Changes Could Reduce the Risk of Overflow?

¶ … changes could reduce the risk of overflow?

The following design changes are frequently used:

System cleaning and maintenance

Reducing the inflow and infiltration through rehabilitation of the system and repairing the broken or leaking service lines.

Enlarging or upgrading the sewer, pump station, or sewage treatment plant reliability and/or capacity constructing wet weather storage and treatment facilities to treat over flows.

Communities should also address overflows during community planning of system. (Sanitary Sewer Overflows and Peak Flow)

A manufacturing process requires the application of a special, but highly hazardous, paint to protect metal from corrosion in the finished product. The engineering department proposes a poorly designed "engineering control" (a simple, portable box fan aimed to blow the vapors away from the painter and into the shop) for the application of this coating. Describe how a higher level of control could be achieved.

A higher level of control could use the stronger fan which is the Local exhaust ventilation that captures the polluted air at or near the source and directs it ('exhausts' it) outside. Local exhaust ventilation is more effective for toxic chemical pollutants and is also used for when substantial amounts of dusts or fumes are created; when there are few emission sources, and when emission sources approximate the workers' breathing zones. Local exhaust ventilation are made up of 'hoods' that capture the contaminant; ducts that transport the contaminant through the system; an air cleaning device (optional) that removes the contaminant from the air; fans that discharge the contaminant; exhaust stack though which the contaminant is discharged; and fresh air that replaces exhausted air. (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety)

3- Provide 2 specific examples of the pre-work required before a behavior observation program can be successfully launched.

1. Each of the employees must be in on the program with employees and management colluding on goals. There is so since the program requires individual feedback from each employee and the observer conducting the program observes employees at work noting possible work hazards and safe behaviors.

2. There is clear specification of the goals and expectations of the program as well as data gathering on expectations. Expectations are clearly delineated and outlined between management and conductors of program. (Sulzer-Azaroff, online.)

4- Explain in words what the RPN means and how it can be used to help justify the required investment to control the hazard.

This is a Risk Priority Number. It is the derivative of Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) which is a method for evaluating a work process. An FMEA identifies the probabilities of failure for each step in the process. Each failure mode receives a numeric score that identifies: (a) the probability that the failure will occur, (b) probability that the failure will not be detected, and (c) the amount of damage the failure mode may cause to worker or to equipment. The product of these three scores is the RPN.

5- One potential error source with FMEA is inter-rater reliability, or the likelihood of one person rating a risk significantly higher or lower than another person. What approaches could be used to reduce or eliminate this potential error source?

One possible approach could be modeled after Marwick et al. (2007) where they used a computer program to test the inter-rater reliability of the FMEA. Here the program randomly selected 100 cases from 3571 of the cases that had been recorded at an earlier period and statistically tested them to see whether their results corresponded with their given rating in order to see how reliable the rating had been. If correspondences were significantly close, the FMEA subjective rating was accepted as credible. If not, changes would be made in conditions accompanying FMEA rating (such as in people doing rating or when rating was done), and these conditions would be evaluated and monitored.

6- Last year, the Erie Light Bulb Company instituted a safety incentive program which paid employees cash at the end of each quarter if their department was injury-free. ELBC employees could take the payout at the end each quarter or "let it ride" for an extra $100 at the end of the year, provided their department stayed injury-free. You, the newly hired ELBC safety manager, noticed that 90% of employees took the payout at the end of each quarter, and injury rates increased in the first month of each quarter. At year-end, there was no injury rate reduction as compared to the previous year. Yet, top management wants some sort of incentive program again this year. Since you frequently read management and leadership articles, and consider yourself knowledgeable about human behavior, what would you do differently in designing a program this year? What specific things would you avoid?