime threat, the market is left “unsupervised.” Manufacturers and developers are adopting their technologies with limited to no feedback and support of the end-users. In turn, this leads to suboptimal technological results from the operational point-of-view. This paper calls for a multi-sectorial, joint venture between academia, industry, government and first responders. Such collaboration should seek a non-competitive, financially stable environment to bridge gaps in the development of defense technologies that are adapted to the rapidly changing threats. Examples and discussion will be provided.

Deterioration in water quality from supply chain to household and appropriate storage in the context of intermittent water supplies

Many water providers in urban developing country contexts have to supply the water intermittently due to the disparity between rapidly growing demand and investment in supply infrastructure. This can lead to water quality risks such as ingress of polluted groundwater and unsafe household storage. This study has investigated the common risks and possible alternative solutions down the supply chain in the Nagpur municipal piped network through quantitative and qualitative data collection. The water quality testing indicated a significant reduction in water quality between tap and point-of-use. Interviews and a sanitary survey indicated storage design, inappropriate extraction practice and children's access as the most frequent household storage risks. The people with socio-economically lower status were found to be in greatest need of interventions. The study leads to the following recommendations: there is a need for the evolution of a Water Safety Plan to enable supportive structures for good risk assessment which includes all stakeholders from source to point-of-use; community awareness of water quality risks needs to be raised; low cost ‘improved’ water storage at household level should be promoted; and the levels of residual chlorine should be investigated and adjustments made to assure potable water at point-of-use.