Measurement of machinery safety level in the European market: A real case based on market surveillance data

This article aims to highlight the current status of compliance to Machinery Directive 98/37/EC (transposed to Spanish regulation as RD 56/1995, of 20th January) (a new directive numbered as 2006/42/EC [Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 may 2006 on machinery, and amending Directive 95/16/EC (recast). OJ L157/24-86, 9.6.2006.], that recasts and replaced 98/37/ED directive and its amendments, came into force on 29 June 2006; it will not be applied until 29th December 2009. European Member States have a lead-time of two years to adopt and publish the national laws and regulations transposing the provisions of the new Directive into national law. Latest 10th October, Spain transposed Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC to national regulation as Real Decreto 1644/2008 [Real Decreto 1644/2008, de 10 de octubre, por el que se establecen las normas para la comercialización y puesta en servicio de las máquinas. BOE 246/2008, de 11 octubre 2008. Páginas 40995–41030]) of a particular family of machinery (hand-held, medium and small-size, deeply introduced in the market, of low-medium cost), that any user, professional or non-professional, can acquire as first-hand in any of the sales points (whether or not experts in these kind of products).At the same time, it emphasises the most significant shortcomings and non-conformities found, after analyzing the results of five consecutive Campaigns of Control of Industrial Products performed by one of the labs (placed in Spain) involved in the market surveillance European Program.     

工程建设监理实施安全控制提高工程建设安全水平

1 问题的提出 国家监察、行业管理、企业负责、群众监督、劳动者遵章守纪是我国现行的安全管理体制,凝结了全国各行业数十年安全工作的经验和教训,为全面落实安全生产责任制,保障劳动者的健康和国家财产的安全起到了巨大的推动作用。当前,我国国有企业的改革正处于攻坚阶段,经济体制改革也正逐步推向深入,转轨时期出现的种种矛盾不可避免地影响到安全生产领域,对安全管理体制造成一些冲击：随着政府机构改革、部门管理职能的转变,国家监察体系有待于健全和完善,垂直关系也须进一步理顺,特别是国家监察的力量还远不能满足现实经济生活的实际需求,国家监察对事故的预防功能也没能得到应有的发挥。     

煤矿企业对安全创造效益认知水平的测量结果与分析

为探讨煤矿企业对安全创造效益认知水平的现状,为企业的安全投入提供方向和思路参考,通过测量国内7个煤炭集团的34个样本煤矿的安全文化水平量值,利用SPSS软件对测量数据进行分析。结果表明,样本煤矿企业在"安全创造经济效益"方面的总体量值水平约占世界较好企业的94%,相差5.6分;四类人员总体平均值都低于世界较好企业,分别相差4.176分、3.521分、7.265分和5.859分;"安全创造经济效益"与"伤亡事故可预防程度"和"安全部门的工作"非常显著相关;安全业绩和安全文化元素得分方面呈现一定的正相关关系。     

安康水库动库容对水库防洪安全的影响研究

将一维非恒定水力学模型与传统水库调洪演算模型相结合,建立逐时段试算动静库调洪演算模型,并将之应用于安康水库动库容计算和对水库防洪安全的影响分析中.通过采用大型稀疏矩阵非零数据打包存储及消元技术,减小计算机内存占用量,缩短运行时间,提高动静库调洪演算模型的求解效率.通过不同典型和频率洪水的动静库调洪演算对比分析得出:考虑动库容的调蓄作用后,安康水库大多数洪水的调洪最高水位有所降低,动库容对水库防洪安全起正作用;提出了降低控泄流量,提高水库下游安康市防洪标准的动库容防洪安全裕度挖潜措施.还分析了安康水库动库容对防洪安全产生负作用的原因,建议在动库容挖潜利用中慎重考虑该类不利条件.     

Trend analysis of machinery safety for globalization: From the Japanese point of view

In Japan, the work of translation to JIS faced many obstacles. Support groups in Western countries have submitted comments on technical problems. The movement to standard harmonization in safety has rapidly developed in international standardization. The movement for global standardization is developing throughout all the economic areas of the EU. The aim of the Machine Directive that comes into effect in stages is to provide an international formula for a type of qualification in machine safety. EN292 is a nucleus for related standards, which are like a group of planets in a universe. It is a European standard as well as a guideline for implementation, showing practical safety requirements for machines. Horizontal standards, such as EN954 and IEC61508, apply in actual practice.     

安全生产规划体系框架探讨

阐述了建立安全生产规划体系的必要性,探讨了安全生产规划的定义、研究对象、目的和内容,指出安全生产规划是为使安全生产与经济社会协调发展而预先对未来一段时间内各项安全生产工作所做的时间和空间的合理安排,具有整体性、综合性、动态性、前瞻性、信息密集和政策性强等特征。同时设计了"四级、三层"的安全生产规划体系,即在行政层级上分为国家级、省级、市级和县级四个层级,在协调作用上分为宏观指导层、项目布局层和方案实施层三个层次。国家安全生产规划从宏观上对全国安全生产工作做出谋划与部署,省级安全生产规划要接受国家安全生产规划宏观指导性的引导和要求,并结合各地实际进行项目布局,同时借助专项规划分解内容,制定市、县级规划实施方案。     

Target level of safety for Chinese airspace

This article considers the target level of safety (TLS) for Chinese airspace. If collision risk is lower than TLS, we can say the separation minima meet the safety requirements, so the TLS is the safety limit on the flight operation. But there are no regulations on TLS in China by now, hence, it is necessary to judge whether it is fair to apply the TLS proposed by ICAO to evaluating air traffic safety in China.The accidents data of more than 50 years are collected, and we apply the trend extrapolation to predicting the safety level in the future so as to resolve the TLS problem. The resulted showed the safety level in the period from 2010 to 2020 is very close to TLS established by ICAO. The results show the safety level of collision risk in China has reached the international level and it is rational to use TLS of ICAO to assess collision risk.     

An economic evaluation framework for membrane reactor modules in the presence of uncertainty: The case for process safety investment and risk reduction

A comprehensive Net Present Value (NPV) model has been developed to demonstrate the economic advantages of process safety and risk reduction investments on Pd/Au-based membrane reactors. In particular, the economic viability of Pd/Au-based membrane reactor modules incorporated into Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants is evaluated within the aforementioned framework by pro-actively following sound process safety design principles. Sources of irreducible uncertainty (market, technological, operational) as well as safety risk are explicitly recognized, such as the Pd/Au prices, membrane life-time and loss in the power plant capacity factor due to possible accidents. The effect of the above uncertainty drivers on the membrane module cost along with production disruption and associated revenue losses is elucidated using Monte-Carlo simulation techniques that enable the propagation of the above uncertain inputs through the NPV-model, and therefore, generate a more realistic distribution of the process system's value rather than a single-point/estimate that overlooks these uncertainties. Pre-investment on risk reducing measures, such as spare safety relief systems (cautionary redundancy) for membrane reactor modules operating at high pressures (e.g. 50 atm), is shown to be economically more attractive than cases where analogous safety measures are not implemented. Since accidents and possibly catastrophic events do happen in an uncertain world, additional investment on safety measures could ensure a safer and more profitable operation of the process system under consideration giving credence to the thesis that process safety investments may result in enhanced techno-economic performance in the presence of irreducible uncertainties.     

安全系统安全完整性等级确定方法比较研究

安全完整性等级的确定是开发和设计安全相关系统的前提和基础。为避免因方法选择不当而导致安全完整性等级确定不恰当的问题,针对常用的后果法、风险矩阵法、改进的HAZOP法、风险图法、保护层分析法和定量分析法进行了对比研究。在阐述和分析安全完整性等级内涵及其确定原理的基础上,根据每种方法自身的特点,从准确性、可量化性、工作量和运用的难易程度等方面对其进行了对比和研究,并分析和探讨了选择安全完整性等级确定方法时应重点考虑的因素。研究结果对合理选择安全完整性等级确定方法具有一定的实用价值和借鉴意义。     

Measurement techniques for organizational safety causal models: Characterization and suggestions for enhancements

Through a review of literature from diverse disciplines with actual and potential application to causal modeling of organizational safety risk, this paper explores issues regarding measurement techniques in a quantitative safety analysis context. The interdependencies of modeling perspectives, constructs, and measures are indentified, leading to (a) characterization and classification of measurement techniques, (b) suggestions on the selection of appropriate measurement methods for different types of model constructs including individual-level, global, configural, and shared, and (c) discussion of the modeling implications of interactions between measurement, constructs, and causal paths. A multi-dimensional perspective is offered through combinations of different “measurement methods” and “measurement bases”. A Bayesian approach is also proposed to operationalize the multi-dimensional measurements. Examples are provided to help explain the roles of these measurements in capturing the relation between organizational factors and safety performance. This paper is a product of research which has the primary purpose of extending Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) modeling frameworks to include the effects of organizational factors as the fundamental causes of accidents and incidents.     

On-board safety monitoring systems for driving: review, knowledge gaps, and framework

IntroductionFatal highway incidents remain the leading type of fatal work-related event, carrying tremendous personal, social, and economic costs. While employers with a fixed worksite can observe and interact directly with workers in an effort to promote safety and reduce risk, employers with workers who operate a motor vehicle as part of their job have fewer options. New technologies such as on-board safety monitoring systems offer the potential to further improve safety. These technologies allow vehicle owners to collect safety-specific information related to a driver's on-the-road behavior and performance. While many such devices are being developed and implemented in both commercial fleets and private vehicles, the scientific examination of these devices has lagged by comparison.MethodIn the current paper, we: (a) describe the general features and functionality of current generations of on-board monitoring devices and how they might impact various driver behaviors; (b) review the current state of scientific knowledge specific to on-board devices; (c) discuss knowledge gaps and potential areas for future research, borrowing from the related domain of computer-based electronic performance monitoring (EPM); and (d) propose a framework that can be used to explore some of the human-system interactions pertaining to monitoring systems.Impact on IndustryMotor vehicle crashes can carry tremendous costs for employers, in terms of injury, disability, and loss of potentially productive work years. New technologies can offer tremendous benefits in terms of promoting safer on-the-road behaviors.     

A framework for estimating the safety effects of roadway lighting at intersections

National- and state-level guidance documents conclusively state that fixed lighting improves intersection safety. The sentiment is consistent with other design and safety manuals and is supported by a series of consistent safety findings; however, most published lighting-safety research is focused on rural, stop-controlled intersections and is limited by several methodological issues. The relationship between safety and intersection lighting at rural, signalized and urban locations is not as well documented. Methodological advancements in highway safety analysis justify new estimations of the safety effects of intersection lighting. This paper describes a proposed framework to estimate the safety effects of fixed lighting at a variety of intersection types and locations. Several key issues are explored including availability of relevant crash, lighting, and roadway inventory data; relevant data element structures; proposed analysis taxonomies to assess lighting-safety effects within and across different intersection classifications; specification and estimation of models to estimate expected crash frequencies during day and night; techniques to interpret model parameters, including variable elasticity; and tests of model transferability across states. A sample framework execution using Minnesota intersection data is provided. Results indicate a much lower overall safety benefit from lighting than published studies, but are consistent with estimates included in Highway Safety Manual research.     

Measuring safety culture in healthcare: A case for accurate diagnosis

Recent concern regarding the safety of patients in Western healthcare systems has resulted in the adoption of safety management techniques used in high-risk industries. One such method is the use of safety climate questionnaries to survey workforce perceptions and attitudes towards both worker and patient safety in healthcare organizations. Many of the earliest healthcare safety climate measures did not appear to meet accepted psychometric standards. The theoretical foundation of the relationship between perceptions of safety climate and workers’ behaviour is not well specified in this literature and a model derived from industry research is proposed.     

Developing a framework for safety validation of multi-stakeholder changes in air transport operations

The high volume of air traffic over Europe is expected to double within the next 15 years. This requires changes in the airspace structure and in the organisation of air transport operations that involve multiple stakeholders. Changes, by regulation, require a sufficient safety validation, in order to show that the changed situation is safe and will remain safe during an applicable period. Many methods and techniques exist that can be used to support such safety validation process. However, for air transport operations, the stakeholders involved are numerous and diverse, and there are no guidelines on how to address their roles, responsibilities and goals during development and validation.This paper develops a safety validation framework that emphasises the active roles and collaboration of multiple stakeholders during the development phases of air transport operations. The framework is developed in three steps: First, established validation views from literature are identified and analysed to reveal open issues when it comes to their use for multi-stakeholder changes in air transport operations. Next, validation views emerging beyond the established ones are identified, and evaluated on whether they address the open issues. Finally, the strong points of established and emerging views are combined into a novel framework.     

3-Parameters SPW technique: A new method for evaluation of target safety integrity level

Introduced by IEC-61508 standard, safety integrity levels (SIL) have been used for assessing the reliability of safety instrumented functions (SIF) for protection of the system under control in abnormal conditions. Different qualitative, semi-qualitative and quantitative methods have been proposed by the standard for establishing target safety integrity levels amongst which “Risk Graph” has gained wide attention due to its simplicity and easy-to-apply characteristics. However, this method is subject to many deficiencies that have forced industry men and experts to modify it to fit their demands. In this paper, a new modification to risk graph parameters has been proposed that adds more flexibility to them and reduces their subjective uncertainties but keeps the method as simple as before. Three parameters, namely severity (S), hazard avoidance probability (P), and demand rate (W) are used instead of former four parameters. Hence, the method is named SPW. The outcome results of this method can be directly converted to probability of failure on demand (PFD) or risk reduction factor (RRF). The proposed method has been tested on an example case that has been studied before with conventional risk graph and LOPA techniques. The results show that new method agrees well with LOPA and reduces costs imposed by conservative approximations assumed during application of conventional risk graph.     

基于WSR的道路客运企业安全管理框架体系构建

我国的道路交通尚处于一个事故高发和不稳定阶段,全国道路客运安全状况仍然不容乐观。道路客运企业作为道路旅客运输中不可或缺的一环,提高其安全管理的有效性是实现道路客运安全的关键。以物理—事理—人理(WSR)方法论为指导,针对道路客运企业安全管理中物理、事理、人理的内涵界定,将管理要素进行层次划分,建立道路客运企业安全管理的三维指标体系,通过三个不同子体系的协调完善,达到总体系的最优状态。采用AHP方法,找出了道路客运企业安全管理的关键,构建了道路客运企业的安全管理框架体系,为道路客运企业提高安全管理水平,预防和减少交通事故提出新的思路。     

2006年促进职业安全与健康框架公约和建议书介绍及相关问题探讨

《2006年促进职业安全与健康框架公约》(C187,2006)和《职业安全与健康框架建议书》(R197,2006)的公布是为了进一步减少全球发生的大量职业性伤病和死亡,保护工人免受因就业而引发的病患和伤害,降低职业性伤病和死亡对劳动生产率和经济与社会发展的负面影响。本文对《公约》及《建议书》的主要内容,包括《公约》中的定义、《公约》制定的目标、国家政策、国家制度、国家计划等进行了详细的介绍和分析,以期继续推广预防性安全健康文化建设。     

航空事故调查中人的因素安全建议框架研究

对航空事故中人的不安全行为进行了系统分析,将失误划分为感知失误、记忆失误、决策失误、技能失误4个类别,将违章划分为习惯性违章和偶然性违章。将人的因素干预维度确定为组织管理、人/团队、技术、任务和环境。针对不安全行为制定相应的初步改进措施后,还需从措施的可行性、可接受性、经济性和有效性4个方面进行综合评估和取舍。实证研究表明,人的因素干预矩阵是制定安全建议的有效工具,该框架具备良好的适用性。     

Work-related road safety: A case study of Roche Australia

Fleet, work-related or occupational road safety has the potential to make a major contribution to reducing both human harm and asset damage. To date, however, there would appear to be a dearth of well researched and evaluated case studies in the public domain in this area.This paper provides an on-going, documented, real-world case study of work-related road safety within an Australian company that has sought to manage, monitor and improve its road safety performance over the last 5 years through a range of proactive, fleet manager, insurance and risk-led initiatives.Roche Australia has successfully implemented a Company Motor Vehicle Safety Program with support from its fleet insurers and risk management advisors. Four key initiatives are set out covering: (1) Driver risk assessment, monitoring and improvement. (2) Policy development and communications. (3) Process and outcomes evaluation. (4) Continuous review and refinement of policies, processes, programs and future developments.The program has led to a range of process and performance-based outcomes. Typical barriers to success in work-related road safety have been identified and overcome. Almost 100% risk assessment and improvement process compliance by drivers has been achieved. A predictive relationship between risk assessment outcomes and collision history has been identified. Reductions in insurance claims, collision costs and claims ratio have been sustained. A detailed project plan is in place to continue the program for the next 3 years.The paper concludes that with effective management, a well developed work-related road safety program can result in performance improvements within the initiating organisation. Several limitations in the case study methodology, as well as areas for further work and lessons for policy makers, researchers and practitioners are also identified.