How harsh work environments affect the occupational accident phenomenology? Risk assessment and decision making optimisation

•Advanced approach for the analysis and interpretation of the occupational accident phenomenon, exploiting the knowledge inherent in the accident analysis of an industrial sector to the benefit of the risk assessment in a specific work environment, integrating•The investigation of occupational accidents dynamics in a productive sector through the SKM approach, based on neural networks;•The occupational accidents risk assessment for a specific plant through the Fuzzy Logic approach.•An integration of the traditional risk function was suggested: R = f (HHI, F, S), where HHI is a Harsh Hazard Index, a corrective index representing the criticality of the work conditions, and the number and severity of the accidents.•The approach effectiveness was validated through the analysis over three years of accident observations and analysis in a steel manufacturing company. This paper describes a procedure to evaluate the risk of occupational accidents combining SKM (SOM & K-Means) and FAP (Fuzzy Logic approach) to explicitly take into account the impact that harsh productive environments can have on the occupational accident dynamics. The procedure proposed consists of an advanced approach based on two evaluation steps: (1) the investigation of occupational accidents dynamics in a productive sector through the SKM approach, based on neural networks; (2) the occupational accidents risk assessment for a specific plant through the Fuzzy Logic approach, exploiting the knowledge inherent in the accident analysis of an industrial sector to the benefit of the risk assessment in a specific work environment. The application of SKM and FAP approach respectively to the metallurgical sector and to an Italian industrial plant allowed the validation of the proposed procedures. Taking into account the accidents occurred in the Piedmont metallurgical sector from 2006 to 2013, the risk assessment for an Italian steel-manufacturing company was carried on, highlighting how a critical work environment can affect the accident dynamics, and how to correctly take into account their impact during the risk assessment could bring to an effective operational safety improvement.