Journal articles on the topic 'Control of major accident hazard regulations'

China is suffering from severe environmental accidents that many have catastrophic impacts on public health and the environment. It is urgent to update the standards for environmental accidents prevention in China. This paper analyses the causes of fifty-three major accidents that happened in 2008 to obtain insight to help prevent similar events in the future. The results show that production accidents, which were mainly triggered by process analysis, training and human error, were the dominant causes of environmental accidents in China. In addition, current regulations on the control of environmental accident hazards and their implementation are also presented in this paper, which comprise legal requirements centering on hazardous chemicals, industrial safety evaluation, risk analysis and preparation of emergency plans. Based on our analysis, some key points that should be developed in future environmental accident hazard control measures are put forward with the aim of shedding light on decision making and risk management in China.

The Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards (CIMAH) regulations was introduced in 1996 to regulate workplaces with hazardous chemicals in their facilities. The Regulations provide a minimum standard to ensure precautionary measures related to major hazard risks are taken. Although the Regulations have been enforced for more than two decades in Malaysia, there have been limited efforts to review related information, trends and data since its inception. The study aimed to provide an overview of the position of CIMAH regulations after two decades of being enacted in Malaysia. Data were extracted from the published and unpublished reports and documentations by Department of Occupational Safety and Health of Malaysia (DOSH), as well as available publications from literary journals. Analysis of the contents revealed three categories of data: i) CIMAH regulations’ administrative governance changes; ii) major hazard industries–categorization and registration trends; and iii) CIMAH regulations’ punitive activities. The findings provide an overview of relevant trends and data related to CIMAH regulations in the past two decades, and may provide stakeholders such as policymakers, practitioners, and researchers a groundwork for improvement initiatives.

Even though good regulations and work procedures have been made, the Zero Lost Time Injury program and the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), work risks and accidents still occur in the production division of PT. XYZ. The purpose of this research is to identify the dangers arising from work accidents and to know the risks of work accidents and the hazards and their impacts. HIRARC (Hazard Identification Risk Assessment and Risk Control) method. by identifying risks, how to assess risk control risk. Data collection is carried out by field observations, interviews, and analysis of standard operating procedure documents. Accident risks and dangers are found in many activities in transportation and unloading of materials, activities for determining finish good into drums, unloading filter paper activities, there are many risks of accidents and hazards including: material fall, being hit by raw material, pinched feet when unloading etc. The impacts include: Minor Injury, P.A.K, Permanent Disability, Major Material Losses, and even Fatality. Strict action against workers who violate regulations and do not use PPE according to standards.

Construction industry is an important part of the economy in most countries; often seen as a driver of economic growth especially in developing countries. Typically, construction industry contributes significantly to gross domestic products in most developing countries[3]. However, the construction site in Wolaita zone continues to fail to fulfill this fundamental role due to the increased accidents and health hazards. This paper explores the various safety and control measures (SCM) of accidents in building site to minimize accidents’ occurrence and consequent waste generation. A research thesis, consisting of a literature review and a field study were used to achieve the research objectives. The field survey involves a designed questionnaire that was administered through convenience sampling technique within Wolaita zone and descriptive analysis tools were used for the analysis. The field survey reveals different control measures in place and their rate of usage on building site. On the other hand, the literature survey sheds light on the types of accidents on building site and their respective control measures with methodologies for accidents’ preventions. Recommendations based on the findings of the two surveys are outlined in the paper. accidents are caused by a wide range of factors, some of which are: -Lack of awareness of safety regulations; Lack of enforcement of safety regulations; Poor regard for safety by people involved in construction projects; Engaging incompetent personnel; non-vibrant professionalism; Mechanical failure of construction machinery/equipment; Physical and emotional stress; and Chemical impairment Major causes of accidents identified in this research associated with construction projects include inadequate supervision, use of incompetent personnel and use of inappropriate construction techniques. Among the recommendations made for minimizing and/or avoiding re-occurrence of accidents are review of the existing regulations, enforcement, sensitization and training.

The growth of process industries and global economies are dependent on technology advances and innovations. However, the effects of these advancements often lead to more complex processes and comparatively severe operating conditions such as high pressure, temperature and reactive chemical with exotic chemistry. With the rapidly increasing scale and complexity of the process, it is becoming harder to control accidents in process plants. In most of the past situations, it appears that accidents could not be controlled solely by engineering practices and traditional occupational safety but should be immersed with safety management programs specifically Process Safety Management (PSM) to enhance the effectiveness of technical solutions. This paper addressed PSM program as stipulated by OSHA 29 CFR 1910.119. The PSM standard was implemented following a number of disasters, including accidents in Bhopal, India (1984) and Pasadena, Texas (1989). In Malaysia, Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards (CIMAH) 1996 Regulation which has the requirements attribute to PSM standard also discussed.

The recent offshore accidents at the Macondo and Montara fields in the US and Australia have demonstrated the importance of learning from major accident precursors in order to appraise the risk potential involved in critical offshore operations. This is fully realised by the Petroleum Safety Authority in Norway, which has a specific requirement for such learning in its regulations. However, an unfortunate practice has been developed by the major players in the Norwegian offshore industry, whereby potential is severely and systematically downplayed, probably to limit the negative exposure if the actual potential consequences were known. The present article analyses 45 major accident precursor investigations in order to demonstrate the effect of downplaying the potential of major accidents. It demonstrates how the risk potential classified in investigation reports has a random relationship to the more objective risk potential, as shown in the national risk indicator project conducted by the Petroleum Safety Authority. This is further demonstrated by comparing company investigations with authority investigations in four cases where parallel investigations were performed.

Hazardous substances are considered to be liquids, gases or solids which are of risk for the health and safety of workers and they may be found in almost all workplaces, including in SME’s. Hazardous substances include chemical agents, but also biological ones, such as bacteria, viruses, mould etc. Most chemicals used in the industry present risk for the workers, depending on their physico-chemical properties. Directive 2012/18/EU is the legal act which regulates the chemical substances field within the Member States, regulation dealing with the control of hazards involving dangerous substances which may lead to major accidents. In Romania, Law 59 dated April 2016 on controlling the hazard of major accidents caused by hazardous substances evaluates “hazardous chemicals”, describing the risk for people and regulating concentrations of such substances. By using the commercially available Phast consequence modelling package, within this study were modelled leaks of several chemical substances used in the industry, in order to estimate their hazardous influence extent. The current article is a significant work on modelling of discharge and atmospheric dispersion of hazardous substances using state-of-the-art consequence modelling software. Emergency Response Planning Guidelines (ERPG) are used as reference exposure levels within the present study. Output data of computational modelling are significantly influenced by input parameters. In this regard, the effects of the latter for ensuring robustness of the simulation and for identifying improvements have proven to be necessary.

The examination of the transition process of the「Special Act on the Safety Control of Publicly Used Establishments」(hereinafter referred to as the "Publicly Used Establishments Act") shows that the related laws are being revised when major accidents result in human or property damage. People who intend to conduct a multi-use business must install safety facilities, etc., prescribed by Presidential Decree, in accordance with the standards prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. In this study, the legal standards, construction and safety accident cases that could raise issues in the current Publicly Used Establishment-related laws were investigated. As a result, we identified issues such as emergency exit opening and closing problems, legal blind spot issues in food courts, fire alarm system limitations, and the absence of a ventilation system. To tackle these issues, improvement measures such as adding restriction regulations for automatic opening and closing devices, an automatic fire detection system, food courts in emergency exits, as well as visual alarm device regulations, and the establishment of ventilation system regulations were suggested.

The supervision system of hazardous chemical based on the WEBGIS technology is constructed, which displays the reality of the situation and simulates the accident consequence of security risks ( including major risk sources ) to the user in the form of map, realizes the registration of hazardous chemicals, enterprise qualification examination, administrative licensing of hazardous chemical construction projects, and investigation and rectification of the potential safety hazard in hazardous chemicals enterprise as well as management and supervision in other related business process through information means, and improves the ability of supervision and emergency rescue in chemical safety production. It has an important significance to prevent and control the major hazard. This paper introduces the supervision system of hazardous chemicals and the structure, database design, and system application of the supervision system.

The education and training program for inspectors of Major Accident Hazard Establishments, specifically the EC Seveso III directive implicated Dutch chemical companies, changed considerably over a fifteen year period. This longitudinal, time-series cross sectional case study describes the development of the education and training program for Major Hazard Control inspectors, acting as regulators from the Labour inspectorate, belonging to the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. A blueprint had to be constructed in order to assess the development and quality of this program in four cross sections over time. The description highlights both the safety related content and the regulator skills parts of the program in its changing context. Professional standards, educational objectives, quality of education, evaluation method, education change process and the response to the dynamic operational environment were examined. The main findings are that the education and training program kept the same main structure over the time period while its contents were adapted to respond to external context changes. Internal evaluation of performance data and education style led to a shift in contents from theoretical knowledge towards safety management and inspection practice oriented experience related knowledge. An active teaching style, increased usage of professional standards and more systematic evaluation, starting from the blue print in this study, offer the best opportunities for further improvement. Current insights on regulatory performance lead to a recommended future perspective for the inspectors’ role to be translated into education and training: balancing empathy, inquisitiveness and support with control and enforcement, or rather: exert tough love, staying between too soft and too hard.

The uranium tailings is a typical major hazard sources because of its specificity, which could cause serious casualties, property damage and environment pollution in the event of an accident, and thus calls for the attention of everyone. In this paper, we will connect with the practical situation of the uranium tailings, identifying the factors of the dam, such as stability failure of dam slope, overtopping, structure damage, seepage damage and so on. To analyze the related factors and put forward countermeasures based on the analyzed results to control the harmful factors, this will lay the foundation for improving the safety monitoring and security management of uranium tailings impoundment.

This paper provides guidance to key techniques and methods used in the EDM process industry for identifying and documenting environment, safety, and health (ESH) hazards and theircontrols.This is first time that the brainstorming method “what-if” analysis,one of the well-known process hazard analysis (PHA) techniques, is used to predict hazards in electrical discharge machining (EDM) processes. This technique analyzes potential causes and consequences of fires, explosions, releases of toxic or flammable chemicals and major spills of hazardous chemicals, and focuses on fluid system, machining system, electrical & instrumentation system, utilities, human actions and external factors that might impact the process. This analysis helped to identify conditions that can lead to an accident situation and recommendations are givento overcome the risks of these situations. An exhaustive analysis in the EDM process to identify and analyze hazards is presented in this paper and control recommendations are provided to overcome the risks of these hazards.

This article provides an example of how to use case studies in the case of disaster management education subjects. The development of the subject’s program and content are a continuous activity, actually a consequence of the changing world. Companies carrying out chemical processes while maintaining their competitiveness, cannot be considered constant in parallel with the constantly evolving technical conditions. Therefore, industrial processes, chemical processes, accident prevention, recovery techniques, presentations in the lectures need to be updated.New methods can be used for computing devices, applications, or their results. In the case of hazard analysis, the software and the presentation of their computational results are, in my experience, effective in the line of teaching methods. Namely, depicting and propagating the propagation of a gaseous material with a dangerous property, the direction and speed of the wind (and other physical chemical parameters) is an effective frontal technique for the students.The chemical processes are based on numerous chemical processes, which are able to operate under constant control of the control parameters. There is a strong professional justification for describing these processes, which is the subject of the Dangerous Technology section of the subject in the field of industrial security.

Abstract In the Czech Republic, under normal conditions, the radioactive sources are used transported and stored in accordance with the relevant regulations and instructions of the State Office for Nuclear Safety (SONS), which is the regulatory authority of the state administration. Its main task is to ensure adequate safety and protection of persons in accordance with current international standards and guidelines. However, if there is an incidence, accident, or other emergency, these circumstances require taking some specific measures aimed at minimizing the impact of such situations on human health and the environment. During a fire in the workplace, the radioactive sources can get out of control or radioactive substances may begin to leak into the environment. In these cases, it is necessary to evaluate the radiation situation by means of measurement and monitoring both the external radiation and radioactive contamination of the air and the surrounding environment. For this purpose, a system of quantities and units has been developed for this purpose. If the system is not used correctly, this may cause serious confusion in some cases. Inappropriate use of quantities may also result in some misunderstanding regarding the evaluation of the severity of the radiation situation. The paper gives an overview of the relevant quantities and units in accordance with the latest recommendations of international organizations which are active in this area.

Safety Assessment hydraulic system Aircraft H-8AbstrakSistem hidrolik termasuk secondary power yang digunakan untuk menggerakkan bidang atur kendali terbang, mengeluarkan dan melipat roda pendarat, dan memberikan tenaga pengereman ketika pesawat di darat. Kegagalan sistem hidrolik dapat menyebabkan pesawat hilang kendali sehingga memungkinkan pesawat mengalami kecelakaan dan jatuhnya korban jiwa. Penelitian ini membahas tentang penilaian keselamatan sistem hidrolik pesawat terbang H-8 yang mencakup proses penilaian keselamatan, regulasi mengenai sistem hidrolik pesawat terbang, beban-beban yang harus ditanggung oleh sistem hidrolik, dan prestasi sistem hidrolik pesawat H-8. Penilaian keselamatan dimulai dari melakukan identifikasi fungsi, kondisi kegagalan, efek kegagalan, dan mengklasifikasikan kondisi kegagalan dari sistem hidrolik tersebut.Kata kunci : System Safety Assessment (SSA), sistem hidrolik, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Markov Analysis (MA), Fanctional Hazard Asessment (FHA). Abstract A hydraulic system is one of the secondary power used to drive the flight control surfaces, retract and extend landing gears, and to provide power to wheel brakes when the aircraft is on the ground. The failure of the hydraulic system results in aircraft lost of control which can lead to aircraft accident and passenger deaths. This journals discusses the safety assessment of the hydraulic system to be used in H-8 aircraft which includes the safety assessment process, regulations of the aircraft hydraulic system, the hydraulic system loads, and the aircraft hydraulic systems performance. The safety assessment begins with identification and classification of the functions, failure conditions, the effects of failure, and classify the failure conditions of the hydraulic system.Key word : System Safety Assessment (SSA), hydraulic system, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Markov Analysis (MA), Fanctional Hazard Asessment (FHA).

Purpose Annually, hundreds of drilling crew suffer from major injuries during performing oil and gas drilling operation because of the deficiency of an adequate hazard safety management system for real-time decision-making in hazardous conditions. According to previous studies, there is a sheer industrial need for an effective industrial safety management decision support system for accident prevention at oil and gas drilling sites at both drilling domains. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on the design and development of knowledge base decision support system (KBDSS) for the prevention of hazardous activities at Middle Eastern and South Asian origins’ onshore and offshore oil and gas industries during drilling operations. Design/methodology/approach In this study, data were gathered from safety and health professionals from targeted oil and gas industries in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan through quantitative and qualitative approaches. Based on identified data, KBDSSs (HAZFO Expert 1.0) were systematically developed and designed by adopting Database Development Life Cycle and Waterfall Software Development Life Cycle models. MySQL and Visual Studio 2015 software were used for developing and designing knowledge base and graphical user interface of the system. Findings KBDSS (HAZFO Expert 1.0) for accident prevention at onshore and offshore oil and gas drilling industries based on identified potential hazards and their suitable controlling measures aligned with international safety standards and regulations. HAZFO Expert 1.0 is a novel KBDSS that covers all onshore and offshore drilling operations with three and nine outputs, respectively, to achieve the current trend of Industry Revolution 4.0 and Industrial IoTs for workforce safety. Practical implications This industrial safety management system (HAZFO Expert 1.0) will be efficiently used for the identification and elimination of potential hazards associated with drilling activities at onshore and offshore drilling sites with an appropriate hazard controlling strategy. Originality/value Moreover, the developed KBDS system is unique in terms of its architecture and is dynamic in nature because it provides HAZFO Expert 1.0 data management and insertion application for authorized users. This is the first KBDSS which covers both drilling domains in Malaysian, Saudi Arabian and Pakistani industries.

The paper carries out a review of the environmental problems associated with atmospheric pollution, air quality emissions and applicable control mechanisms in the detection and evaluation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in the light of global trends and best practices given the magnitude of gas flaring taking place in Nigeria’s Niger Delta daily. This is flowing from the findings that gas flaring continues to be a major health hazard to humanity, domestic and global environment. Also considered are the Challenges facing air quality and carbon management in Nigeria and the place of the ongoing National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) funded research on air quality and carbon management and the recent release of the twin regulations of: the Flare Gas (Prevention Of Waste And Pollution) Regulations, 2018 and the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme (NGFCP) by the Federal Government Of Nigeria aimed at stopping gas flares in the year, 2020. The paper adopts an admixture of the historical, comparative, the law and development and empirical approaches in appropriate cases.

Ragweed pollen is an important component of biological pollution in the urban environment, responsible for increasing respiratory allergies and significant contribution to the health impact of air pollution in the Bucharest area. The aim of this paper is to present the eight-year ragweed pollen monitoring data from Bucharest, to place them in the context of local air pollution, public health regulations and available data on the health impact of ragweed pollen in the urban environment. Our pollen data were correlated with major air pollutant concentrations and with meteorological factors in a recently published local paper and the clinical data of patients with ragweed-induced respiratory symptoms were collected and published in 2019. The ragweed pollen monitoring data, correlated with field data reported by patients and plant specialists confirm the rapid spread of Ambrosia in the Bucharest city area, in addition to some stringent environmental local problems due to air pollution. The number of patients addressed to allergists almost doubled from one year to another, confirming the real alarming health impact of this environmental hazard. Our study confirms the need for more coherent strategies to control ragweed spread, based on application of existing local and international regulations, air pollution control and evaluation of consequences on human health.

Background: Road traffic accidents are currently among the most essential public health issues. According to the World Health Organization, given the rapid growth of road transport globally, road traffic accidents could be the third leading cause of death and disability in the world by 2020. This article examined the role of the human factor in road accidents during the Nowruz holidays, as a major cultural event in Iran. Materials and Methods: We explored the data of road accidents that occurred in Nowruz in 2016 and 2017 in Iran. Traffic accident data concerning the Nowruz holidays of 2016 and 2017 were collected by census method of sampling and based on the report of highway police. Additionally, the frequency of these accidents was analyzed according to travel time, accident type, gender, age, education, and vehicle type in different provinces. Results: The present study findings suggested that among human factors affecting Nowruz accidents in 2016 and 2017, the highest frequency belonged to unnecessary speeding. As in 2016 and 2017, it was the main responsible characteristic for 56.42% and 55.01% of accidents, respectively. In Nowruz 2016, the provinces of Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, Isfahan, Fars, and Khuzestan; in Nowruz 2017, the provinces of Tehran, Isfahan, Khorasan Razavi, Fars, and Gilan encountered the highest rates of accidents leading to injuries and deaths. Conclusion: To control unnecessary speeding and regulations disregard, planning for culturizing and the community-level education are suggested. Besides, increasing the quality and intelligence of vehicles and the construction of sliders, vertical lines on the road, warning signs, and billboards could help reduce the rate of accidents. Creating a working group of experts in psychology, traffic, etc., to study the pathology of dangerous behaviors, useless haste, and disregard for regulations and providing solutions could also be effective.

This paper documents research into repetitive motion injuries (RMIs) occurring at a used garment sorting facility, with a focus on the Poisson distribution model and associated time interval analysis. Time interval analysis is used to confirm existence of a Poisson process. The Poisson process and distribution is then implemented to model the occurrence of RMIs at the target facility, as well as employed in a proactive effort to track and reduce RMIs. As a major player within this labor-intensive industry, the industrial partner experiences a significant number of repetitive motion injuries (RMIs). Analysis is provided on the Poisson process, and the salient RMI risk factors and ergonomic principles that might affect application of the Poisson distribution model. This paper also reviews proposed methodologies for collecting RMI risk factor data, tracking RMI accident or “incident” data, gathering population-specific anthropometric data, and developing RMI hazard reduction strategies. The Poisson model is presented as a structured methodology for the prediction and control of repetitive motion injuries.

Abstract The Malaysian construction industry is among the highest ranked industries that contributes to accident and fatality rates. The Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health in Construction Industry (Management) (OSHCIM) has introduced guidelines for design risk reduction in the construction industry. It involves determining root causes and mitigating the risk by control of the causation of accidents. The objective of this study is to identify the key design issues during the conceptual and detailed design review phases in the construction project. Although some of the design considerations have already been proposed by the OSCHIM guidelines, however, further implementation need to be diverse and versatile by considering the current design practices that are already being practiced by the industry practitioners. The methodology of this research involves document reviews, and a questionnaire survey that was used to collect answers from respondents in the construction industry. According to the results, the key design issues in the conceptual phase involve the site condition, environmental influences, ground or ground water condition, existing structure, demolition, services, adjacent to major infrastructure, traffic disruption, access for works, adjacent to other properties and projects, and site restriction. Moreover, those found in the detailed phase involve the mechanized construction system, installation of prefabrication components, ease of process, structural opening, edge line, fall hazard, accident prevention, layout optimization, ease of activities, permanent safety features, provision of access, and fall hazard. However, it is the duty of the construction industry practitioners to make sure that all other design issues are also included into their construction project risk analysis. As proposed by the OSHCIM guidelines, the review of design risks in the construction project should consider safety in all the stages: during construction, operation, maintenance, modification, and demolition. Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB)

Purpose Every year, hundreds of people have died and thousands have been injured because of insufficient management of well control at oil and gas drilling and production sites. Major causes which have been reported in previous studies included uncontrollable blowouts and failure of blowout preventers because of insufficient safety practices. These onshore and offshore blowout disasters not only harm the work force but also critically affect the environment and marine life. In this research paper, a detailed quantitative survey and qualitative risk assessments (RA) have been carried out for assessing the potentially hazardous activities associated with well control along with their appropriate controls and risk reduction factors and mitigating measures in Middle East and south East Asian countries. Design/methodology/approach The sequential explanatory research design has been adopted in this study. Whereas, descriptive statistical approach has been used for the quantitative data analysis of this study. While, in-depth interview approach has been used for qualitative data collection. Similarly, what-if analysis method has been adopted in this study for the identification of effective safety and health risk mitigating factors because it provides in-depth information from health and safety environment experts. Findings The cumulative quantitative results based on the response from Saudi Arabian drilling industry have indicated that the well control operation is highly hazardous then Malaysian and Pakistani oil and gas industries. Likewise, findings from what-if analysis approach demonstrate that the drilling crewmembers have repetitively faced life threatening hazards which occur (safety and chemical) during well control onshore and offshore operation because of oil base mud, confined space at site, pinch points and falling during working on blow out preventers. According to the overall result, respondents have highly recommended engineering and administrative hazard controlling factors as most suitable for the elimination of safety and chemical hazards during well control activities. Practical implications Besides, the developed methodological framework for the identification of suitable hazard controls can also be effectively used for potential hazards reorganization and identification of suitable hazard controls for other drilling and production industries and regions for accident prevention and safety and health management. Originality/value This is a first comparative research study which has been carried out in Malaysian, Saudi Arabian and Pakistani onshore and offshore oil and gas industries for well control health and safety management and reorganization of most effective hazards mitigating factors at drilling sites.

Abstract. We investigate the impact of atmospheric forcing uncertainties on the prediction of the dispersion of pollutants in the marine environment. Ensemble simulations consisting of 50 members were carried out using the ECMWF ensemble prediction system and the oil spill model MEDSLIK-II in the Aegean Sea. A deterministic control run using the unperturbed wind of the ECMWF high-resolution system served as reference for the oil spill prediction. We considered the oil spill rates and duration to be similar to major accidents of the past (e.g., the Prestige case) and we performed simulations for different seasons and oil spill types. Oil spill performance metrics and indices were introduced in the context of probabilistic hazard assessment. Results suggest that oil spill model uncertainties were sensitive to the atmospheric forcing uncertainties, especially to phase differences in the intensity and direction of the wind among members. An oil spill ensemble prediction system based on model uncertainty of the atmospheric forcing, shows great potential for predicting pathways of oil spill transport alongside a deterministic simulation, increasing the reliability of the model prediction and providing important information for the control and mitigation strategies in the event of an oil spill accident.

Food safety is a major risk for agribusiness firms. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 5000 people die annually, and 36,000 people are hospitalized as a result of foodborne outbreaks in the United States. Globally, the death estimate is about 42,000 people per year. A single outbreak could cost a particular segment of the food industry hundreds of millions of dollars due to recalls and liability; these instances might amount to billions of dollars annually. Despite U.S. advancements and regulations, such as pathogen reduction/hazard analysis critical control points (PR/HACCP) in 1996 and the Food Modernization Act in 2010, to reduce food-safety risk, retail meat facilities continue to experience recalls and major outbreaks. We developed a stochastic-optimization framework and used stochastic-dominance methods to evaluate the effectiveness for three strategies that are used by retail meat facilities. Copula value-at-risk (CVaR) was utilized to predict the magnitude of the risk exposure associated with alternative, cost-effective risk-reduction strategies. The results showed that optimal retail-intervention strategies vary by meat and pathogen types, and that having a single Salmonella performance standard for PR/HACCP could be inefficient for reducing other pathogens and food-safety risks.

Although chemical control is still the main way to reduce the preharvest and postharvest incidence of mycotoxigenic fungi, the worldwide tendency to reduce chemical use, and the emergence of resistant strains, have accelerated the search for non-chemical strategies. Those applied at the postharvest stage include heat treatments, biological control, and modified-or controlled-atmosphere storage. It is now evident that combinations of treatments are more efficient than individual treatments applied alone. Most of the studies on mycotoxins in fruits are focused on patulin (produced mainly by Penicillium expansum) in apple products, and ochratoxin A (produced mainly by Aspergillus carbonarius) in grapes and in wines. Patulin levels can be significantly reduced by washing and sorting apples, and trimming away rotten tissues. Other treatments for patulin reduction have been associated with its ability to react readily with compounds containing sulphydryl groups. Other additives that reduce patulin levels are ascorbic acid and B-complex vitamins. The rate of ochratoxin A reduction during fermentation depends, among others, on the yeast used for fermentation and the type of wine produced. During vinification, ochratoxin A is also reduced by binding to the solid residues of grapes. Alternaria mycotoxins may be produced naturally in a variety of fruits and vegetables and their processed products. At least two of these mycotoxins, alternariol and alternariol monomethyl, were shown to be stable in heated apple juice. In some apple cultivars, Alternaria occurs in the core and the damage is hidden. Contamination with mycotoxins is recognized as an unavoidable risk, but three major components are involved in the attempt to minimize the risk: Good Agricultural Practices, Good Manufacturing Practices, and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points. In many countries, regulatory measures have been taken to limit the presence of mycotoxins in fruits and vegetables. Several factors may influence the establishment of national and regional mycotoxin limits and regulations.

Background Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) are at high risk for major cardiovascular events, including myocardial infarction, stroke, and hospitalization for heart failure. We have previously shown the clinical efficacy of a fourth-generation synchronous telehealth program for some patients, but the costs and cardiovascular benefits of the program for PAD patients remain unknown. Objective The telehealth program is now widely used by higher-risk cardiovascular patients to prevent further cardiovascular events. This study investigated whether patients with PAD would also have better cardiovascular outcomes after participating in the fourth-generation synchronous telehealth program. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study. We screened 5062 patients with cardiovascular diseases who were treated at National Taiwan University Hospital and then enrolled 391 patients with a diagnosis of PAD. Of these patients, 162 took part in the telehealth program, while 229 did not and thus served as control patients. Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) based on the propensity score was used to mitigate possible selection bias. Follow-up outcomes included heart failure hospitalization, acute coronary syndrome, stroke, and all-cause readmission during the 1-year follow-up period and through the last follow-up. Results The mean follow-up duration was 3.1 (SD 1.8) years for the patients who participated in the telehealth program and 3.2 (SD 1.8) for the control group. The telehealth program patients exhibited lower risk of ischemic stroke than did the control group in the first year after IPTW (0.9% vs 3.5%; hazard ratio [HR] 0.24; 95% CI 0.07-0.80). The 1-year composite endpoint of vascular accident, including acute coronary syndrome and stroke, was also significantly lower in the telehealth program group after IPTW (2.4% vs 5.2%; HR 0.46; 95% CI 0.21-0.997). At the end of the follow-up, the telehealth program group continued to exhibit a significantly lower rate of ischemic stroke than did the control group after IPTW (0.9% vs 3.5%; HR 0.52, 95% CI 0.28-0.93). Furthermore, the medical costs of the telehealth program patients were not higher than those of the control group, whether in terms of outpatient, emergency department, hospitalization, or total costs. Conclusions The PAD patients who participated in the fourth-generation synchronous telehealth program exhibited lower risk of ischemic stroke events over both mid- and long-term follow-up periods. However, larger-scale and prospective randomized clinical trials are needed to confirm our findings.

Background: Occupational exposure to agrochemicals, some of which are known or suspected carcinogens, is a major health hazard for subsistence agricultural workers and their families. These impacts are more prevalent in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) due to weak regulations, lack of awareness of the risks of contamination, general lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), and low literacy about proper agrochemical application techniques. Fluorescent tracer dyes have been described as a means of visualizing and quantifying dermal exposure to agricultural chemicals, and dye techniques adapted for LMICs have been developed previously. These tracer dyes have also been used in educational demonstrations about pesticide safety. However, studies evaluating the efficacy of these educational dye interventions in reducing exposure have been lacking. Aim: To evaluate whether observing one's own chemical contamination after applying agrochemicals changed the amount of occupational dermal exposure during a subsequent chemical application. Methods: We used a multimodal community intervention in a rural village in Honduras that incorporated chemical safety education and use of a fluorescent tracer dye during pesticide application and compared dermal exposure between the intervention group (previous dye experience and safety education) and the control group (safety education only). Results: Mean total visual score (TVS) of the tracer dye, which accounts for both extent and intensity of contamination, was lower among those who had previously experienced the dye intervention (mean TVS=41.3) than among participants who were dye-naïve (mean TVS=78.4), with a difference between means of -37.10 (95% CI [-66.26, -7.95], P = 0.02). Conclusion: That workers who had experienced the dye demonstration once before were significantly less contaminated on average when compared with the dye-naïve group indicates that a multimodal community intervention that utilizes fluorescent dye visualization may be effective in reducing dermal exposure to carcinogenic agrochemicals among subsistence farmers in LMICs.

The food safety issue is often overlooked in countries where food shortages, natural disasters, political tensions, and other major concerns dominate government and media agendas. As a result, the current study sought to assess food safety practices and associated factors among food handlers at Woldia University’s student cafeteria. An institutional cross-sectional study was conducted between May and July 2021, and a sample of 291 subjects was recruited through a simple random sampling technique. Questionnaires, focus group discussions, interviews, and observation methods were used as data collection tools. Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 software. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to determine the effect of various factors on the outcome variable and control for confounding effects. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. However, some variables are significant even at p < 0.001 . The results were described by frequencies and percentages. The current study found that the factors of not having had food hygiene training ( AOR = 2.111 , 95% CI = 1.029 − 4.428 ), less than or equal to one year of work experience ( AOR = 3.070 , 95% CI = 2.020 − 10.246 ), poor knowledge ( AOR = 1.285 , 95% CI = 0.125 − 0.849 ) and poor attitude ( AOR = 1.190 , 95% CI = 1.361 − 9.393 ), not keeping cooked food at a safe temperature ( AOR = 3.037 , 95% CI = 1.021 − 12.096 ), failure to respect the safety of cooking utensils and surfaces ( AOR = 2.022 , 95% CI = 1.551 − 9.689 ), insufficient cleanliness of eating areas ( AOR = 2.430 , 95% CI = 1.983 − 6.217 ), not covering hair when cooking food ( AOR = 5.903 , 95% CI = 2.243 − 9.621 ), and not washing hands before starting to handle food ( AOR = 10.019 , 95% CI = 4.031 − 24.063 ) were statistically associated with unhygienic food handling practices. The results of this study indicated that the state of food safety practices was poor. Therefore, food safety assurance must comply with modern food safety frameworks such as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). In addition, addressing knowledge and skill gaps among food handlers, regular inspection services, and effective enforcement of food safety regulations are extremely essential. Finally, future studies should focus on enumerating bacteria and protozoa in unsanitary foods and utensils.

Some issues concerning the effect of ionizing radiation on the human body and methodological approaches to the development of radiation safety standards are considered. It is shown that the use of the linear no-threshold hypothesis (LNT hypothesis) in up-to-date radiation safety standards is inconsistent with experimental and epidemiological dose-response data, introduces essential excessive conservatism in the safety assessment process and causes additional problems concerning nuclear power engineering development. Due to the absence of convincing proofs for the existence of the dose threshold* nowadays, it is assumed that any ionizing radiation can lead to a certain risk of developing harmful effects and, therefore, the linear non-threshold dependence between the dose and the probability of the harmful effect is recommended. However, everyone understands that the use of the LNT hypothesis significantly overestimates the real danger. At the same time, the LNT hypothesis aggravates the existing high public fear of nuclear power, and the nuclear power industry pays extraordinary expenses to comply with radiation protection standards based on the LNT hypothesis. In order to comply with rules and regulations based on the LNT hypothesis, the nuclear energy industry invests financial resources in the creation of additional safety barriers for nuclear facilities, as well as new security and control systems. One of the reasons for increasing the cost for construction of a nuclear power plant is the increased design cost caused by enhanced safety requirements that are based on the LNT hypothesis. The traditional engineering approach to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities is based on the increase in the number of protective systems and devices that reduce the probability of severe accidents and reduce the radiation hazard of their consequences. Implementation of this approach in practice leads to a complication and a rise in the price of a nuclear facility. Obviously, it is possible to substantially enhance the safety level of nuclear facilities by creating new and new safety barriers around them, but sooner or later the nuclear energy production will become uncompetitive compared to the generation of other kinds of energy. It is concluded that up-to-date knowledge gives all the necessary grounds for eliminating the use of the linear no-threshold hypothesis and for revising the existing radiation safety standards of Ukraine for some isolated technological operations related to radiation hazardous activities. Such technological operations include activities related to the mitigation of radiation accident consequences, retrieval of nuclear materials and other activities related to the Shelter’s transformation into an environmentally safe system.

7710 Background: This trial was aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ip BLM instillation as compared to pericardial drainage alone in pts with MPE. Methods: Pts ≤ 75 y.o. with pathologically documented lung cancer, who had received pericardial drainage for clinical MPE within 72 hours of the enrollment, were eligible. Pts with chemo-naïve small cell cancer, major organ failure, or severe co-morbidity were excluded. Signed consent form was obtained. Pts were randomized to either Arm A: observation alone after drainage, or Arm B: ip BLM of 15mg, followed by additional ip BLM 10mg q48hours. Drainage tube was removed when daily drainage was ≤20mL; the protocol therapy was judged as primary failure, with no regulations on post-therapy, if this criteria could not be met after 7 days from enrollment. MPE was followed at 1,2,4,6 and 12 months by echocardiography. The primary endpoint was survival with MPE control (effusion failure-free survival, EFFS) at 2 months, assumed to be 60% vs. 30%. The trial was designed to provide 80% power with 5% one-sided alpha, with 80 cases. Results: From Aug./99 to Jan./06, 80 pts were enrolled, with 79 eligible. M:F=51:29, median age 60 y.o. (range: 39–75), 75 nonsmall histology, 53 with prior chemotherapy, and 20 with prior radiotherapy. Median drainage volume was 600 mL (range: 130–1930). Cytology of the effusion was positive in 58/76 examined. EFFS ( table ) tended to favor Arm B, with hazard ratio of 0.64 (one-sided p=0.030 by logrank test, 95% C.I. 0.40–1.03). No additional acute toxicities or complications were observed for Arm B. There were 2 cases with late constrictive complications in Arm B, but none was severe. The median survival was 79 days (A) and 119 days (B) (not significant). Conclusions: Although the difference of EFFS at 2 months was not statistically significant, BLM ip after pericardial drainage appears to be safe and effective in allover for management of MPE. No significant financial relationships to disclose. [Table: see text]

Background. Hexavalent chromium-containing waste from chromite ore processing is a major environmental health hazard due to its high toxicity. There have been instances of improper and unsafe disposal of this waste, leading to environmental health hazards. Objectives. The objective of the present study was to identify the cause of yellow colored water discharge and reported health issues in nearby residents and cattle. In addition, it investigated the improper disposal of chromite ore processing residue (COPR), a hazardous waste, in an abandoned quarry in stromatolitic-limestone terrain in central-east India. Methods. Standard methods of analysis of water and wastewater were used for the analyses of variables, including hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)), pH, sulfate (SO42−), chlorine (Cl−), total hardness, calcium (Ca(II)), magnesium (Mg(II)), alkalinity and sodium (Na(I)) with proper sampling, quality assurance, and quality control protocols. Onsite Cr(VI) was analyzed using a chromium testing kit, and in the laboratory by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Results. Large-scale contamination of surface and groundwater was noted due to the migration of hexavalent chromium-contaminated yellow colored leachate. High levels of hexavalent chromium were noted in the samples. The maximum Cr(VI) concentration observed was 1050 mg/L in leachate, 22 mg/L in surface water and 0.26 mg/L in the groundwater sample. Acute health effects were noted in cattle and by residents who consumed the highly contaminated water. Conclusions. A large volume of discharge of hexavalent chromium contamination from the COPR landfill was found, indicating the absence of containment features in the design (double high-density polyethylene liners, clay, leachate collection). Disposal of COPR in an abandoned limestone mine is inadvisable. The highly fractured stromatolitic-limestone environment at the study site was found to offer almost no resistance to the mobilization of Cr(VI) due to the absence of organic or eukaryotic deposition in the stromatolitic environment. It was also noted that the drainage pattern of the area facilitates a possible translocation of contaminated discharge to the nearby river system. Nearby residents were unaware of the adverse impacts of the contaminated leachates and were using the contaminated water for bathing, washing, etc. Applicable Indian governmental regulations regarding the construction of hazardous waste landfills were found to be insufficient with respect to the use of inactive limestone mines as landfill sites. Competing Interests. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

1. Introduction This Special Issue (Part 2) expands upon the theme “Building Local Capacity for Long-term Disaster Resilience” presented in Special Issue Part 1 (JDR Volume 5, Number 2, April 2010) by examining the evolving concept of disaster resilience and providing additional reflections upon various aspects of its meaning. Part 1 provided a mixed set of examples of resiliency efforts, ranging from administrative challenges of integrating resilience into recovery to the analysis of hazard mitigation plans directed toward guiding local capability for developing resiliency. Resilience was broadly defined in the opening editorial of Special Issue Part 1 as “the capacity of a community to: 1) survive a major disaster, 2) retain essential structure and functions, and 3) adapt to post-disaster opportunities for transforming community structure and functions to meet new challenges.” In this editorial essay we first explore in Section 2 the history of resilience and then locate it within current academic and policy debates. Section 3 presents summaries of the papers in this issue. 2. Why is Resilience a Contemporary Theme? There is growing scholarly and policy interest in disaster resilience. In recent years, engineers [1], sociologists [2], geographers [3], economists [4], public policy analysts [5, 6], urban planners [7], hazards researchers [8], governments [9], and international organizations [10] have all contributed to the literature about this concept. Some authors view resilience as a mechanism for mitigating disaster impacts, with framework objectives such as resistance, absorption, and restoration [5]. Others, who focus on resiliency indicators, see it as an early warning system to assess community resiliency status [3, 8]. Recently, it has emerged as a component of social risk management that seeks to minimize social welfare loss from catastrophic disasters [6]. Manyena [11] traces scholarly exploration of resilience as an operational concept back at least five decades. Interest in resilience began in the 1940s with studies of children and trauma in the family and in the 1970s in the ecology literature as a useful framework to examine and measure the impact of assault or trauma on a defined eco-system component [12]. This led to modeling resilience measures for a variety of components within a defined ecosystem, leading to the realization that the systems approach to resiliency is attractive as a cross-disciplinary construct. The ecosystem analogy however, has limits when applied to disaster studies in that, historically, all catastrophic events have changed the place in which they occurred and a “return to normalcy” does not occur. This is true for modern urban societies as well as traditional agrarian societies. The adoption of “The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015” (also known as The Hyogo Declaration) provides a global linkage and follows the United Nations 1990s International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction effort. The 2005 Hyogo Declaration’s definition of resilience is: “The capacity of a system, community or society potentially exposed to hazards to adapt by resisting or changing in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and structure.” The proposed measurement of resilience in the Hyogo Declaration is determined by “the degree to which the social system is capable of organizing itself to increase this capacity for learning from past disasters for better future protection and to improve risk reduction measures.” While very broad, this definition contains two key concepts: 1) adaptation, and 2) maintaining acceptable levels of functioning and structure. While adaptation requires certain capacities, maintaining acceptable levels of functioning and structure requires resources, forethought, and normative action. Some of these attributes are now reflected in the 2010 National Disaster Recovery Framework published by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) [13]. With the emergence of this new thinking on resilience related to disasters, it is now a good time to reflect on the concept and assess what has recently been said in the literature. Bruneau et al. [1] offer an engineering sciences definition for community seismic resilience: “The ability of social units (e.g., organizations, communities) to mitigate hazards, contain the effects of disasters when they occur, and carry out recovery activities in ways that minimize social disruption and mitigate the effects of future earthquakes.” Rose [4] writes that resiliency is the ability of a system to recover from a severe shock. He distinguishes two types of resilience: (1) inherent – ability under normal circumstances and (2) adaptive – ability in crisis situations due to ingenuity or extra effort. By opening up resilience to categorization he provides a pathway to establish multi-disciplinary approaches, something that is presently lacking in practice. Rose is most concerned with business disruption which can take extensive periods of time to correct. In order to make resource decisions that lower overall societal costs (economic, social, governmental and physical), Rose calls for the establishment of measurements that function as resource decision allocation guides. This has been done in part through risk transfer tools such as private insurance. However, it has not been well-adopted by governments in deciding how to allocate mitigation resources. We need to ask why the interest in resilience has grown? Manyena [11] argues that the concept of resilience has gained currency without obtaining clarity of understanding, definition, substance, philosophical dimensions, or applicability to disaster management and sustainable development theory and practice. It is evident that the “emergency management model” does not itself provide sufficient guidance for policymakers since it is too command-and-control-oriented and does not adequately address mitigation and recovery. Also, large disasters are increasingly viewed as major disruptions of the economic and social conditions of a country, state/province, or city. Lowering post-disaster costs (human life, property loss, economic advancement and government disruption) is being taken more seriously by government and civil society. The lessening of costs is not something the traditional “preparedness” stage of emergency management has concerned itself with; this is an existing void in meeting the expanding interests of government and civil society. The concept of resilience helps further clarify the relationship between risk and vulnerability. If risk is defined as “the probability of an event or condition occurring [14]#8221; then it can be reduced through physical, social, governmental, or economic means, thereby reducing the likelihood of damage and loss. Nothing can be done to stop an earthquake, volcanic eruption, cyclone, hurricane, or other natural event, but the probability of damage and loss from natural and technological hazards can be addressed through structural and non-structural strategies. Vulnerability is the absence of capacity to resist or absorb a disaster impact. Changes in vulnerability can then be achieved by changes in these capacities. In this regard, Franco and Siembieda describe in this issue how coastal cities in Chile had low resilience and high vulnerability to the tsunami generated by the February 2010 earthquake, whereas modern buildings had high resilience and, therefore, were much less vulnerable to the powerful earthquake. We also see how the framework for policy development can change through differing perspectives. Eisner discusses in this issue how local non-governmental social service agencies are building their resilience capabilities to serve target populations after a disaster occurs, becoming self-renewing social organizations and demonstrating what Leonard and Howett [6] term “social resilience.” All of the contributions to this issue illustrate the lowering of disaster impacts and strengthening of capacity (at the household, community or governmental level) for what Alesch [15] terms “post-event viability” – a term reflecting how well a person, business, community, or government functions after a disaster in addition to what they might do prior to a disaster to lessen its impact. Viability might become the definition of recovery if it can be measured or agreed upon. 3. Contents of This Issue The insights provided by the papers in this issue contribute greater clarity to an understanding of resilience, together with its applicability to disaster management. In these papers we find tools and methods, process strategies, and planning approaches. There are five papers focused on local experiences, three on state (prefecture) experiences, and two on national experiences. The papers in this issue reinforce the concept of resilience as a process, not a product, because it is the sum of many actions. The resiliency outcome is the result of multiple inputs from the level of the individual and, at times, continuing up to the national or international organizational level. Through this exploration we see that the “resiliency” concept accepts that people will come into conflict with natural or anthropogenic hazards. The policy question then becomes how to lower the impact(s) of the conflict through “hard or soft” measures (see the Special Issue Part 1 editorial for a discussion of “hard” vs. “soft” resilience). Local level Go Urakawa and Haruo Hayashi illustrate how post-disaster operations for public utilities can be problematic because many practitioners have no direct experience in such operations, noting that the formats and methods normally used in recovery depend on personal skills and effort. They describe how these problems are addressed by creating manuals on measures for effectively implementing post-disaster operations. They develop a method to extract priority operations using business impact analysis (BIA) and project management based business flow diagrams (BFD). Their article effectively illustrates the practical aspects of strengthening the resiliency of public organizations. Richard Eisner presents the framework used to initiate the development and implementation of a process to create disaster resilience in faith-based and community-based organizations that provide services to vulnerable populations in San Francisco, California. A major project outcome is the Disaster Resilience Standard for Community- and Faith-Based Service Providers. This “standard” has general applicability for use by social service agencies in the public and non-profit sectors. Alejandro Linayo addresses the growing issue of technological risk in cities. He argues for the need to understand an inherent conflict between how we occupy urban space and the technological risks created by hazardous chemicals, radiation, oil and gas, and other hazardous materials storage and movement. The paper points out that information and procedural gaps exist in terms of citizen knowledge (the right to know) and local administrative knowledge (missing expertise). Advances and experience accumulated by the Venezuela Disaster Risk Management Research Center in identifying and integrating technological risk treatment for the city of Merida, Venezuela, are highlighted as a way to move forward. L. Teresa Guevara-Perez presents the case that certain urban zoning requirements in contemporary cities encourage and, in some cases, enforce the use of building configurations that have been long recognized by earthquake engineering as seismically vulnerable. Using Western Europe and the Modernist architectural movement, she develops the historical case for understanding discrepancies between urban zoning regulations and seismic codes that have led to vulnerable modern building configurations, and traces the international dissemination of architectural and urban planning concepts that have generated vulnerability in contemporary cities around the world. Jung Eun Kang, Walter Gillis Peacock, and Rahmawati Husein discuss an assessment protocol for Hazard Mitigation Plans applied to 12 coastal hazard zone plans in the state of Texas in the U.S. The components of these plans are systematically examined in order to highlight their respective strengths and weaknesses. The authors describe an assessment tool, the plan quality score (PQS), composed of seven primary components (vision statement, planning process, fact basis, goals and objectives, inter-organizational coordination, policies & actions, and implementation), as well as a component quality score (CQS). State (Prefecture) level Charles Real presents the Natural Hazard Zonation Policies for Land Use Planning and Development in California in the U.S. California has established state-level policies that utilize knowledge of where natural hazards are more likely to occur to enhance the effectiveness of land use planning as a tool for risk mitigation. Experience in California demonstrates that a combination of education, outreach, and mutually supporting policies that are linked to state-designated natural hazard zones can form an effective framework for enhancing the role of land use planning in reducing future losses from natural disasters. Norio Maki, Keiko Tamura, and Haruo Hayashi present a method for local government stakeholders involved in pre-disaster plan making to describe performance measures through the formulation of desired outcomes. Through a case study approach, Nara and Kyoto Prefectures’ separate experiences demonstrate how to conduct Strategic Earthquake Disaster Reduction Plans and Action Plans that have deep stakeholder buy-in and outcome measurability. Nara’s plan was prepared from 2,015 stakeholder ideas and Kyoto’s plan was prepared from 1,613 stakeholder ideas. Having a quantitative target for individual objectives ensures the measurability of plan progress. Both jurisdictions have undertaken evaluations of plan outcomes. Sandy Meyer, Eugene Henry, Roy E. Wright and Cynthia A. Palmer present the State of Florida in the U.S. and its experience with pre-disaster planning for post-disaster redevelopment. Drawing upon the lessons learned from the impacts of the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, local governments and state leaders in Florida sought to find a way to encourage behavior that would create greater community resiliency in 2006. The paper presents initial efforts to develop a post-disaster redevelopment plan (PDRP), including the experience of a pilot county. National level Bo-Yao Lee provides a national perspective: New Zealand’s approach to emergency management, where all hazard risks are addressed through devolved accountability. This contemporary approach advocates collaboration and coordination, aiming to address all hazard risks through the “4Rs” – reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. Lee presents the impact of the Resource Management Act (1991), the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act (2002), and the Building Act (2004) that comprise the key legislation influencing and promoting integrated management for environment and hazard risk management. Guillermo Franco and William Siembieda provide a field assessment of the February 27, 2010, M8.8 earthquake and tsunami event in Chile. The papers present an initial damage and life-loss review and assessment of seismic building resiliency and the country’s rapid updating of building codes that have undergone continuous improvement over the past 60 years. The country’s land use planning system and its emergency management system are also described. The role of insurance coverage reveals problems in seismic coverage for homeowners. The unique role of the Catholic Church in providing temporary shelter and the central government’s five-point housing recovery plan are presented. A weakness in the government’s emergency management system’s early tsunami response system is noted. Acknowledgements The Editorial Committee extends its sincere appreciation to both the contributors and the JDR staff for their patience and determination in making Part 2 of this special issue possible. Thanks also to the reviewers for their insightful analytic comments and suggestions. Finally, the Committee wishes to again thank Bayete Henderson for his keen and thorough editorial assistance and copy editing support.

Purpose: There are many tunnels under construction in Nepal as its mountainous country. Road, water supply, hydropower, and irrigation projects are under construction in Nepal through the tunnel. “Safety First” should be one of the main objectives of any construction projects mainly tunnel and shall be given high priority throughout the construction period. A single person alone cannot do it alone. A team including safety professionals to concentrate on health, safety, and environmental concerns shall be involved to ensure that safety environment will be maintained in the construction site. OSH is the relation between man and man, man and machine and man and environment. The paper aims to analyze the job safety of major selected construction activities during tunneling. Design/Methodology/Approach: Site Observation, Key Informant Interview (KII), and Study of Methods of Statement were done as main data collection tools. Job safety analysis and identification of activity with high risk level involved should be determined so that proper prevention and control mechanism could be determined and implemented. Drilling, excavation, blasting, mocking, scaling and shotcerting were major activities whose hazards, prevention mechanism and the responsible party were identified. Findings/Result: The study reveals that the main occupational hazards were mechanical and chemical hazards. Rockfall and landslide were noted as the major mechanical hazard whereas toxic gas and cement dust were the main chemical hazards. Similarly, noise and vibration were the main physical hazards and untimely payment of wages and leave were psychological hazards. It was reported that the major accident occurred at sites where the leg struck on steps of boomer while pulling a worker to save him from falling of boomer, penetration by fine grinding wheel material into the eye while carrying out grind cutting of drum and faint due to oxygen deficiency inside the tunnel. Some minor accidents were road traffic accidents, cut by sharp tools, fall/hit to/hit by objects, splashing of acids, burning caught by fire, etc. and the fatal accidents was one of the mechanics blown away by the erupted boomer tyres while filling up air into the same and one of the workers lost his life due to truck accident inside the work premise. The families of the demised had been compensated by the company. For safe construction requires the teamwork of sincere and coordinated effort of all stakeholders. Lack of regular inspection and monitoring at the site was the main cause of improper implementation of prevailing health and safety regulations. Originality/Value: The study is highly significant for working engineers to perform the task without any misfortune inside the tunnel. Paper Type: Project Management Action Research.

Asset integrity is closely intertwined with process safety where the latter is often perceived to be equivalent or a subset of the former. In Malaysia, the requirements for offshore process safety are set by Petronas assuming exclusive rights to petroleum in the nation. It imposes and enforces these requirements on oil and gas companies entering into its production sharing contracts via the common law. Process safety management in Malaysia is strongly influenced by the US OSHA 3132 with elements comprising process safety information, process hazard analysis, operating procedures, employee participation, training, contractors, pre-startup safety review, mechanical integrity, hot work permit, management of change, incident investigation, emergency planning and response as well as compliance audits. These elements are largely included in the Mandatory Control Framework of Petronas and the trio of design, technical and operating integrity adopted in the process safety management of other oil and gas companies. These management practices align with the reiterative plan-do-check-act model. Process safety performance is also gauged with indicators suggested by international institutions such as the American Petroleum Institute. On top of the Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1996 for onshore processes, this study deems that establishing statutory law for offshore installations will be beneficial to propel offshore safety in Malaysia to a greater height.

Healthcare is one of the fastest growing sectors of the US economy, employing over 12 million workers with women representing about 80% of the healthcare workforce. Rates of occupational injury to healthcare workers have risen over the past decade. Safety issues facing by the organizations include back injuries, slips and falls, laser hazards, chemical exposures, biological hazards, workplace violence, and community safety issues. A cause of accident is a result of hazard. A careless or uncontrolled hazard results in a major accident or a minor hazard. Now- a- days; orientation, training, education has been dine as a record for documentation. This kind of activity results in poor knowledge in job and hazard. The objective of this paper is to know about the responsibility of an individual based on leadership approach to be carried out in an organization, their work practice of effective management along with hazard control analysis and job hazard analysis (JHA), also called a job safety analysis (JSA), a technique to identify the dangers of specific tasks in order to reduce the risk of injury to workers. This promotes to know what the hazards are; reduce or eliminate them before anyone gets hurt. Also impacts on both overt and covert cultures of organization. This helps the organization to maintain revenues, minimize losses, serve communities and meet regularities and accreditation requirements.

Today’s industries play a major role to develop and create new innovation products in manufacturing domain. The aim of this project is to identify the hazards, assess the risk and its root cause and to develop a control measures so that the major and minor hazards can be controlled in the tyre manufacturing industry and the workers will be working in a hazard free and safety environment. Material handling is the biggest cause of reportable accident in rubber industry and also hit by moving objects, falling objects, Noise, Fire etc... This can be identified and controlled by using the technique called HIRARC .By using these techniques the risks can be identified and the best safety measures can be implemented in the industry

The traffic accident is a major hazard in modern society. Automotive anti-collision system is an advanced security technology based on intelligent transportation system. Researchers worldwide have carried out relevant studies which are helpful to improve the road traffic safety and reduce the rate of traffic accident. In this paper, first functions of each part of the system are modelled to form the model of the whole part. According to the characteristics of automotive dynamics system and the characteristics of actuator structure, dynamics model of automatic anti-collision system are developed to simulate the complex process of the vehicle mobility. Some functions of the developed system are verified by simulation using Matlab. The system shows good control on the vehicle speed and safety stopping distance.

Abstract The regulations for fitness to drive after a cerebrovascular accident in the German Driving License Regulations (FeV) and the German Evaluation Guidelines for Driving Ability (BGL). are not up to date with the current medical knowledge and not consistent with regulations regarding cardiovascular diseases. This position paper presented by six medical and neuropsychological societies in Germany provides a guideline for the assessment of driving ability after diagnosis of a cerebrovascular disease and addresses three major questions: If there is a functional limitation, how can it be compensated for? What is the risk of sudden loss of control while driving in the future? Are there behavioral or personality changes or cognitive deficiencies interfering with safety while driving? Recommendations for the assessment of driving ability in different cerebrovascular diseases are presented. This article is a translation of the position paper published in Nervenarzt: Marx, P., Hamann, G.F., Busse, O. et al. Nervenarzt 90(4): 388–398.

Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) techniques the best step for identification and analyzing the hazard and operational issues of the system. It is very organized, methodical and structured process to identify hazards of any system or process from the initiating stage till decommissioning of the project. Technology and system possess exposure to undesired events because system can fail or improper work resulting in injury, damage and deaths. Our lives are dealing with a web of different systems, each of which can affect our safety. Each of these systems contains inherent hazard that present unique risk. The major concerned is about eliminating and reducing risk which leads to undesired events. The overall methodology like Failure Mode Effective Analysis, Fault Tree Analysis, Event Tree Analysis, HAZOP, Checklist, inspection, Audit, and What if Analysis presented in this dissertation allows systematic identification of hazards as well as quantification of the risks associated with the operation of chemical process plants. This aids the selection and prioritization of necessary strategies for accident prevention, reduction and limiting their consequences. This dissertation can be used for improving plant safety performance as well as to reduce human and property losses. The result of Hazard identification helps to suggest the control measures in order to prevent deviation and to avoid the consequences. HAZOP technique provides clear and detailed analysis of hazard associated with the process and results are easy to understand.

Purpose: Construction of Transmission lines is complicated and hazardous as they are mostly located in difficult hilly terrain. The study is aimed to identify the hazards during the construction and determine how the approach of Safety by Design can be used to eliminate/control such hazards in the project under implementation at the site of Burtibang Paudi-Amarai Tamghas Sandhikharka Gorusinghe 132 kV Transmission Line Project, Nepal. Design/Methodology/Approach: The Safety by design guidelines, regulations, and manual were consistently referred and Observation with Checklist, KII (Key Informant Interview), Likert scale- based Questionnaire survey were conducted to apply safety by design followed by Chi-square test, Kendall rank correlation coefficient analysis. Cronbach’s alpha assures reliability and literature comparison assures validity. Findings/Result: Erection, Stringing & Excavation were found as most risky activities followed by Lifting & transportation and Concreting. These activities constituted of various hazards. Mechanical hazard was found to be the most prevailing hazard of all followed by Physical, Physiological, Psychological, Biological and Chemical hazard. Working location (top of tower), Slippery surface & Hand tools were the major mechanical hazards whereas Heat & humidity was the major physical hazards. Also Working posture/Bad ergonomics and Carrying overload were the major physiological hazards whereas working pressure/deadlines/target, Wages & leave and food & accommodation were the major psychological hazard. Similarly Mosquito & Snake bites were found to be the major biological hazards whereas Silica, Sand & Cement dust were the chemical hazards in the site. Despite most of the Clients and Contractors have responded that they have heard about SbD, it was found that SbD was not implemented in the site. Most of these hazards can be prevented by adopting the SbD approach in early design phase. Originality/Value: It is action research. This study helps to identify the possible hazards in transmission line construction and use the concept of SbD approach to eliminate or control (if not possible) those hazards. Paper Type: Ex-Post Facto Research

Of late a major drive is happening to shift to electric vehicles (EV) across the globe. Obvious reasons for this are the advantages such as no carbon pollution at the vehicle end, ease of control, economic running, etc. However, there are some issues also which need to be taken care of. One of them is the fire hazard induced by battery on board of the EV directly affecting the safety of the passengers and the vehicle itself. There are several incidents of such accidents reported. In an incident in China, which took placed in BYD e6 electric taxi, three occupants lost their life [6].Such incidents demotivate the potential customers and affect adversely the expected shift towards EV’s from the prevailing IC engine driven vehicles. The economic success of electric vehicle depends on the safety factor of the electric vehicle [7]. In this context, this paper proposes a novel method to provide protection against battery induced fire accident in EV’s. The proposed method detects occurrence of fire hazard and protection is provided by extinguishing the fire or for bigger fires, ejecting the battery itself physically out of the vehicle. The paper presents the design details. A prototype was also built and tested to demonstrate the proposed method, the test results of which are encouraging.

The 20th century has experienced a considerable amount of success in coal mine safety in India. The mining industry has for many years focused on injury prevention at the workplace through procedures and training, and has achieved considerable success. However, the statistics on major accident events such as fatalities and reportable incidents has not shown the corresponding levels of improvement. In the area of major hazards control, the mining industry approach has emphasized mainly on past experiences and lessons learnt, while other high hazard industries such as the chemical process industry and oil and gas industry have taken system safety techniques to new highs. A literature review on quantitative analysis of mine safely studies revealed that numerous investigators explored a wide- range of techniques, including the investigation of bivariate and multivariate statistical models. It is inferred that the use of these quantitative techniques can provide a new direction of research in mine-safety studies. The important aspect, which was explored in this study through structural equation modeling, is the sequential interrelationships amongst the personal, social, and technical factors leading to accident/injury causation. Interestingly, the accidentinvolved workers are more job stressed, more job dissatisfied and hence, less job involved and often get bored with their jobs. The level of dissatisfaction in mines is quite expected. Further research should be performed using national data set so that the findings can be generalized to all segments of the mining industry. Keywords - Mine Safety, Quantitative Risk Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling, Personal, Social and Technical Factors

AbstractNaturally, the ever-growing number of drone operations conducted worldwide carries with it an increase in the number of safety-related incidents and occurrences. The reporting and subsequent investigation of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) accidents and serious incidents seems like a proven solution towards improving operational safety. Such procedures also stem from the fact that UAS are of recognized as aircraft – and aircraft accidents and serious incidents are subject to obligatory investigation. From a technical perspective, a key issue concerns discrepancies in the investigation process as there are significant differences between manned and unmanned aviation operations. From a regulatory perspective, one key question is to what extent should it be obligatory to conduct independent technical investigation of occurrences involving UAS? Such occurrences are not only accidents and serious incidents that involve both UAS and manned aircraft, where “traditional” rules of conducting a full and independent technical investigation apply – the majority occurrences involve only UAS that were either destroyed, damaged or acted as a hazard to third parties. The method of study comprised of content analysis of existing legislation. Current doctrines were confronted with existing regulations, documents, materials, safety reports and statistics. Results of the study shows that the extension of regulations created for manned aviation accident reporting and investigation may not be enough, and certain improvements are necessary, e.g. to standardize the reporting of occurrences and the criteria to conduct a formal accidents and serious incidents investigation. It is also reasonable to take actions aimed at raising awareness among UAS users of the need to report accidents and serious incidents, as well as engage them in the investigative process. The lack of standardization in this field has resulted in the lack of data that is “good enough” to indicate the main causes and factors that contribute to UAS accidents.

The current water environment management of China has gradually shifted from reaching water quality standards to preserving water ecological health, and the control focus has extended from traditional nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants to micropollutants, such as heavy metals and emerging pollutants. However, the precise traceability and regulatory system of micropollutants in different regions’ watersheds was not yet mature. A five-step strategy of risk assessment and management was proposed this study to successfully construct a list of industrial priority pollutants and a list of 376 priority control discharge enterprises in 13 administrative regions of China’s Taihu Lake Basin. Firstly, a preliminary list of 78 pollutants was determined with reference to the emission standards of major regional industrial pollution sources, relevant national environmental regulations and literature reports. Secondly, 22 types of priority control pollutants were re-screened based on the analytical results of surface water samples obtained from 26 monitoring sites in the study area. Then the environmental risk values of the re-screened pollutants were calculated referring to the Chemical Hazard Evaluation for Management Strategy (CHEMS-1) method. Next, the regional environmental risk baseline value was determined and the risk value equivalent (EY) for each pollutant was calculated. Finally, according to the EY results, the regional priority control pollutants were identified, and the priority control discharge enterprises were confirmed retroactively. The results of this study can provide methodological support and a scientific basis for the precise control of micropollutants in surface water from differentiated regions.

AbstractOne of the major current challenges in the field of security and safety of populations is to advance further in the understanding and the ability to anticipate their behaviors when faced with threats or disasters. Several factors such as the hazard properties or the culture of risk can influence people behavior during a disaster. In this paper, we assume that the spatial configuration of the site where the disaster takes place has also a significant impact on collective behaviors. For this, we use a mathematical model based on meta-population networks, in order to design realistic evacuation scenarios. This model, called the Alert-Panic-Control model, allows, on the one hand, to take into account the temporal dynamics of collective behaviors in front of disaster and on the other hand, the spatial context considered in terms of site maximum capacity. From the results of a in situ experiment carried out in 2019 with the population of Le Havre (France) concerning an industrial accident hypothesis, and in particular from the different evacuation paths chosen by the respondents, three scenarios of evacuation of the place located below the street level and in front of the Niemeyer Cultural Centre were built. The results are able to quantify how the contagion of panic has a major impact or not on an evacuation forced by specific territorial properties. Too narrow paths can cause panic phenomena due to bottleneck. They also highlight that the function of the refuge places, recreational function in this case, must be taken into account insofar as they can gather many people, impeding the evacuation of the population exposed to the danger.