See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318663076
Safety, Security, Hazard And Risk – a conceptual approach
Conference Paper · June 2016
CITATIONS
4
READS
5,560 3 authors, including:
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
Sandra Stankovic doctoral researchView project
Safety, Security and SustainabilityView project Vesna Nikolic
University of Niš
74PUBLICATIONS 444CITATIONS SEE PROFILE
Dejan Vasovic University of Niš
51PUBLICATIONS 160CITATIONS SEE PROFILE
All content following this page was uploaded by Dejan Vasovic on 18 January 2019.
SAFETY, SECURITY, HAZARD AND RISK - A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH
Stevan Mušicki
University of Defence, Military Academy, Belgrade, Serbia Vesna Nikolic, Dejan Vasovic
University of Nis, Faculty of Occupational Safety, Nis, Serbia
Summary: The concepts of safety, security, hazard, and risk are quite specific, very complex, dynamic, and interdependent. All represent complex social phenomena that are the subject of research of many scientific disciplines. By taking the conceptual differences between the concepts of security and safety into consideration it is possible to effectively coordinate security and safety management activities against the hazards, to evaluate and assess the mutual risk level, and to use safety management strategies in security management activities, as well. Adaptive management practices are more than welcome.
Key words: Safety, security, hazard, risk, concepts.
Note: The presented research is a part of the projects "Development of new information and communication technologies, based on advances mathematical methods, with applications in medicine, telecommunications, power systems, protection of natural heritage and education" (III 44006) and "Research and development of energy efficient and environment friendly polygeneration systems based on renewable energy sources utilization" (III 42006), under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia.
1. INTRODUCTION – SAFETY AND SECURITY
The concept of safety is a highly complex social phenomenon and a scientific discipline within the social sciences. Safety is a polysemic term. In the most general sense, it refers to absence of fear, threats, and physical violence.
Nevertheless, safety also includes ethical, ideological, and normative elements, which impedes a precise definition. It is a socially constructed concept, which acquires a specific meaning within a given social context. After the analysis of numerous definitions, the concept of safety can be defined in the simplest terms as a state of protected value in which there is no potential or actual threat to the value, and also as a goal that cannot be fully realized but that should be strived for.1
2. SAFETY, HAZARD AND RISK TRIANGLE
The term occupational safety and health (OSH) was introduced in Serbia in 2005 through enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Law, and it represents an organized activity aimed at providing safe and healthy work and occupational safety conditions. The law regulates the rights and obligations of employers and employees, the organization of OSH, record keeping, cooperation and reporting, supervision, and penalty provisions.
The term occupational safety and health is defined in Act 4, Par. 1, Item 4 of the Law: Occupational safety and health is the provision of work conditions that will minimize occupational injuries, professional diseases, and work-related diseases, and that predominantly create prerequisites for full physical, mental, and social wellbeing of Employees.
According to the OSH Law, managing bodies in an organization are required to prevent injuries and health endangerment, as well as to constantly improve the OSH management system. In order to maintain and constantly improve OSH, an organization has to:
• apply proper standards and current normative regulation,
• provide necessary resources and training,
• analyze the implemented measures,
• identify all environmental aspects that have or could have an environmental impact, in order to prevent environmental pollution,
• perform work activities in accordance with the applicable laws, regulations, and stakeholder requirements regarding OSH and environmental protection,
• prevent pollution, conserve resources, and improve the environmental protection system,
• reduce and eliminate the use of harmful materials and control waste management,
• consider suggestions and opinions of all stakeholders and take the appropriate measures to improve OSH and environmental protection.2
The purpose of conducting operations in accordance with occupational safety is to raise the awareness within the organization about the importance of employee health and preventive activities. Any threat to employee safety needs to be predicted and identified for easier removal.
By introducing and implementing an OSH system, the organization takes a proactive stance on prevention and employee safety.
In professional literature, a hazard is defined as the state of the system in which the presence of emission sources, energy of substances, and excessive psychophysical exertion can threaten human health and material and expendable items. It is also defined as the state of the system in which there is a probability of loss of control over material and energy flows within the system. Loss of control over one of these flows entails the occurrence and development of hazard factors.
Hazards involve phenomena, processes, actions, and conditions that can impact human health and the environment.3
A hazard can be defined as a hazardous state or event that constitutes a potential threat and that could inflict damage to humans or to the environment.
Hazards can be classified into natural and anthropogenic hazards. Natural hazards occur due to natural phenomena – meteorological, geological, and biological.
Anthropogenic hazards mainly occur due to human negligence, they are associated with industrial facilities and energy production facilities, and they involve explosions, hazardous waste, etc.
Natural and anthropogenic/artificial hazards are classified into three basic groups: physical, chemical, and biological. Anthropogenic hazards can also be classified into environmental hazards, technosphere hazards, and socioeconomic hazards.
The technosphere encompasses human settlements, infrastructural facilities, technical and technological systems, as well as other man-made objects.
Technosphere hazards include hazards of the material work environment and hazards of socioeconomic relations. Hazards of the material work environment comprise the following:
• technical and technological hazards resulting from low quality of the machinery, low-quality and outdated equipment, poor equipment maintenance, low level of physicochemical parameters of the work environment, and low quality of personal protective equipment,
• technical and technological hazards resulting from inadvertent human action, due to negligence, incompetence, or ignorance, and from deliberate human action, performed either in times of peace or in wartime, usually in the form of sabotage,
• organizational and personnel hazards resulting from incompetent organization of the work process and jobs, poor care of employee health, inadequate work discipline, and inadequate employee education for using and handling work tools and personal protective equipment,
• hygienic and medical hazards, which include workspace and workplace hygiene, personal hygiene, and physical examinations.
Safety issues are closely connected to decision making. Every decision making implies exposure to a certain degree of risk. Risky refers to that which is exposed to risk, which can be hazardous and unfavorable.4 Risk involves the probability of hazard, loss, injury, or other harmful effect.5 Risk is the probability that a specified goal will not be achieved in full, but only partially.6 The possibility of eliminating or reducing risk depends on how well the phenomenon containing the risk is known.
Risk can cause unwanted consequences, failure of an action, or excessively high loss, but also extraordinary success. The character and scope of risk depend on the situation, and the knowledge about the risk is acquired through assessment of the situation. The level of risk for a specific activity depends on the willingness
to take the risk, realistic assessment of the situation, and the availability of information. Depending on the situation, significance, and effects, risk can have a tactical, operative, and strategic importance, and in the most general sense, one can be either aware or unaware of the risk.6,7
In order to solve safety issues and make less risky decisions, a distinction between hazard and risk has to be made:
• hazard − probability/condition of an accident,
• risk − uncertainty of the outcome / loss as one possible outcome.
Hazard analysis requires proper preparation. A technique of using the diagram of this process can be used to identify all the hazards. The diagram encompasses every stage of the work process.
When developing the approach to risk management, it is necessary to use risk characterization resulting from risk assessment. The result of risk assessment has to be combined with the assessment of available risk management options in order to make the decision about risk management.8
3. CONCLUSION
In any modern organization, the concept of risk refers to conscious exposure to the hazard of different outcome possibilities. Safety culture is a safety activity that reflects the readiness to act and behave in keeping with the acquired knowledge and skills, as well as with the accepted value judgments. Understanding of the concept of safety implies the understanding of safety activities and behaviors stemming from the responsibility and readiness to act on the part of all safety subjects in a society, in keeping with the acquired knowledge and skills, as well as with the accepted social values and value orientations, beliefs, and established opinions embedded in a given culture and cultural heritage.
REFERENCES
[1] R. Gaćinović: 2008. Bezbednost kao naučna disciplina [Safety as a Scientific Discipline], Bezbednost. Beograd (in Serbian).
[2] Zakon o bezbednosti i zdravlju na radu [Occupational Safety and Health Law].
(Službeni glasnik RS [Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia], broj 101/2005, 91/2015) (in Serbian).
[3] V. Nikolić, N. Živković: 2010. Bezbednost radne i životne sredine, vanredne situacije i obrzovanje [Occupational and Environmental Safety, Emergencies and Education], Univerzitet u Nišu, Fakultet zaštite na radu, Niš (in Serbian).
[4] M. Moskovljević: 2006. Rečnik savremenog književnog jezika s jezičkim savetnikom [Dictionary of Modern Literary Language with Language Use Guide], Gutenbergova galaksija, Beograd (in Serbian).
[5] Opća enciklopedija, X tom [General Encyclopedia, Volume 10], Jugoslovenski leksikografski zavod. Zagreb, 1981 (in Serbian).
400
[6] Vojna enciklopedija [Military Encyclopedia], VIZ, Beograd, 1974.
[7] Vojni leksikon [Military Lexicon], VIZ, Beograd, 1981 (in Serbian).
[8] R. Kljajić J. Petrović G. Ušćebrka M. Tešić Z. Aleksić: 2004. Integrisanje HACCP sistema i standarda ISO 9001 [Integrating HACCP and ISO 9001], Menadžment totalnim kvalitetom (in Serbian).
