A Systematic Framework for Designing An Inherently Healthier Process During Research and Development Stage

Keywords: Inherent occupational health; Inherent safety; Computer aided tool; R&D; Process design.

Abstract

Occupational health is the protection of the bodies and minds of people from illness resulting from materials, processes, or procedures used in the workplace [Hughes and Ferrett, 2008]. Eijkemans [2005] states that there are more than two million people worldwide die due to work related diseases each year.  As compared to safety and environmental aspects, occupational health has received much less attention from the researches in the area of chemical process design. This is because occupational health hazards are usually more difficult to evaluate than safety hazards. It is also much more complicated to be assessed at the early design stage. From the inherent related area, inherent occupational health is a concept that is derived from inherent safety.

At present, awareness about occupational health issues has been gradually increased in chemical and petrochemical industry. Generally, one of the factors that may affect workers’ health is the exposure to hazardous chemicals. This can be either long term or short term exposure. However, health hazards can be avoided or reduced if the initial screening of chemical synthesis route is carried out during research and development stage. This is because at this stage, the project is still ‘on paper’; therefore any changes to the process can be done at a minimal cost.

Despite the lack of researches related to occupational health assessment in process development and design, there are still several methods that have been developed. One to be named is the Inherent Occupational Health Index proposed by Hassim and Hurme [2010]. It is designed carefully based on the availability of data at research and development stage, which are process conditions and chemical properties only. The hazard level is evaluated based on penalty system which assigns value to indicate the severity level of exposure propensity and health effect. This method suggests that the chemical synthesis route which has the lowest index value (calculated by summing up the penalty values received by the route) to be the ‘healthiest’ chemical route. However till date, the method for designing an inherently healthier process is yet to be available.

In this paper a systematic framework for designing an inherently healthier process during research and development stage is developed. The proposed framework offers guidelines to users to design a process with reduced, if not eliminated, health hazards that are commonly arise in a chemical plant (Figure 1). The potential hazards need to be assessed before the design is being finalized. Therefore the framework is used together with the computer aided tool for assessing the inherent occupational health hazards developed by Pandian et al. [2012]. 

References

Eijkemans, G., (2005). WHO/ILO joint effort on occupational health and safety in Africa, International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA) 6^th International Scientific Conference, Pilanesberg.

Hassim, M. H., & Hurme, M., (2010). Inherent Occupational Health Assessment During Process Research and Development Stage. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries. 23(1):127-138

Hughes, P., & Ferrett, E., (2008). Introduction to Health and Safety in Construction: The Handbook for Construction Professionals and Students of NEBOSH and Other Construction Courses. 3^rd Edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier/ Butterworth- Heinemann.

Pandian, S., Hassim, M. H., and Hurme, M., (2012). Computer Aided of Occupationally Healthier Processes During Research and Development Stage, paper presented in 11^th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering (PSE 2012), Singapore.