ASSESSMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL (INDUSTRIAL) RISKS: NEW APPROACHES, IMPROVEMENTS, METHODOLOGY

Abstract

The relevance of the study presented is conditioned upon the fact that the current national policy of control and supervision, including industrial safety, is designed to detect and prevent violations of the permissible level of danger for people and the environment by entities engaged in economic activities. The purpose of this study is to analyse occupational risks in enterprises and to explore new approaches, methodologies and ways of improving the assessment of occupational risks in production facilities. The methodological foundation of the study is based on a combination of various general scientific methods of scientific knowledge: analysis and synthesis of information, comparative method, and methods of induction and deduction. Improving the state of occupational safety requires improving the principles of occupational safety management. In addition, an assessment of the risk to the life or health of employees from economic activity should be performed and defined as the product of the probability of one accident per year and the probable number of lost working days per employee during the year. The study identified that workplace risk assessment should be re-evaluated whenever changes are expected in the company that may affect safety, such as new processes, new equipment, new materials, or changes in the work organisation or the work environment. The steps of risk assessment are clarified, the means of eliminating or reducing the risk are identified. It was demonstrated that a risk assessment should be developed and used to help employers or managers, and it was emphasised that once risks and dangers have been identified, appropriate action should be implemented with proper legal compliance. The practical significance of the presented research is that it can be used both in practice and for studying the theory of occupational risk assessment at enterprises.