Risk Analysis for a Research Laboratory

28.09.2018

Astract

Risk management is descripted “All attempts which will be able to improve and maintain their job security measures within an organization”. The purpose of occupational health and safety risk management, accidents at work and the reason of the occupational diseases and to create an effective safety network to prevent the most current and accurate information by collecting the emergence of unseen danger. In this project, risk analysis and applications were performed for a sample research laboratory. Laboratory was investigated in terms of occupational health and safety requirements and necessary measures were taken. Potentially risky situations were identified, risk tables were created and required actions were applied to eliminate these hazards. Floor plan was drawn to facilitate the evacuation of the laboratory in case of emergency. HAZOP was used for risk analysis. These applications are very important for a risk analysis studies for each research laboratory according to the Act No. 6331 on Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Law in Turkey. Making this kind of works in the very dangerous laboratory is important and necessary although universities are admitted least dangerous branch and is issue that should give importance.

1. Introduction

A hazard is any source of potential damage, harm or adverse health effects on something or someone under certain conditions at work. Basically, a hazard can cause harm or adverse effects (to individuals as health effects or to organizations as property or equipment losses). Sometimes a hazard is referred to as being the actual harm or the health affect it caused rather than the hazard. For example, the disease tuberculosis (TB) might be called a hazard by some but in general the TB-causing bacteria would be considered the “hazard” or “hazardous biological agent”[1]. Risk analysis is conducted in two significant ways as qualitative and quantitative risk analysis. The objective of conducting a qualitative risk analysis is to acquire safety against recognized risks and to increase the alertness of management, team members, and all personnel who are vulnerable to them. This method of risk analysis is designed to identify issues that are looked upon as project management impediments, but have the potential to become definite risk factors. A detailed qualitative analysis will also delve into the resources which are more susceptible to such risks. The purpose is to identify rectifying measures that can incorporated to restrict or remove the causes that have given rise to such risks and to ensure that these safety measures become a part of risk-related analytical protocol for future reference. Quantitative risk analysis is more focused on the implementation of safety measures that have been established, in order to protect against every defined risk. By using a quantitative approach, an organization is able to create a very precise analytical interpretation that can clearly represent which risk-resolving measures have been most well-suited to various project needs.

This makes the quantitative approach favored by many management teams since risk assessments can be clearly represented in the empirical forms like percentages or probability charts, since it emphasizes using tools such as metrics [2].

Hazard and Operability Studies or HAZOPs have been used extensively in the chemical industries to examine what impact deviations can have on a process. The basic assumption when performing a HAZOP is that normal and standard conditions are safe and hazards occur only when there is a deviation from normal conditions. A HAZOP can be conducted during any stage of a project although it is most beneficial during the later stages of design. The properties can be flow, level, pressure, concentration or temperature. What-if guidewords are used to identify possible deviations. HAZOP is a structured and systematic technique for system examination and risk management. In particular, HAZOP is often used as a technique for identifying potential hazards in a system and identifying operability problems likely to lead to nonconforming products. HAZOP is based on a theory that assumes risk events are caused by deviations from design or operating intentions. Identification of such deviations is facilitated by using sets of “guide words” as a systematic list of deviation perspectives. A risk matrix is a matrix that is used during risk assessment to define the various levels of risk as the product of the harm probability categories and harm severity categories. This is a simple mechanism to increase visibility of risks and assist management decision making. Although many standard risks matrices exist in different contexts individual projects and organizations may need to create their own or tailor an existing risk matrix [3-5]. As qualitative risk analysis method, L type matrix was used in this project.

In that scope of work, firstly, potential hazards were identified, and then the results of these hazards possible risky situations were determined. Risk table issued and necessary methods have been investigated to resolve these risks. While risk table was created, risks were identified and divided into categories.

These categories were transferred to the risk table as hygiene and occupational scheme, machines and hand tools, electrical, chemical, psychosocial factors. Allocated to each risk category was scored in terms of probability and severity. These categories are shown in detail in Table 1 [6]. Multiplication of probability and severity value gives risk value. According to the L-type risk matrix, these risk levels were categorized as negligible, low, medium, high, very high and cannot be tolerated [7].

Table 1. Assessment of Severity and Probability.

The aim of this study is to investigate the hazards and to take necessary measures in a Research Laboratory according to the occupational health and safety requirements. For this purpose risks are determined in terms of the likelihood that an uncontrolled event will occur and the consequences of that event occurring.Two different risk analysis methods were applied to the experimental set-ups, reactors, chemicals, physical conditions of the laboratory.

2. Results and Discussion

In this project, risk analysis and applications was performed for a research laboratory. Laboratory was investigated in terms of occupational health and safety and necessary measures were taken to apply the 6331 OHS Law. Potentially hazard and risky situations were identified, risk tables were created and required actions were performed to eliminate these risks (Table2). Risk Analysis

Table 2. Risk Assessment Table

HAZOP is applied to the research laboratory where has two types of reactors as fixed-bed and trickle bed reactors. HAZOP study was conducted around these reactors. Experimental setup of fixed bed reactor consists of reactor, peristaltic pump, preheater, flow meter, gas cylinder. HAZOP was applied to this system with guide words as flow, pressure and temperature. Possible causes, consequences and safeguards were arranged in terms of flow, temperature and pressure (Table 3). HAZOP include identifiable hazards and suggestions on improvements to reduce the hazard. The risk associated with each deviation can be categorized according to Table 3. Determining the risk category allows a convenient method to prioritize corrective action [8]. HAZOP was applied to trickle-bed reactor, with guide words as flow, pressure and temperature. Experimental set up consist of fixed bed reactor and HPLC (pressure) pump. Possible causes, consequences and safeguards were arranged in terms of flow, temperature and pressure around the reactor.