Elf and Safety - A Christmas Risk Assessment
A new research group in the department will focus on how we can use computing methods to improve processes, safety and resilience. Many of the things we use every day have to be made in manufacturing processes that have a great deal of risk if not managed well.
Our group are working to provide tools for automating risk assessments, providing guidance on potential hazards and ways to prevent the hazards or minimise the severity or frequency. With large numbers of very experience people retiring from the baby boomer generation, we have less experience in many chemical plants operations, maintenance and development and design engineering groups. Using state of the art algorithms and big data systems we can dramatically improve the safety critical tasks and support decision making.
2020 with Covid-19 have given us all a very stressful year and this Process Safety group have used their process safety analysis thinking to how can we make our Christmas safer.
Risk management methodology looks at what could go wrong – identifying the hazards, then deciding how bad are they what’s the severity and how likely to happen. We put these into tables (risk matrix) and look at what we can do to prevent the hazards. Red and orange risks we want take action to prevent. Green risks we might accept. We work on tools processes safer and we want to help make your Christmas and festive season safe and happy.
So what hazards could happen to spoil Christmas? Have a look at the table and see if you agree with the list?
Of course there are many more hazards than shown in this table. Now we know the risks- what mitigations can we put in place to prevent the hazards from happening.
First things First- Johnathan Van-Tan (Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England) confirmed that Santa was first in line to get the Covid-19 vaccine and will be healthy and ready to make his deliveries on Christmas Day! Christmas is saved!
Santa also is happy to report that the elf’s have been busy especially the maintenance team who have ensures that Santa’s sleigh has passed its annual MOT and is all ready to go. The elf’s have also been taught about shelf safety and the risks of too much alcohol!
Now we know that Santa and his elf’s are ready, we need to think about our safety during the Christmas festivities.
Ambulance and Accident and Emergency department staff tell us that every year many people fall off ladders putting up lights, many people cut their hands or burn themselves cooking. We have had an incredibly stressful year and that adds to the stress when families get together. So be like the sensible Elf’s and make sure you keep your Christmas tree watered to prevent fire. Make sure you have someone hold your ladders while you put up the lights and keep three limbs on the ladder at all times. Tuck in your fingers while chopping and cut up the vegetables before you have that glass of wine. Use a deep fat fryer that has automatic safety functions. Keep your children away from batteries make sure the little screws that lock the battery compartment are tightly screwed in and remove the little sac from boxes with desiccant that look so enticing for kids to eat. 2020 doesn’t need to have any more reasons to be remembered for bad things. Make some safe and happy memories this Christmas time.