Improving a process of managing dynamic occupational risks

Abstract

Purpose. To improve the process of managing dynamic occupational risks, which considers changes in time in hazardous factors of the organization’s environment in the occupational safety and health management system. Methodology. To improve the process of managing occupational risks, we have applied a well-known “Bow-Tie” model (ISO 31010:2018). The model allows assessing occupational risks as the product of the probability of hazardous event occurrence and severity of the consequences, taking into account the influence of hazardous external and internal factors, hazardous actions or dangerous inactions, which, according to the requirements of Clause 4.1 of the ISO 45001:2018 standard, are interconnected and subject to the influence of time. Findings. A model of the connection of hazardous factors of the internal and external environment of an organization, related to their negative influence on the growing probability of hazardous event (incident) occurrence and a degree of severity in time, has been developed. The process of managing occupational risks is proposed, taking into account changes in the time of exposure to hazardous factors, which will allow determining the acceptability or unacceptability of the occupational risk in time. The analysis of changes in occupational risks is proposed to be considered in the following time intervals (specifically in those where there is a corresponding change in risk factors): time of the day, day of the week, month of the year, quarter, half year, year, years etc. All the proposed professional risks were divided into two groups of professional risks considering the changes in their levels in time: static and dynamic ones. To calculate the occupational risk level, it is also proposed to determine all combinations of hazardous factors that can occur simultaneously in time within the corresponding intervals of the time under analysis. Originality. It has been determined that identification of the acceptable level of an occupational risk in the maximum combination of all hazardous factors acting simultaneously at a certain point in time will lead to the fact that all other combinations of hazardous factors will also have an acceptable level of occupational risk. This provision follows from the fact that the level of occupational risk from a smaller number of hazardous factors will not exceed the indicator of occupational risk from the exposure to a larger number of hazardous factors in time. Practical value. The forms for dynamic occupational risk assessment have been developed; a matrix has been proposed for determining the number of combinations of hazardous factors acting simultaneously in time.