[Application of three semi-quantitative risk assessment methods in electroplating enterprises]

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health and Safety
• Risk Assessment Methodologies
• Industrial Hygiene

Background:

• Electroplating enterprises face significant occupational health risks from chemical hazardous factors.
• Accurate risk assessment is crucial for implementing effective control measures.
• Existing semi-quantitative risk assessment models require evaluation for specific industrial applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To apply and evaluate a semi-quantitative risk assessment model within the Technical Guidelines for Occupational Health Risk Assessment of Chemical Hazardous Factors in the Workplace.
• To assess the occupational health risks in electroplating enterprises.
• To explore the applicable conditions and characteristics of different risk assessment methods.

Main Methods:

• Three electroplating enterprises were selected for occupational hygiene surveys and hazard factor detection.
• Three semi-quantitative risk assessment methods were employed: contact ratio, contact index, and comprehensive index.
• The consistency and applicability of the evaluation results from the three methods were compared.

Main Results:

• Strong consistency was observed between the contact index and comprehensive index methods (weighted Kappa = 0.946, P < 0.001).
• Poor consistency was found between the contact ratio method and the other two methods (weighted Kappa = 0.345-0.391, P < 0.01).
• Method performance varied based on contact concentration relative to Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs).

Conclusions:

• The contact ratio method is suitable for risk assessment with incomplete occupational health information.
• The contact index method is useful for hazard assessment without sampling or OELs, and for preliminary assessments.
• The index method is appropriate for risk assessment when complete testing data and occupational health information are available.