Needs and Challenges of Nigeria Petroleum Industry in Assessing Process Safety Cumulative Risk

A cross-sectional exploratory assessment of the needs and challenges of petroleum industry in Nigeria, in assessing process safety cumulative risk for major accidents prevention was investigated. A purposive cum random sampling technique was used in this study, among selected petroleum companies operating in Nigeria. Survey questionnaires were received from 216 participants made up of asset integrity engineers/operators, process safety experts, production safety professionals in the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Data analyses were carried out to cover descriptive and inferential statistics. Overall, the study recognized that assessing process safety cumulative risk is not a simple process due largely to the changing nature of safety critical barriers degradation data. The study result showed four main challenges faced by petroleum industries in Nigeria, in assessing process safety cumulative risk: 1) the study showed that 94% of the respondents agreed that there is limited accessibility to safety critical barriers degradation data (little automation). Also 2) 94% of the respondents accounted for poor knowledge of process safety cumulative risk is and agreed it to be of low rating. The result further showed that 3) 90% of the respondents demonstrated that there are no guidance and procedures in assessing process safety cumulative risk and finally 4) 92% of the respondents reported that there is no real-time risk visualization model/ tool. Addressing these issues and challenges by the petroleum industries in the study area, will lead to successful assessment of process safety cumulative risk, thereby reducing the risk of major accidents.

Incidence, risk factors, and cumulative risk of delirium among ICU patients: A case-control study

Objectives: Delirium is a common acute cognitive impairment syndrome among intensive care unit (ICU) patients.This study was aimed to investigate the incidence,risk factors,and cumulative risk of delirium among ICU patients.Methods: A case-control study including clinical records of 452 patients were retrospectively analyzed.Delirium was assessed using the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU and Richmond Agitation -Sedation Scale.Results: We found that 163 out of the 452 patients (36.1%) had delirium.Multivariate analysis showed that use of sedatives,length of ICU hospitalization,and physical restraint were independent risk factors for delirium.The additive effect of all three factors resulted to an odds ratio of 30.950.Conclusion: The incidence of delirium remained high.Thus,nurses shall strengthen the monitoring of delirium,regularly access the patient's level of calmness,and limit the use of physical restraint.

Phthalates in Commercial Chinese Rice Wines: Concentrations and the Cumulative Risk Assessment to Adult Males in Shanghai

The concentrations of 16 phthalates in 164 commercial Chinese rice wines （CRW） were detected by GC-MS, and consumption data on CRW in different packaging types was investigated from 634 adult males in Shanghai using a food frequency questionnaire. Based on the prinq：iples of probabilistic modelling and cumulative risk assessment, the exposure and health risk of phthalates from CRW to adult males in Shanghai was evaluated. DMP, DEP, DIBP, DnBP, BBP, and DEHP were detected in the samples, thE： range of detection frequency of individual phthalates varied from 6.10% for BBP to 15.24% for DIBP, and the detected concentrations were 51.06-200.34 ng/mL. All the respondents consumed CRW, 90.69% of them consumed CRW 0.01-49.9 mL/d, the minimum value of the average daily intake of CRW was 6.25 mL/d, the median was 13.72 mL/d and the maximum was 300 mL/d. The median exposure level of the 6 detected Phthalates to adult males in Shanghai were 6.58-7.10 ng/（d.kg）, and the maximum exposure level were 137.38-540.47 ng/（d.kg）. The cumulative exposure health risk index （HI） based on the median and maximum exposure level of the 6 Phthalates （DMP, I~）EP, DIBP, DnBP, BBP, and DEHP） were 0.001147 ancl 0.063396, both were far less than 1. In conclusion, CRW were generally consumed by the adult males in Shanghai.

Implications of the Reanalysis and Weight of Evidence Determination of Human Health Studies for Exposure to Perchlorates under Cumulative and Aggregate Risk Assessment

This paper applies cumulative and aggregate risk methods and weight of evidence determination to re-analysis of epidemiological and clinical studies of exposure to perchlorates. The implications of cumulative and aggregate risk are considered for 28 epidemiological studies on IUI, serum thyroid hormone levels and clinical indicators. Consideration is given to simultaneous exposures to perchlorates, nitrates, thiocyanates and organohalogens in the study populations. The elevation of effects by perchlorates alone is found only in the studies that use urinary perchlorate as the metric of exposure. These studies are beset by a problem with use of urinary perchlorate concentration in that there is large inter-subject variability in the relationship between intake and urinary concentration due to differences in metabolism and disposition of the compounds following ingestion. As a result, an individual placed into the “high urinary concentration” group may be there due to high values of exposure, to long biological clearance halflives, or due to high transfer fractions from the serum into the urine. The influence could be removed by correcting urinary levels by measured clearance half-times for individuals in a study, but that has not been done in the case of the studies examined here. It is of interest therefore that the studies that use direct measures of intake of perchlorates rather than urine concentration fail to display the hormone effects. The current study uses a “weight of evidence” approach for perchlorates, employing all 28 studies. The result is a slope of the exposure response curve (percentage change in hormone effect per unit exposure) of 0.3% per μg/kg-day, with 95% confidence interval of (?0.05%, 1%). This confidence interval for the slope encompasses 0, indicating no statistically significant slope when all data are combined in a weight of evidence determination. This is consistent with the conclusions of the USEPA and EFSA that the epidemiological studies do not provide compelling evidence for a causal association between exposures to perchlorates and either hormone effects or clinically adverse effects. The conclusions are 1) that current epidemiological results do not provide evidence of effects induced by perchlorates apart from the IUI effects, 2) that the same results provide evidence that the IUI effects induced at environmental levels of exposure are associated with down-stream adverse effects and 3) that effective risk management requires the cumulative and aggregate risk framework adopted here, suggesting a need for risk assessors to return to the original studies and provide separate estimates of exposure response relationships for all four compounds or at the least to control for exposures to nitrates, thiocyanates and organohalogens.

Heavy metals in rice and garden vegetables and their potential health risks to inhabitants in the vicinity of an industrial zone in Jiangsu, China

Contamination of soil and agricultural products by heavy metals resulting from rapid industrial development has caused major concern. In this study, we investigated heavy metal （Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr, Hg and Cd） concentrations in rice and garden vegetables, as well as in cultivated soils, in a rural-industrial developed region in southern Jiangsu, China, and estimated the potential health risks of metals to the inhabitants via consumption of locally produced rice and garden vegetables. A questionnaire-based survey on dietary consumption rates of foodstuffs showed that rice and vegetables accounted for 64% of total foodstuffs consumed, and over 60% of rice and vegetables were grown in the local region. Average concentrations of Cr, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb were 0.75, 2.64, 12.00, 0.014, 0.006 and 0.054 mg/kg dw （dry weight） in rice and were 0.67, 1.18, 4.34, 0.011, 0.002 and 0.058 mg/kg fw （fresh weight） in garden vegetables, respectively. These values were all below the maximum allowable concentration in food in China except for Cr in vegetables. Leafy vegetables had higher metal concentrations than solanaceae vegetables. Average daily intake of Cr, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb through the consumption of rice and garden vegetables were 5.66, 16.90, 74.21, 0.10, 0.04 and 0.43 μg/（kg·day）, respectively. Although Hazard Quotient values of individual metals were all lower than 1, when all six metal intakes via self-planted rice and garden vegetables were combined, the Hazard Index value was close to 1. Potential health risks from exposure to heavy metals in self-planted rice and garden vegetables need more attention.