The exposure–damage approach in the quantification of occupational risk in workplaces involving dangerous substances

Abstract

The work proposes a new approach for the quantification of occupational risk overcoming the limitations of the common qualitative methodologies widely used by industry and authorities. The proposed methodological approach has been developed at the Technical University of Crete and is based on the principles of quantitative risk assessment (QRA) for the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances. It aims at establishing a systematic risk analysis tool for the quantitative assessment of occupational risk. The index of ‘individual occupational risk’ is introduced as a probability function of four variables, normalized over actual working time: the frequency of an active hazard, the probability of an employee being present at a work-place, the extent of distinct consequence zones and the employee vulnerability. The methodology has been applied to several industrial environments and has verified its potentiality to provide documented support on important decisions on occupational (health and safety) improving measures related to process safety conditions, job management, protective systems, consequence mitigation measures and personal protective measures.