Multi-hazard multi-person quantitative occupational risk model and risk management

Abstract

A model for the quantification of occupational risk and a corresponding software tool are presented. The model quantifies occupational risk of one worker or several workers by taking into account their various tasks, activities and the associated hazards. Risk is evaluated for three types of consequences: recoverable injury, permanent injury and death. The occupational risk model is based on a set of 63 single-hazard models each assessing risk owing to a different hazard such as fall from a ladder, scaffold, roof etc. Data for quantifying these models come from the analysis of 9000 occupational accidents in the Netherlands in the period 1998–2004, and of the corresponding exposure data of activities and working conditions of the Dutch working population. Risk reducing measures are introduced, influencing the frequency of the more basic events of the model. A number of risk reducing measures forms a risk reducing policy. Each policy results in risk reduction, but it entails an economic cost. A multi-attribute evolutionary algorithm is used to develop the efficient frontier of the available solutions. The models and the software tool are demonstrated through a case study.