Risk evaluation in Dutch land-use planning

In Dutch external safety policy, the acceptance of risk for the population in areas surrounding hazardous substances establishments is based on a limit value for individual risk (IR). Additionally, changes to societal risk (SR) must be justified. A specific software program (SAFETI-NL) with the associated Reference Manual Bevi Risk Assessments (RIVM, 2009) is legally required for the calculation of IR and SR. This prescribed “Bevi calculation method” forms the basis for decisions with important consequences for industry, land use planning and the protection of citizens. It is important that the outcome of calculations made with the prescribed method can be relied upon when making decisions about land use planning that affects both industry and population. This is the subject of this paper.The prescribed calculation method has been evaluated by performing a case study. The evaluation focussed on risk modelling of a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion (BLEVE) at an LPG filling station, an incident type that plays a significant role in Dutch external safety. The risk modelling of the BLEVE with the prescribed calculation method was found to have a number of serious deficiencies. It is concluded that the prescribed calculation method yields no reliable perspective on the safety of production, use and storage of hazardous substances, nor of possibilities to increase safety.Decision making should not only depend on quantification of IR and SR. Improving the safety-relevance of the prescribed calculation method requires an increase of the number of dimensions of the outcome of risk calculations in order to make feedback possible. It is recommended to incorporate additional, safety-relevant information into planning and decision-making processes. It is envisaged that a more far-reaching change of Dutch QRA practice is needed (medium to long term). In this context, a number of interesting elements have been noticed in decision-making procedures in other EU Member States.     

New considerations for SIL verification of functional safety fieldbus communication

Safety integrity level (SIL) verification of functional safety fieldbus communication is an essential part of SIL verification of safety instrumented system (SIS), and it requires quantifying residual error probability (RP) and residual error rate of function safety communication. The present quantification method of residual error rate uses RP of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to approximately replace the total RP of functional safety communication. Since CRC only detects data integrity-related errors and CRC has intrinsically undetected error, some other residual errors are not being considered. This research found some residual errors of the present quantification method. Then, this research presents an extended new approach, which takes the found residual errors into account to determine more comprehensive and reasonable RP and residual error rate. From perspective of the composition of safety message, this research studies RPs of those controlling segments (sequence number, time expectation, etc.) to cover the found residual errors beyond CRC detection coverage, and the influences of insertion/masquerade errors and time window on RP are investigated. The results turn out these residual errors, especially insertion/masquerade errors, may have a great influence on quantification of residual error rate and SIL verification of functional safety communication, and they should be treated seriously.     

Reactive chemical hazards of diazonium salts

Many diazonium salts are thermally unstable and sensitive to friction and shock. Most diazonium salts are known for their violent decomposition hazard in the solid state. There are many industrial and laboratory incidents caused by this group of chemicals. For safety purposes, the hazards related to the preparation and the handling of diazonium salts are discussed. Twelve cardinal rules are provided:1. Use only a stoichiometric amount of sodium nitrite when generating diazonium salts, avoiding excess sodium nitrite.2. Check for the excess of nitrous acid by starch–potassium iodide papers and neutralize it.3. Minimize the presence of nitrous acid by combining amine and acid first, then subsequently adding the sodium nitrite.4. Keep the temperature below 5 °C.5. Always vent the gases generated.6. Determine the thermal stability of diazonium compounds in your system.7. Understand the explosive properties of diazonium salts. If unknown, always assume they are explosive.8. Never allow the undesired precipitation of diazonium salts out of solution.9. Analyze the residual diazo compounds in the final product, especially for new process conditions.10. Quench the remaining diazonium salts before any further treatments.11. Isolate no more than 0.75 mmol of explosive diazonium salts at one time; also consider the addition of an inert material to stabilize the diazonium salts.12. Use a plastic spatula when handling the solid. The dried powder should not be “scratched” with a metal spatula or ground finely.An example of a testing strategy and data interpretation is provided for a process which has multiple steps and two diazonium compounds. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Heat of Mixing calorimetry (HOM) successfully serve as efficient tests to screen thermal stability and gas generation, identifying the candidates for advanced tests.     

An integrated framework of safety performance evaluation for oil and gas production plants: Application to a petroleum transportation station

Safety performance evaluation is a significant way to ensure the safety of oil and gas production plants. Various evaluation methods have been proposed to make safety evaluation more consistent and scientific. However, a major concern is that many existing safety evaluation measurements are still subjective and are not easy to obtain in a uniform way, which can be attributed to the challenges that process plants faced such as people having different knowledge levels, equipment with dispersed locations and management with many processes. This paper aims to display the impact of risk factors on system safety level in a succinct and visual way that may be expected to overcome subjective opinions from experts and provide a more pertinent and practical safety strategies. To this end, an integrated framework is developed, which considers crucial risk factors from pipeline, static equipment, dynamic equipment and management. First, Fault tree analysis (FTA) is used to explicitly determine the crucial r risk factors. Then, a novel fuzzy cognitive map cooperating with relative degree analysis model (FCM-RDA) is proposed to deal with the weigh distribution opinions. Finally, considering the oil and gas production process is a complex system, a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE) is employed to calculate the overall safety level.     

Multi-agent traffic simulations to estimate the impact of automated technologies on safety

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this article was to develop a multi-agent traffic simulation methodology to estimate the potential road safety improvements of automated vehicle technologies.

Methods: We developed a computer program that merges road infrastructure data with a large number of vehicles, drivers, and pedestrians. Human errors are induced by modeling inattention, aimless driving, insufficient safety confirmation, misjudgment, and inadequate operation. The program was applied to simulate traffic in a prescribed area in Tsukuba city. First, a 100% manual driving scenario was set to simulate traffic for a total preset vehicle travel distance. The crashes from this simulation were compared with real-world crash data from the prescribed area from 2012 to 2017. Thereafter, 4 additional scenarios of increasing levels of automation penetration (including combinations of automated emergency braking [AEB], lane departure warning [LDW], and SAE Level 4 functions) were implemented to estimate their impact on safety.

Results: Under manual driving, the system simulated a total of 859 crashes including single-car lane departure, car-to-car, and car-to-pedestrian crashes. These crashes tended to occur in locations similar to real-world crashes. The number of crashes predicted decreased to 156 cases with increasing level of automation. All of the technologies considered contributed to the decrease in crashes. Crash reductions attributable to AEB and LDW in the simulations were comparable to those reported in recent field studies. For the highest levels of automation, no assessment data were available and hence the results should be carefully treated. Further, in modeling automated functions, potentially negative aspects such as sensing failure or human overreliance were not incorporated.

Conclusions: We developed a multi-agent traffic simulation methodology to estimate the effect of different automated vehicle technologies on safety. The crash locations resulting from simulations of manual driving within a limited area in Japan were preliminary assessed by comparison with real-world crash data collected in the same area. Increasing penetration levels of AEB and LDW led to a large reduction in both the frequency and severity of rear-end crashes, followed by car-to-car head-on crashes and single-vehicle lane departure crashes. Preliminary estimations of the potential safety improvements that may be achieved with highly automated driving technologies were also obtained.     

基于视线追踪的三维模拟灭火救援培训效果评估

本文结合灭火救援指挥三维计算机模拟训练平台以及桌面式视线追踪实验系统,开展基于视线追踪技术的学员应急培训效果评估。首先开展眼动分析实验系统搭建与实验设计,采用Eyeso Ec80遥测式眼动仪对操作者模拟灭火救援时的眼动信息进行数据采集与处理。然后,开展失误行为的眼动特征提取研究,针对不同类别的认知状态,分别统计其在不同兴趣区域的注视时间并建立一步转移概率矩阵,最终得到典型失误模式的失误特征。     

Impact of psychological capital on construction worker safety behavior: Communication competence as a mediator

IntroductionConstruction workers face a work environment of high risk and mental stress. Psychological capital (PsyCap) could influence employee's mental health and work performance. It would be helpful to determine whether PsyCap affects worker safety behavior. However, few studies empirically examined the impacts of the sub-dimensions of PsyCap on the safety behavior in construction settings, reducing the potential practicability of PsyCap to improve workplace safety performance. Thus, this study tested the relationship between sub-dimensions of PsyCap (self-efficacy, hope, resilience, optimism) and safety behaviors (safety compliance, safety participation), while the mediating role of communication competence was also explored. Method: Data were collected from 655 construction workers in China using a psychological capital questionnaire (PCQ). The theoretical model were tested with confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. Results: Results show that: (a) the self-efficacy dimension of PsyCap positively affected safety compliance and safety participation, while the resilience dimension positively impacted safety participation; (b) the hope dimension was not directly related to safety behaviors, while the optimism dimension negatively associated with safety participation; and (c) communication competence mediated the relationships between the hope and optimism dimensions of PsyCap and safety participation. Conclusions: A multidimensional perspective on PsyCap should be taken while examining its effects on safety behavior and the individual communication competence helps to enhance construction safety. Findings of this study shed lights on safety behavior promotion practices based on the multidimensional model. Initiating flexible psychological capital training and intervention, and strengthening communication skills of construction employees are suggested to improve safety performance in the construction industry.     

Integrating safety,health and environmental management systems: A conceptual framework for achieving lean enterprise outcomes

IntroductionExpectations from external stakeholders for eco-safe products and production processes and internal stakeholders for transparent, stable, and robust environment, safety, and health operations have driven high technology organizations to adopt multipart management systems. Organizations can protect workers and the environment and simultaneously contribute to lean management principles by implementing integrated management systems. This research adds to the existing discourse and theory pertaining to the integration of environment, safety, and health management systems. Methods: The research was exploratory and inductive in nature and used mixed methods. Specifically, qualitative methods included use of an iterated Delphi method to elicit information from a panel of experts and detailed case studies conducted at four high technology performance manufacturing firms, while quantitative analysis of variance of correlated data investigated the within-firm and between-firm variability in motivating factors for adopting integrated systems and methods used for implementing integrated systems. Results: The results offer an integrated-lean management system framework and the strategies available and used by a sample of high technology performance organizations to simultaneously protect workers, the environment, and support lean enterprise outcomes. Practical applications: Organizations can protect workers, the environment, and simultaneously contribute to lean management principles by implementing integrated management systems requiring joint management that allow for the shared design, evaluation, and continuous improvement of environmental, safety, and health practices that are compatible with the lean enterprise movement in today’s high-performance driven organizations.     

ZPS—25型油罐自动脱水器

该自动脱水器，是已经获得国家专利的新一代脱水器，它具有价格低，设计新（双保险）安装检修方便，构造简单．占地面积小，操作平稳安全可靠，节能并符合安全、环保及职业卫生要求等特点．轻污油电脱水含油<150mg／L，是一种比较理想的自动脱水器，它可广泛用于石油、化工等企业的油罐脱水。     

甲基叔丁基醚和三羰基甲基戊基锰的毒理学比较

在汽油无铅化的进程中，甲基叔丁基醚和三羰基甲基戊基锰是两种主要的汽油添加剂。它们可有效地增加汽油的辛烷值，提高汽油的燃烧效率；同时，作为氧化剂，还可减少ＣＯ和其它有在物质的排放。但是，这两种物质会否给人体健康带来潜在的危害或影响，也日益引起广泛的关注。