Integrating analyses of the risk of occupational accidents into the design process Part I: A review of types of acceptance criteria and risk analysis methods

The Norwegian Risk analysis regulations for the offshore industry require the development of risk acceptance criteria on the part of the oil companies and the use of risk analysis to prove that the acceptance criteria are met. These regulations are examples of a general trend among European legislators to specify the use of risk analysis as a basis for decisions which affect the level of safety. The paper focuses on analyses during the design phases of the risk of occupational accidents. In the first part of the paper, the consistency between available criteria based on measures of the risk of occupational accidents and risk analysis methods is examined. The aim is to evaluate the feasibility of meeting the requirements of the Risk analysis regulations in the area of occupational accidents by applying the present state of knowledge. It is concluded that there are no combinations of types of acceptance criteria and risk analysis methods that cover the full range of occupational accidents and which are unbiased in relation to the size of the installation. Needs of further developments of suitable risk analysis methods are identified. In part II, a new risk analysis method, Comparison analysis, is outlined together with results from the application of the method in a case study. The method fills a gap concerning theoretical estimations of the expected number of lost time injuries per one million hours of work.