Investigative Analysis\nof Safety Risk Assessment at\na Science and Technology University: Step-by-Step Analysis with Accident\nReports for Future Prevention

Our university, Tokyo Institute of Technology, conducted\nsafety\nand health risk assessments (RA). Previous research indicated that\nmany hazards identified in RA are less likely to be the main causes\nof actual accidents, while those not identified in RA are more likely\nto be the main causes of actual accident. Particularly, notable cases\nnot identified as hazards in RA and having more occurrences as actual\ncauses were “glass” and “cutting tool”.\nTherefore, the objective of this study is to find out why these hazards\nhave not been identified and what should be done to ensure fruitful\nRA implementation. Here, RA reports and accident reports of “glass”\nand “cutting tool” related work were intensively investigated.\nThe findings demonstrated that in STEP 1, the “hazard identification”\nstage, the risk-assuming work should be much closer to the actual\naccident, that is, to increase the awareness of hazards in pre- and\npostexperimental work such as “force-applied” work,\nwhere previously a low proportion of assumptions had been made. In\nSTEP 2, “risk estimation and assessment” stage, the\nfollowing steps are required: assume the situation of damage caused\nby the risk-assumed work in a more concrete, rather than vague, manner,\nestimate and score the degree of damage at a higher level, determine\nthe risk level as III or IV accordingly, and link this to the consideration\nand implementation of preventive measures. Lastly, in STEP 3, the\n“consideration of risk reduction measure and implementation”\nstage, countermeasures were to focus on worker-independent measures,\nsuch as the “intrinsic measure” and “engineering\nmeasure”.