Prospective method for estimating occupational health risks in new energy technologies
In design, development, and acceptance of new energy technologies, concern for health and safety is increasingly important. Determining risks for emerging technologies is difficult because health statistics associated with these new alternatives are unavailable. Nevertheless boundaries on such risks must be determined to identify potentially significant hazards and to permit technology comparisons to be made. An approach to determining occupational health costs is to disaggregate labor requirements of an emerging industy by different worker classifications. Risks to workers can then be determined for these classifications from occupational health statistics of related industries. By summing risks for each worker classification, prospective estimates of individual and societal risk from an emerging technology can be developed. Although this approach identifies accident-related effects, it cannot be used to quantitate occupationally induced disease. An example of this method analyzing different photovoltaic fabrication alternatives is given. Individual vs. societal risk is considered in these analyses.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH00016
- OSTI ID:
- 5209267
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-30748; CONF-811159-2; ON: DE82010897
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
530200 -- Environmental-Social Aspects of Energy Technologies-- Assessment of Energy Technologies-- (-1989)
552000* -- Public Health
570000 -- Health & Safety
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
ACCIDENTS
ENERGY SOURCE DEVELOPMENT
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
HUMAN POPULATIONS
OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES
PERSONNEL
POPULATIONS
PUBLIC HEALTH
RISK ASSESSMENT