A risk-factor-based analytical approach for integrating occupational health and safety into workplace risk assessment

Abstract

The chief goal of an occupational health and safety program, OHS, in a facility is to prevent occupational injury and illness by anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling occupational health and safety hazards. The underlying study presented a systematic approach for the evaluation of OHS risks and proposed a new procedure based on the number of risk factors identified and their relative significance in an Electrical Power Station, Alexandria, Egypt. Qualitative and quantitative risk assessment was utilized as a systematic approach. A risk factor concentration along with weighting of risk factor categories as contributors to undesirable events of different hazards were used in the analytical hierarchy process multi-criteria comparison model. A case study is used to illustrate the various steps of the risk evaluation approach and the quick and simple integration of OHS at an early stage of a project. The approach allows continual reassessment of criteria over the course of the project or when new data are acquired. It was thus possible to differentiate the OHS risks from the risk of drop in quality over the different project activities.