Feasibility studies must cover different disciplines such as need-based feasibility, technological feasibility and economical feasibility. In the present work a comprehensive feasibility analysis model for the use of robots in performing construction tasks is presented. This model is mainly focussed on the need analysis in order to present criteria for decision making. The decision making is pe...

The hazardous materials risk management process involves a set of crucial logistical decisions referring to the planning of the hazardous materials transportation and the organization of the emergency response operations. The objective of this paper is to present a Decision Support System for hazardous Materials Transportation Risk Management that covers integrated hazardous materials distribut...

BACKGROUND Although the hazardous tasks adolescent workers perform in service and retail industries are well documented, little is known about the extent to which young workers recognize these tasks as hazardous or dangerous. METHODS Using data from a nationally representative cross-sectional telephone survey conducted in 2003, we examined hazardous task recognition among 858 adolescents work...

We study a multi-criteria variant of the problem of routing hazardous material on a geographical area subdivided in regions. The two objective functions are given by a generally defined routing cost and a risk equity equal to the maximum, over each region, of the risk perceived within a region. This is a multicommodity flow problem where integer variables are used to define the number of trucks...

Risk assessment requires both risk analysis and risk evaluation ie, comparing the results of risk analysis with risk criteria to determine acceptability. The Safework Australia Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice, Appendix F, provides a list of “Further risk assessment methods“ including methods developed during a research project which evaluated a participative ergonomics program. This com...

Reproductive function has been shown to be sensitive to changes in the physical, psychosocial and chemical environments. Although reproductive effects of occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals have been well documented in the literature, the potential effects of chemical contaminants at levels representative of contemporary exposures in the general population are much less certain. Eviden...