Abstract

Approximately 8% of all compensated workplace injuries in Quebec each year involve machinery of some kind. In the risk assessment process defined in ISO 12100, the risk estimation phase is an essential step in which machinery designers and users quantify risk and identify the most critical hazardous situations.
A number of methods and tools can be used to estimate risk. Two earlier IRSST-funded studies have shown there is a wide variety of such tools and that a number of their characteristics can influence the estimated level of risk.
The purpose of this third study is to confirm the impact of those specific characteristics and to validate certain design principles for risk estimation tools by focusing on seven tools that will be applied by different stakeholders to actual hazardous situations involving machinery. On the basis of the findings, robust, reliable configurations of risk estimation tools may be proposed and criteria defined for assessing existing tools or developing new ones.