Hazard Identification Research Articles

Stand-off hazardous materials identification based on near-infrared hyperspectral imaging combined with convolutional neural network

Near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging enables rapid, non-contact imaging of hazardous materials in a non-destructive manner, allowing for analysis based on spectral reflection information. However, using traditional methods, it is challenging to identify hazardous materials with less distinct spectral reflection features. This study utilizes a self-built NIR hyperspectral imaging system and proposes a new approach. Using a convolutional neural network (CNN), This allows for the rapid completion of high-throughput spectral screening, marking suspicious spectra at spatial points. we sophisticatedly classified six hazardous material types, generating impactful warning images. The optimized CNN demonstrated superior performance (accuracy 91.08 %, recall 91.15 %, specificity 91.62 %, precision 90.17 %, and 0.924 F1 score) compared to SVM and KNN methods. Our study included multitask validation tests, revealing a sensitive detection of 10 mg/cm2 for ammonium nitrate and trinitrotoluene, capable of identifying over 100 targets simultaneously. By simulating real-world scenarios, we successfully detected hazardous chemicals scattered on the ground and accurately identified these hazardous materials in glass and thin plastic products. Even in situations where clothing obstructed the view, we could still correctly identify hazardous chemicals and generate corresponding warning images. Our system demonstrated precise identification capabilities even amidst complex backgrounds. This method provides an accurate and rapid solution for identifying and locating hazardous chemicals, laying a strong foundation for the next steps in non-contact, long-distance quantitative determination of chemical concentrations. This study highlights the effective application of CNN in non-contact, long-distance classification, and recognition of hazardous materials, paving the way for further scientific and engineering applications.

Mutagenicity and genotoxicity evaluation of 15 nitrosamine drug substance-related impurities in human TK6 cells

Nitrosamine drug substance-related impurities (NDSRIs) are a sub-category of N-nitrosamine drug impurities that share structural similarity to the corresponding active pharmaceutical ingredient. The mutagenicity of NDSRIs is poorly understood. We previously tested a series of NDSRIs using the Enhanced Ames Test (EAT). In this follow-up study, we further examined the genotoxicity and mutagenicity of 15 of these NDSRIs in human TK6 cells. Seven EAT-positive NDSRIs, including N-nitroso-nortriptyline, N-nitroso-fluoxetine, N-nitroso-desmethyl-diphenhydramine, N-nitroso-duloxetine, N-nitroso-lorcaserin, N-nitroso-varenicline, and N-nitroso-sertraline, induced concentration-dependent increases in micronuclei after bioactivation with hamster liver S9. These NDSRIs were also mutagenic in the TK and HPRT gene mutation assays, consistent with their positive EAT results. In the presence of hamster liver S9, the eight EAT-negative NDSRIs were negative in the micronucleus assay and negative for mutation induction. Using TK6 cells endogenously expressing a single human cytochrome P450 (CYP), we found that CYP2C19, CYP2B6, CYP2A6, and CYP3A4 are key enzymes activating the genotoxicity and mutagenicity of these NDSRIs. Overall, the hamster S9-mediated TK6 cell mutagenicity results agreed with those observed in the EAT, indicating consistency in the mutagenic responses produced by NDSRIs across different testing systems. These data support the use of EAT for hazard identification and safety assessment of NDSRIs.

Planetary Geologic Maps: Essential Tools for Scientific Inquiry and Space Exploration

AbstractPlanetary geologic maps are crucial tools for understanding the geological features and processes of solid bodies in the Solar System. Over the past six decades, best practices in planetary geologic mapping have emphasized clear and objective observation, geological interpretation, multi‐sensor fusion, and iterative revision of maps based on new data. We summarize here four ways in which maps serve as indispensable instruments for scientific investigation, from enhancing observations to interrogating surface processes. With respect to space exploration, we underscore the role of planetary geologic maps as tools to link testable, hypothesis‐driven science to exploration goals and provide actionable information for hazard identification, resource evaluation, sample collection, and potential infrastructure development. To further advance the field of planetary geologic mapping, international collaboration is essential. This includes sharing data and maps through FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) platforms, establishing standardized mapping practices, promoting diverse nomenclature, and fostering continued cooperation in space exploration.

What drives household protective actions in an industrial crisis? Insights from the East Palestine train derailment

Complex industrial disasters illustrate the challenges of underdeveloped public warning systems. Unlike most natural disasters, quickly identifying hazardous materials and assessing their threats is crucial for developing protective action recommendations (PARs) that guide household response in industrial crises. The 2023 East Palestine, Ohio (USA) train derailment, chemical spill, and fires revealed that gaps in rapidly identifying hazardous materials, and the threats they present, can severely impact the public warning system. As the crisis unfolded, responding agencies left crucial questions unanswered, leaving community members uncertain about their safety, the extent of environmental contamination, and what protective actions to take. It is imperative to study the drivers of household protective actions in the absence of a developed warning system and well-established PARS. To achieve this, we conducted a community survey in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia (n = 259) in response to the East Palestine crisis. We used multivariate logistic regressions to identify statistically significant explanatory factors that predict protective action response. Our findings reveal gaps in response, where challenges identifying and communicating hazards created environmental justice concerns. We provide policy recommendations to strengthen hazard identification and outline further work to include equity as a pillar of environmental disaster response.

Comparing Optical and Custom IoT Inertial Motion Capture Systems for Manual Material Handling Risk Assessment Using the NIOSH Lifting Index

Assessing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in the workplace is vital for improving worker health and safety, reducing costs, and increasing productivity. Traditional hazard identification methods are often inefficient, particularly in detecting complex risks, which may compromise risk management. This study introduces a semi-automatic platform using two motion capture systems—an optical system (OptiTrack®) and a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-based system with inertial measurement units (IMUs), developed at the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Universidad de Concepción, Chile. These systems, tested on 20 participants (10 women and 10 men, aged 30 ± 9 years without MSDs), facilitate risk assessments via the digitized NIOSH Index method. Analysis of ergonomically significant variables (H, V, A, D) and calculation of the RWL and LI showed both systems aligned with expected ergonomic standards, although significant differences were observed in vertical displacement (V), horizontal displacement (H), and trunk rotation (A), indicating areas for improvement, especially for the BLE system. The BLE Inertial MoCap system recorded mean heights of 33.87 cm (SD = 4.46) and vertical displacements of 13.17 cm (SD = 4.75), while OptiTrack® recorded mean heights of 30.12 cm (SD = 2.91) and vertical displacements of 15.67 cm (SD = 2.63). Despite the greater variability observed in BLE system measurements, both systems accurately captured vertical vertical absolute displacement (D), with means of 32.05 cm (SD = 7.36) for BLE and 31.80 cm (SD = 3.25) for OptiTrack®. Performance analysis showed high precision for both systems, with BLE and OptiTrack® achieving precision rates of 98.5%. Sensitivity, however, was lower for BLE (97.5%) compared to OptiTrack® (98.7%). The BLE system’s F1 score was 97.9%, while OptiTrack® scored 98.6%, indicating both systems can reliably assess ergonomic risk. These findings demonstrate the potential of using BLE-based IMUs for workplace ergonomics, though further improvements in measurement accuracy are needed. The user-friendly BLE-based system and semi-automatic platform significantly enhance risk assessment efficiency across various workplace environments.

Integrating an incident dataset with a question and answering language model to assist hazard identification: Comparison of an extractive and generative model

Robust hazard identification (HAZID) relies upon extensive knowledge of the system being analysed, the technical aspects, and how it will be used operationally. Typically, this knowledge is held by human participants who can draw out answers in natural language to hazard related questions based upon their own experience. However, several threats exist to this, such as high staff turnover, a poor learning from incidents capability or even insufficient Information Technology resources. Alternatively, incident databases hold vast amounts of hazard information that can be transformed into a source of knowledge. As mitigation to the aforementioned issues, this paper presents a Question and Answering (Q&A) Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) language model trained upon aviation incidents and a unique Q&A dataset. The model can extract answers to typical HAZID questions, based upon factual incident reports. Alongside this extractive approach, the paper also explores the use of a generative Large Language Model combined with an incident dataset. Both models proved a useful addition to HAZID activities based upon the Structured What If Technique (SWIFT), answering safety-themed questions based upon a retrieved context of incident reports that semantically matched the query. For the purposes of HAZID, it was suggested that the generative option is preferable based upon its ease of implementation, lower resource requirements and quality of responses. Additionally, it is shown that it is possible for organisations to train and create their own custom models for HAZID purposes. Future work may wish to consider the application of models that can hypothesize scenarios based upon incident reports, building further understanding to the relationships between causes, hazards and consequences.

Insight process safety of a hydrogen turbine supply system: A comprehensive dynamic risk assessment using a fuzzy Bayesian network

This study conducts a comprehensive risk assessment for a selected hydrogen supply system within a pilot hydrogen power plant. The assessment begins with hazard identification through Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) analysis, followed by quantification using bow-tie analysis and consequence modeling to evaluate the impacts of credible scenarios resulting from random failures. Furthermore, a fuzzy Bayesian network is employed to address uncertainties inherent in the quantitative approaches and to account for event combinations and dependencies. Sensitivity analysis is subsequently conducted to identify critical events. Utilizing three quantitative approaches, fault tree analysis, the Bayesian network, without and with evidence updating, the probability of the top event is determined to be 4.52 × 10−2/year, 4.50 × 10−2/year, and 4.70 × 10−2/year, respectively. Additionally, the estimated firezone resulting from the explosion's 300 mbar overpressure was 12 m. The findings highlight the significant role of pressure regulator valve and pressure transmitter failures, with posterior probabilities of 0.17/year and 1.90 × 10−3/year, in ensuring the system's safety.

Analisa Risiko Keselamatan dan Kesehatan Kerja (K3) dengan Menggunakan Metode Hirarc di PT. Otomotif

Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, and Control, or HIRARC, is a technique for detecting hazards that is used to calculate risk values and classify them into work-related hazards in order to define the risk control that is applied to each ongoing activity. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and control risks related to occupational safety and health hazards in the charging area of PT. Otomotif. This kind of study combines a descriptive methodology with a qualitative approach. The analysis conducted in the work area of PT. Otomotif's charging area revealed 38 possible dangers, which were categorized into four categories: Low Risk, Medium Risk, High Risk, and Extreme Risk. Controls carried out to reduce the possibility of work accidents include making conveyor bearing covers, making off charge alarms, replacing larger roller materials, adding APD Aprone longan and others.

Adverse Outcome Pathways Mechanistically Describing Hepatotoxicity.

Adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) describe toxicological processes from a dynamic perspective by linking a molecular initiating event to a specific adverse outcome via a series of key events and key event relationships. In the field of computational toxicology, AOPs can potentially facilitate the design and development of in silico prediction models for hazard identification. Various AOPs have been introduced for several types of hepatotoxicity, such as steatosis, cholestasis, fibrosis, and liver cancer. This chapter provides an overview of AOPs on hepatotoxicity, including their development, assessment, and applications in toxicology.

Five decades of occupational cancer epidemiology.

In this discussion paper, we provide a narrative review of past and present occupational cancer studies in the journal with a viewpoint towards future occupational cancer research. We reviewed all references in the journal that mentioned cancer according to relevance to etiology, cancer type, agent type, study design, and study population. The Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health has published over 300 manuscripts on occupational cancer over the 50 past years. Although studies of cancer represent the primary health outcome in the journal overall, the relative ranking of cancer manuscripts has declined somewhat over time. A large body of evidence from studies of occupation and industry was apparent both in early research and continuing in recent years. There are several examples of the utility of pooled multi-country collaborative studies. Studies also took advantage of available high-quality national population and cancer registers in Nordic countries. There have been notable shifts in focus with regard to the cancer types examined, with increases in publications examining female breast cancer over the decades. The interplay of studies of occupational and environmental cancer has also been apparent. The journal offers a unique viewpoint to consider the evolution of occupational cancer evidence over time. Studies of occupational cancer have played a central role in global cancer hazard identification efforts. Although much has been gained, there remains a need for renewed global support for occupational cancer research. Concerted efforts will be needed to ensure a future robust evidence-base for occupational and environmental cancer worldwide.

Investigation of Low-Moral Actions by Malicious Anonymous Operators of Avatar Robots

Avatar robots allow a teleoperator to interact with the people and environment of a remote place. Malicious operators can use this technology to perpetrate malicious or low-moral actions. In this study, we used hazard identification workshops to identify low-moral actions that are possible through the locomotor movement, cameras, and microphones of an avatar robot. We conducted three workshops, each with four potential future users of avatars, to brainstorm possible low-moral actions. As avatars are not yet widespread, we gave participants experience with this technology by having them control both a simulated avatar and a real avatar as a malicious anonymous operator in a variety of situations. They also experienced sharing space with an avatar controlled by a malicious anonymous operator. We categorized the ideas generated from the workshops using affinity diagram analysis and identified four major categories: violate privacy and security, inhibit, annoy, and destroy or hurt. We also identified subcategories for each. In the second half of this study, we discuss all low-moral action subcategories in terms of their detection, mitigation, and prevention by studying literature from autonomous, social, teleoperated, and telepresence robots as well as other fields where relevant.

Analysis of Occupational Safety and Health (K3) Risk Management in the Physics and Chemistry Laboratory of the Medan Occupational Safety and Health Center

The many possible risks associated with laboratory work are unavoidable. This study aimed to determine and analyze hazards, risks, impacts, risk levels and occupational safety and health (OHS) controls in the physics and chemistry laboratories of the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OHS) Medan. This is a qualitative research method with phenomenological approach hazard identification using Task Risk Analysis method using AS/NZS 4360: 2004 semi-quantitative. The tolerable risk threshold in the chemistry lab was 52, priority 3 was 10, and major was 11. The only thing OHS controlled in the physics lab was the air conditioning system. The presence of SOP (work procedures), MSDS (material safety data sheet) documents, OHS signs, supervision, managerial support, and the use of PPE masks, gloves, long-hand lab coats, rubber shoes, and other safety measures were all necessary in chemistry labs. Expanding the space, adding SOP, installing ventilation are all suggested at the physics laboratorium, Adopting ANSI / AIHA Z9.5-2003 ventilation guidelines, changing or replacing processes with safer chemicals, providing OHS training, and wearing coveralls and glasses are all recommended in the chemistry laboratory.

A Modular XR Collaborative Platform for Occupational Safety and Health Training: A Case Study in Circular Logistics Facilities

Over the past few years, safety and health have become major concerns in the warehouse and logistics sectors. Each year, warehouse fatalities, injuries, and accidents cause unrecoverable losses and huge financial costs. In spite of all the advancements in methods, tools, equipment, and regulations, the number of accidents, especially fatal ones, has not subsided significantly. As a result, safety professionals and researchers have explored new and innovative ways to combat this problem. In the circular logistics facility (CLF) industry, located inside warehouses and providing human muscle-oriented services to maintain pallets, both short-term safety incidents and long-term health concerns are present. Long-term health training is rarely discussed in the literature compared to short-term safety training. This is because health issues are more complex than safety issues, since biological outcomes may take time to develop, are affected by multiple resources, and cumulative injuries may occur. This paper contributes to warehouse health and safety by designing and developing a modular XR collaborative training and testing platform (MXC-P). The co-design process is applied to design each module in the MXC-P. Three main modules related to health and safety training for CLF were considered, namely personal protection equipment, pallet handling, and pallet repairing. On this platform, a virtual interactive world provides a solid hands-on training environment and generates syntactic data for evaluating long-term health risks. On the other hand, collaborative and modular environments provide a solution to geographically distributed systems, allowing employees to connect and train remotely. The effectiveness of the MXC-P is compared with traditional safety training in a pilot study. Based on the results, we can establish that the MXC-P is effective in teaching and testing hazard identification situations, especially those relating to short-term health. The results also indicate that trainees’ recall of knowledge would improve with the MXC-P. In addition to this, the MXC-P can also be used to test and evaluate a new system and generate syntactic data for evaluating long-term health.

Bioactive lipids are altered in the heart, kidney, and serum of male and female F344 rats sub-chronically exposed to dietary 2-MCPD

Chloropropanols have been identified as processing-induced food contaminants that occur as by-products of the manufacturing of refined food oils and hydrolyzed vegetable protein. There has been a paucity of research on the 2-monochloropropane-1,3-diol (2-MCPD) isomer, thus forming a data gap for regulatory risk assessment. Previous studies suggest 2-MCPD causes adverse cardiotoxic, nephrotoxic, and myotoxic effects, but were inconclusive for hazard identification; thus a dose-response OECD TG-408-compliant study was conducted by Health Canada. Our study profiled the effects of 2-MCPD on oxylipins and oxidized phosphatidylcholines, using HPLC-MS/MS, in heart, kidney, serum, and skeletal muscle of male and female F344 rats orally exposed to 2-MCPD (40 mg/kg BW/d) for 90 days. Cardiac n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid-derived oxylipins, particularly DHA-derived oxylipins, were lower with 2-MCPD exposure, coincident with cardiac lesions. Lipoxygenase-derived oxylipins were decreased in the serum with a greater effect in the male 2-MCPD treatment group. Few oxylipin alterations were seen in the kidney and there was an absence of alterations in the tibialis anterior. Oxidized phosphatidylcholines and isoprostanes were not altered in this study, indicating that oxidative stress was not elevated by 2-MCPD. These findings add to the weight of the evidence for 2-MCPD toxicity and support the use of serum oxylipins as potential biomarkers of 2-MCPD exposure.

Impacts of adverse environmental factors on construction workers' attention allocation during hazard identification: a study of noise and heat exposure

Impacts of adverse environmental factors on construction workers' attention allocation during hazard identification: a study of noise and heat exposure

MODERN CONCEPT OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT WITH A RISK-BASED APPROACH

The article justifies implementing a risk-based approach (RBA) in occupational safety and health (OSH) management. It considers the limitations of traditional methods of implementing preventive measures focused on reactive measures designed to respond to immediate security challenges. It further proposes modern proactive strategies that can monitor, predict, and prevent dangerous situations in the workplace in advance. The study develops and substantiates the RBA’s main principles and underscores elements, methodologies, and their integration into existing OSH management systems. It provides arguments to support decentralising decision-making closer to the sources of hazards to allow for a faster and more effective response. It also emphasises the fragmented nature of the current occupational safety and health legislation, making it challenging to integrate RBA. Recommendations suggest improving the legislative framework to support RBA and provide employers greater flexibility in choosing risk management tools and methods. The authors recognise a systematic risk monitoring and assessment approach as a critical need. The absence of regular audits and risk assessments hinders the identification and prevention of hazards. The study proposes the introduction of modern technologies and methodologies, such as the Fine and Kinney method, the Elmeri system, and the Ishikawa diagram, to improve the risk identification and assessment processes. The article also stresses the importance of informing employees about potential risks and preventive measures, which contributes to the overall safety culture in organisations. In addition, the authors outline an algorithm for implementing RBA, which includes auditing workplaces, creating electronic registers, developing safety instructions, systematic risk assessment, documenting results, and informing stakeholders. The proposed approach aims to proactively identify and mitigate occupational risks, which helps to reduce workplace accidents and occupational diseases. The article concludes that the transition to a risk-based approach is essential for improving workplace safety, reducing occupational risks, and supporting the sustainable development of enterprises. By applying RBA, organisations can achieve higher occupational safety, reduce the costs associated with accidents and injuries, and contribute to a safer and healthier work environment. Keywords: risks, occupational safety, occupational health, production, risk-based approach.

Safety Management System in Pune Metro Rail Projects

The construction industry continues to grow as the demand for infrastructure, homes, and officespaces grows by the day. Since the construction industry is so dynamic, it is vulnerable to a range ofhealth risks. As a result, protection is a top priority in the construction sector to ensure a healthy workingenvironment. Safety experts have determined that risky behaviours cause the majority of workplaceinjuries, and that controlling these behaviours is one of the keys to effective accident prevention and a lowaccident rate on construction sites. Safety in construction industry is much more important. This reviewpaper is about to increase safety in the building industry performance. The study's primarily is to definethe critical success factors that affect the implementation of construction safety management. Thisreview paper is to recognize and solve major problems in the infrastructure sector with varioussolutions related to work situations that affect project safety performance. Due to lake of knowledge andawareness large number of people’s deaths and long-term injuries occurs. in order to reduce andcontrol construction worker health and safety.The construction industry has the largest number of injuries compared to other industries. Thus,reducing accidents and determining construction risks are extremely important. One of the essentialsteps for construction safety management is hazard identification, since the most unmanageable risksare from unidentified hazardsPune metro project is the key project for city the accident at going site may causes the break inprogress of work ultimately it casues the increases the duration of project as well as cost of projects.The various safety and control measures of accidents in Pune Metro projects will outlined in thisproject in order to mitigate accidents

Effects of Physical Fatigue on Construction Workers’ Visual Search Patterns during Hazard Identification

Effects of Physical Fatigue on Construction Workers’ Visual Search Patterns during Hazard Identification

Seminar: Functional Exposomics and Mechanisms of Toxicity-Insights from Model Systems and NAMs.

Significant progress has been made over the past decade in measuring the chemical components of the exposome, providing transformative population-scale frameworks in probing the etiologic link between environmental factors and disease phenotypes. While the analytical technologies continue to evolve with reams of data being generated, there is an opportunity to complement exposome-wide association studies (ExWAS) with functional analyses to advance etiologic search at organismal, cellular, and molecular levels. Exposomics is a transdisciplinary field aimed at enabling discovery-based analysis of the nongenetic factors that contribute to disease, including numerous environmental chemical stressors. While advances in exposure assessment are enhancing population-based discovery of exposome-wide effects and chemical exposure agents, functional screening and elucidation of biological effects of exposures represent the next logical step toward precision environmental health and medicine. In this work, we focus on the use, strategies, and prospects of alternative approaches and model systems to enhance the current human exposomics framework in biomarker search and causal understanding, spanning from bench-based nonmammalian organisms and cell culture to computational new approach methods (NAMs). We visit the definition of the functional exposome and exposomics and discuss a need to leverage alternative models as opposed to mammalian animals for delineating exposome-wide health effects. Under the "three Rs" principle of reduction, replacement, and refinement, model systems such as roundworms, fruit flies, zebrafish, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are advantageous over mammals (e.g., rodents or higher vertebrates). These models are cost-effective, and cell-specific genetic manipulations in these models are easier and faster, compared to mammalian models. Meanwhile, in silico NAMs enhance hazard identification and risk assessment in humans by bridging the translational gaps between toxicology data and etiologic inference, as represented by in vitro to in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) and integrated approaches to testing and assessment (IATA) under the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) framework. Together, these alternatives offer a strong toolbox to support functional exposomics to study toxicity and causal mediators underpinning exposure-disease links. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP13120.

P09-07 Hazard identification and risk assessment based on developmental neurotoxicity in vitro data – natural compound case study

P09-07 Hazard identification and risk assessment based on developmental neurotoxicity in vitro data – natural compound case study