Prospects for Occupational Risk Assessment in HSE

In recent years, there has been a shift in one of the core concepts of HSE: replacing "hazardous and harmful production factors" with the term "occupational risks," which is more common in international practice. Let's discuss the prospects of applying risk assessment in HSE.

In recent years, there has been a shift in one of the core concepts of HSE: replacing "hazardous and harmful production factors" with the term "occupational risks," which is more common in international practice.

According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, a harmful production factor is defined as a factor whose impact on an employee can lead to illness. A hazardous production factor is one whose impact can lead to injury. The division of production factors into harmful and hazardous historically developed in our country during the pre-war period. Meanwhile, the international community uses the term "hazard" instead of these terms.

A hazard is understood as factors, characteristics, or phenomena arising during work that can cause harm to workers' health. This definition was first formulated in the British Standard BS 8800:1996 Guide to occupational health and safety management systems. Subsequently, the definition of occupational risk was added: "Risk is the combination of the probability of harm caused by a hazardous state and the possible magnitude of that harm." Risk is a measure of hazard.

The adoption of Federal Law No. 184-FZ "On Technical Regulation" on December 27, 2002, legalized the definition of risk in Russia. In the wording of the mentioned law, it reads as follows: "Risk is the probability of causing harm to the life or health of citizens, property of individuals or legal entities, state or municipal property, the environment, or the life or health of animals and plants, taking into account the severity of this harm." It is easy to see that this definition contains two components: probability and severity of the harm caused. This significantly distinguishes the concept of risk from the concepts of harmful and hazardous production factors. In 2009, the national standard of the Russian Federation GOST R 12.0.010-2009 "SSBT. Occupational health and safety management systems. Hazard identification and risk assessment" was adopted. The standard contains the following basic definitions.

Hazard – an environmental or work process factor that can cause injury, acute illness, or a sudden sharp deterioration in health. Depending on the quantitative characteristics and duration of action of individual factors in the working environment, they can become hazardous.

Risk – the combination (product) of the probability (or frequency) of damage and the severity of that damage.

Damage – physical injury or other harm to human health, or damage to property or the environment.

Since 2004, a regulatory document dedicated to the hygienic assessment of occupational risks has been in effect: R 2.2.1766-03 "Guide on Occupational Health Risk Assessment for Workers. Organizational and Methodological Foundations, Principles, and Assessment Criteria." This document provides for the use of the following terms:

Safety – the absence of unacceptable risk.

Risk – the combination of the probability of damage and the severity of that damage.

Damage – physical injury or harm to human health, or damage to property or the environment.

Hazard – a potential source of damage. A comparison of these terms shows that they are very similar and do not contradict each other.

In the absence or insufficiency of statistical data on risks in an organization, and specifically at the workplace, the following steps should be taken when solving risk management tasks:

• identify hazards, determine their possible manifestations and consequences, and choose a damage indicator;
• determine the probability (frequency) of damage occurring;
• assess (calculate) risks.

The hygienic document R 2.2.1766-03 "Guide on Occupational Health Risk Assessment for Workers. Organizational and Methodological Foundations, Principles, and Assessment Criteria" interprets hazard identification, risk assessment, and management in a similar way (Table 1). The basis for risk assessment here is the results of workplace assessments according to the "Guide on Hygienic Assessment of Factors in the Working Environment and Work Process. Criteria and Classification of Working Conditions" R 2.2.2006-05. These results are classified as optimal, acceptable, harmful, and extreme working conditions. The higher the class of working conditions, the higher the occupational risks. A significant limitation of using hygienic criteria (both R 2.2.2006-05 and R 2.2.1766-03) to determine the risk category is the inability to account for the probability of injury.

Table 1

Working condition classes, occupational risk categories, and urgency of preventive measures according to R 2.2.1766-03

Principles of occupational risk management. When choosing a set of risk management measures, in accordance with the recommendations of the International Labour Organization, the following priorities should be followed:

• elimination of the hazard or risk;
• controlling the hazard or risk at the source;
• reducing the hazard level or implementing safe work systems;
• using personal protective equipment if residual risk remains.

A comparison of traditional methods for assessing working conditions with occupational risk assessment is shown in Table 2.

The table shows that there is much in common between the concepts of hazardous and harmful production factors and risk factors, primarily their classification. Fundamental differences include the concept of zero risk when formulating MPC and MPL for harmful and hazardous production factors, the concept of acceptable risk, and the necessity and possibility of managing occupational risks. Additional differences include accounting for the hazard of injury in risk management and the ability to manage risks based on factors that do not have maximum permissible values (MPL, MPC).

Table 2

Comparison of traditional methods for assessing working conditions with occupational risk assessment