Journal of Health and Safety at Work

Introduction: Heat stress is one of the harmful risks in casting and die casting industries, which can not only cause work-related diseases but also can impair the performance and safety of workers. Since the indicators that are used to evaluate heat stress are very different, it is very difficult to choose a suitable index. The aim of this study was to determine the optimum heat stress index in foundry, die-cast, and road construction industries using FAHP and Topsis methods.

Material and Method: In order to determine optimum heat stress index in foundry, die-cast, and road construction industries, first, the prioritization criteria were defined by experts (including ease of measurement, measurement accuracy, comprehensiveness, time, cost, and correlation). Then, considering these criteria, the best heat stress index was determined based on experts’ opinions and using FAHP and Topsis methods.

Result: The results of this study suggest that given the current conditions and criteria, WBGT and P4SR is the best indices for foundry, die casting and construction.

Conclusion: The results showed that according to comprehensiveness, accuracy and correlation criteria, the WBGT index is considered as the best indicator of heat stress assessment in foundry, die-cast and road construction industries. Moreover, the HSI ranked in the last place due to the complexity and cost of its calculation.

Introduction: Application of inherently safety principle in the early phase of the design process is very efficient, as this approach is an economic and high efficiency method. While a complete information is not available in the initial phases of the process, the use of valid index to evaluate inherently safety can be efficient. In this case, the best route to design safer process can be selected by comparing the quantitative results.

Material and Method: The comprehensive index to evaluate the inherently safety design (ISD) and cost evaluation of the implementing inherently safety design (ISDC) were studied using a three-step hierarchical matrix screening in this research. Utilizing the proposed inherently safety index, Acetic acid production process and cost resulting from ISD were evaluated. Dimensions of the Matrix for ISD and ISDC included: 1) quadrature inherently safety design vector, 2) location vector of inherently safety design and 3) quantity parameter vector of inherently safety design.

Result: In order to optimize the implementation of inherently safety design and its cost, three hypotheses were used. From them, the idea of using two processes with half capacity and also using 50% Methanol were selected as a design with the highest level of inherently safety and a design with the lowest-cost process, respectively.

Conclusion: In these evalustions the total score for the assumptions of the inherently safety index 1, 2 and 3, were 55,70 and 135, respectively. And the total cost assumptions 1, 2 and 3, have been estimated 858,000, 746,000 and 803,000 US dollars, respectively. Therefore, this tool could show the impact of various scenarios in inherently safety design and also the contrast between the four principles of ISD and its impact on safety and cost factors can be analyzed using an alternative system supplier of methanol.