Health, safety and environmental risk management in laboratory fields

Research project risks are uncertain contingent events or situations that, if transpire, will have positive or negative effects on objectives of a project. The Management of Health and Safety at Work (MHSW) Regulations 1999 require all employers and the self-employed persons to assess the risks from their work on anyone who may be affected by their activities. Risk assessment is the first step in risk-management procedure, and due to its importance, it has been deemed to be a vital process while having a unique place in the researchbased management systems.

In this research, a two-pronged study was carried out. Firstly, health and safety issues were studied and analyzed by means of ISO 14121. Secondly, environmental issues were examined with the aid of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis. Both processes were utilized to determine the risk level independently for each research laboratory and corrective measure priorities in each field (laboratory).

Data analysis showed that the total main and inherent risks in laboratory sites reduced by 38% to 86%. Upon comparing the average risk levels before and after implementing the control and protective actions utilizing risk management approaches which were separate from health, safety and environmental aspects, a highly effective significance (p<0.001) was obtained for inherent risk reduction. Analysis of health, safety and environmental control priorities with the purpose of comparing the ratio of the number of engineering measures to the amount of management ones showed a relatively significant increase.

The large number of engineering measures was attributed to the employment of a variety of timeworn machinery (old technologies) along with using devices without basic protection components.