National Prevention through Design (PtD) Initiative

INTRODUCTION: The most effective means of preventing and controlling occupational injuries, illness, and fatalities is to "design out" hazards and hazardous exposures from the workplace. There is a long history of designing for safety for the general public and to a lesser degree for workers. METHOD: We now have the experience and insight from thoughtful, previous efforts to call for a comprehensive national strategy to implement a Prevention through Design (PtD) Initiative. RESULTS: This paper describes that initiative in terms of four overarching areas where action can be directed: practice, policy, research, and education. To obtain stakeholder input for issues in these four areas and to focus implementation efforts, eight sector divisions of the economy will be addressed. A seven year strategy is envisioned.     

The trajectories of Prevention through Design in construction

INTRODUCTION: Construction Hazards Prevention through Design (CHPtD) is a process in which engineers and architects explicitly consider the safety of construction workers during the design process. Although articles on CHPtD have appeared in top construction journals, the literature has not addressed technical principles underlying CHPtD to help designers better perform CHPtD, to facilitate the development of additional CHPtD tools, and to predict the future path of CHPtD. METHOD: This theoretical paper uses the existing literature on CHPtD and current action research associated with several CHPtD workgroups to analyze how CHPtD will likely evolve over the coming decades. RESULTS: There are four trajectories along which CHPtD will progress. (a) Designs will increasingly facilitate prefabricated construction; (b) designers will increasingly choose materials and systems that are inherently safer than alternatives; (c) designers will increasingly perform construction engineering; and (d) designers will increasingly apply spatial considerations to reduce worker hazards. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: By understanding how CHPtD may be manifested in the engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) industry, practitioners can better prepare for adopting CHPtD within their organizations and construction and engineering educators can better prepare their graduates to perform CHPtD.     

Application of Prevention through Design for hearing loss in the mining industry

INTRODUCTION: Overexposure to noise remains a widespread and serious health hazard in the U.S. service providing and goods producing industries. Excessive noise can lead to poor verbal communication and reduce the ability to recognize warning signals. These dangerous work conditions can also cause stress and fatigue. Occupational hearing loss is a permanent illness, with no recovery currently possible. METHOD: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has recognized Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) as one of the ten leading work-related diseases and injuries in the United States, and has emphasized its importance as one of the critical areas expressed in the National Occupational Research Agenda. RESULTS: One of the most serious noise problems in the goods producing industries is the operation of continuous mining machines during underground coal mining. In order to minimize occupational hearing loss, noise hazards are "designed out" early in the design process. NIOSH is leading a national initiative called Prevention through Design (PTD) to promote this concept. This paper describes the quiet-by-design approach of a noise control that reduced noise exposures of continuous mining machine operators by 3dB(A) using the four functional areas of PTD, namely Practice, Policy, Research, and Education.     

The effective control of major industrial accidents by the Major Industrial Accident Prevention Centers (MAPC) through the Process Safety Management (PSM) grading system in Korea

This paper examines effectiveness of a regulatory enforcement organization (Major industrial Accident Prevention Center, MAPC), and a grading system for implementation of the Process Safety Management (PSM) regulation in Korea. A lot of chemical installations have been built in Korea since the 1960s. The frequent occurrence of major industrial accidents had made people's concerns grow. The Korean government enacted PSM regulations in 1996 in order to curb these accidents.However, a key question is how to make sure companies comply with the PSM regulations. In order to improve company’ compliance with PSM regulations the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) responsible for the regulation introduced a grading management system in 2001 and then established special supervisory centers for enforcement of PSM regulations in 2005. This paper reviews the role and effectiveness of the system in term of PSM enforcement. The author found that the grade-based approach has encouraged employers to implement the requirements of the PSM regulations. MAPCs play an effective role in enhancing enforcement performance. Although the more chemical plants have been established in Korea, the fewer major industrial accidents have occurred since the introduction of the system. The results may be useful for the policy maker to build an effective and efficient enforcement system.     

性能化设计方法在高层建筑防火设计中的应用

针对我国现有建筑设计防火规范等一系列规范对建筑物进行防火设计的不足之处,在比较传统指令性设计规范与性能化设计规范对建筑消防设计的要求的基础之上,笔者提出“以性能化为基础的建筑防火设计”的概念及支持体系;阐述性能设计的核心、规范体系和运行过程;并将该方法应用到了大空间防火分区及中庭防排烟设计的实践工作中,取得了比较满意的结果。其理论分析与实践证明建筑物性能化消防设计与评估,为实现建筑设计的多样化,更好地满足建筑功能需要提供了一条新的途径,该设计理念和评估方法的发展将大大促进消防安全设计的科学化、合理化和成本效益的最优化。     

危险源理论研究及在事故预防中的应用

为提高事故预防和控制水平,以现代安全科学的观点及事故致因理论为基础,运用事故案例分析研究方法,从危险源概念辨析入手,认为,危险源是指一切可能导致事故发生的能量、能量载体或危险物质,而不具有能量的隐患不是危险源。进一步探讨危险源的分类、层次结构及基于危险源理论的事故预防控制模型;同时,分析各类危险源在事故预防控制模型中的地位,指出事故的原因及防范对策。结果表明,事故是由直接危险源、第一触发危险源和初始触发危险源等不同种类的危险源的相互作用的结果,加强对不同危险源的研究,采取有针对性措施可有效提高生产安全管理水平及事故控制水平。     

Regulatory risk control through mandatory occupational safety and health (OSH) certification and testing regimes (CTRs)

Governments make increasing use of private certification and testing infrastructures as an alternative for traditional regulatory arrangements in several areas including occupational safety and health (OSH).This research, commissioned by the Dutch Inspectorate for Work and Income (IWI), concerns an analysis of risk control of four certification and testing regimes (CTRs) in the Netherlands, three mandatory regimes and one non-mandatory regime. The aim was to create a better understanding of problems that may arise in the risk control through such regimes and to identify critical processes and factors that can affect the risk control process.The results of this research are reported in two papers in this special issue (see also Zwetsloot et al., this issue). This one presents an analysis of the risk control at the regulatory level, and its associated critical factors and processes. These critical factors are clustered in four essential processes: the regulatory choice for a CTR, the definition of requirements for the auditing or inspection regime, the certification and testing processes as such, and the processes needed for the self-correcting or learning capability of the CTR. Jointly, these factors and processes form a framework for both the design and the evaluation of such regimes. The case studies clearly demonstrate that these critical factors may undermine the effectiveness of such regulatory practices. We propose that a further development of our framework should be used in the (re)design process for proposed and existing CTRs, and in the process of independent evaluation of such regimes.     

火力发电厂火灾危险性分析及防火设计探讨

本文在简要介绍火力发电厂主要生产过程的基础上，详细分析了火力发电厂各生产部分的火灾危险性，并依据国家有关规范提出了火力发电厂防火设计的基本思路和应注意的问题。