Ergonomic risk management process for safety and health at work

Tellurium and Nano-Tellurium: Medicine or Poison?

Tellurium (Te) is the heaviest stable chalcogen and is a rare element in Earth's crust (one to five ppb). It was discovered in gold ore from mines in Kleinschlatten near the present-day city of Zlatna, Romania. Industrial and other applications of Te focus on its inorganic forms. Tellurium can be toxic to animals and humans at low doses. Chronic tellurium poisoning endangers the kidney, liver, and nervous system. However, Te can be effective against bacteria and is able to destroy cancer cells. Tellurium can also be used to develop redox modulators and enzyme inhibitors. Soluble salts that contain Te had a role as therapeutic and antimicrobial agents before the advent of antibiotics. The pharmaceutical use of Te is not widespread due to the narrow margin between beneficial and toxic doses, but there are differences between the measure of toxicity based on the Te form. Nano-tellurium (Te-NPs) has several applications: it can act as an adsorptive agent to remove pollutants, and it can be used in antibacterial coating, photo-catalysis for the degradation of dyes, and conductive electronic materials. Nano-sized Te particles are the most promising and can be produced in both chemical and biological ways. Safety assessments are essential to determine the potential risks and benefits of using Te compounds in various applications. Future challenges and directions in developing nano-materials, nano-alloys, and nano-structures based on Te are still open to debate.

Improving the risk management process in quality management systems of higher education

The purpose of this paper is to improve the risk management process in the quality management system of higher education, taking into account the hazardous factors that increase the probability of occurrence and severity of consequences of undesirable events, as well as favorable factors that reduce the probability of occurrence and severity of consequences of hazardous events. The basis of risk management in the quality management systems of higher education institutions is the "Bowtie" method, which involves six main steps of identifying inconsistency, determining the impact of hazardous and favorable factors according to the impact group, ranking hazardous and favorable factors, calculating risk, substantiating precautionary measures and checking calculations. To rank hazardous and favorable factors, the authors used the "Decision Making Trial and Evaluation" method (hereinafter-DE-MATEL), which is based on paired comparison and decision-making tools based on graph theory. An improved process is proposed for risk assessment, which differs from the known ones by the presence of the identification of the cause-and-effect relationship "hazard (inconsistency)-hazardous event-consequences", identification of hazardous and favorable factors of the internal and external environment that affect the probability and/or the degree of severity of a hazardous event-the appearance of an inconsistency, which is carried out after the inconsistency has been determined; determination of causal hazardous and favorable factors by an acceptable method. Registers of inconsistencies (hazards), hazardous and favorable factors have been developed and proposed based on the requirements for accreditation of educational programs and the international standard ISO 9001:2015, which will allow, based on a risk-oriented approach, to provide a basis for setting the goals of a higher education institution under martial law in order to guarantee effective implementation of the mission and strategy. They are proposed for decision-making in the quality management systems of educational organizations on the substantiation of precautionary or corrective measures based on ranking the risks from identified inconsistencies, which are determined taking into account the impact of the entire set of identified significant hazardous and favorable factors. The value of this paper is to improve the quality risk management process in educational organizations, taking into account the impact of hazardous and favorable factors, and to develop an appropriate step-by-step algorithm of actions and a risk assessment form.

Improvement of the occupational risk management process in the work safety system of the enterprise

Purpose

The research purpose is to improve the management of occupational risks associated with hazards as well as the organization's capabilities to identify hazardous factors (HFs) using the "BOW-TIE" method in accordance with the provisions of the ISO 45001:2019 standard.

Methods

To improve occupational risk management, the "BOW-TIE" method has been introduced into occupational health and safety management systems. This approach facilitates a comprehensive description and analysis of potential risk development from identifying hazardous factors to studying the consequences. It visually integrates fault and event trees to provide a holistic view of risk dynamics.

Results

The improvement of the occupational hazard risk management process considers both internal and external factors affecting the organization, thereby increasing the probability and severity of potential hazardous events. The revised approach categorizes risk levels as acceptable, unacceptable, or verifiable. In addition, occupational risk management requires an in-depth analysis of the organization's external and internal environment to identify hazards that affect the probability and severity of potential hazardous events.

Conclusion

This research proposes an innovative approach to occupational risk management by determining the magnitude of occupational risk as the cumulative result of assessing risks associated with all external and internal factors influencing the probability of hazardous event occurring. The introduction of the "BOW-TIE" method, combined with a comprehensive analysis of the organizational environments, facilitates a more effective and nuanced approach to occupational risk management.