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Quality and Risk. Eduardas Davidavicius and Asta Cesuniene, Institute of Chemistry, Lithuania
Quality effects every aspect of an organization. For a product to be successful, the insurance of quality requires comprehensive systems. Production is the process of converting the resources available in an organization into products and services. The collection of all interrelated activities and operations involved in producing products and service is called a production system Three major areas of quality are critical to any production system: product development, the production process and product use. Product development and product use are customer-oriented activities. One of the most important constituent parts of quality is environment and it's management.
Environmental quality management system serves as a basic for
sustainable development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generation to meet
their own needs. This definition of sustainable development is
exclusive, because the maximum of consumption that individual can
expect to maintain while keeping the initial level of wealth
intact depend on this expectation of future prices and interest
rates.
The environmental resources serving as inputs are valued in
themselves, is the result, not the means, that must be sustained.
This implies avoiding pollution of water, air and land on which
our live and our work depends.
If society is to function in a sustainable long manner,
product must be designed from their initiation that they contain
as little material and consume as few resources as possible in
their manufacture and use.
Quality is complicated system that can be investigated as a
complex of mutually connected subsystems of standardization,
metrology, certification and accreditation.
One of the most important factors in the field of quality is
standards. The quality policy of ISO is carried out by technical
committee of standardization ISO TC 176 "Quality Management
and Assurance". The main ment of the committee's work are
ISO standards of series 9000 -- the quality management standards.
ISO 9000 focuses on the process which a product in
manufactured or service provided'. It says nothing about product
or service itself It is entirely possible for a product to be
poorly designed, shoddy or even dangerous or for a service to be
entirely useless but still be ISO 9000 registered.
The area's quality includes environment and safety. In
carrying on the approach to the revision of international
standards ISO 9000 it needs establishing risk management. Risk
management will be accomplished by combining already existing
methods of ISO 9000 (Quality management), ISO 14000
(Environmental management) and methods for risk analysis.2
Every product has some effect on the environment during its
manufacture, distribution, use or disposal. These effects may be
range from slight to significant: they may be short-term or long
term, and they may occur at the global, regional or local level.
Requirements in product standards may influence significantly
the extent of these environmental effects. Despite the
difficulties involved, a product's environmental effect should be
considered when product standards are developed.
For inclusion of environmental aspects in product standards
is recommend the use of life cycle thinking and recognized
scientific methodologies.3 Attempts to address a given
environmental effects may have consequences at any or all of the
stages of a product's life cycle.
The process of anticipating or identifying a product's
environmental effect's is complex and includes: product concept,
product design, product life cycle, improvement strategies and
environmental impacts.
A product's environmental effects should be balanced against
other factors, including product function, performance, safety
and health, cost, marketability. In developing product standards
it is important to recognize how products can affect the
environment at different stages of their life cycle.
A product's environmental effects are largely determined by
the inputs that are used and the outputs that are generated at
all stages of the products life cycle. Changing any single input,
either to alter the materials and used or to influence a single
output may effect other inputs and outputs. Figure 1 illustrates
the conseptional relationship between provision in product
standards and the environmental effects associated with products
during it's life cycle.
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The environmental management includes three methodologies --
risk assessment, risk communication (teaching and information)
and risk management. The growing demands for chemical products in
industry, agriculture and private life make a problem of risk
management, prevention and reduction very urgent. Means for
technological risk estimation are among the most debatable ones.
There are three main methods to solve this problem, viz.:
synthetic (complex) method, quantitative method and subjective
method.
The risk estimation theory proposed by Americans may serve as
an example of synthetic method.4 The theory is
based on risk establishing and evaluation (Fig. 2).
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The prime objective of such an analysis to determine the
limiting permissible risk in certain potential spheres of it (in
energetic, chemical objects, etc.). Risk degrees may be: I- Too
high; II-High; III- Inactive - normal.
Combinations of various methods are propose to be used in
analysis of each risk level.
The Quantitative methods of risk estimation is based
on the requirements imposed upon technical standards, over which
the risk degree is undesirable. The balance between the expenses
intended for the lessening of risk possible impacts of the risk
estimated in this case.
The Subjective risk estimation is mostly based on the
works performed by specialists in the humanities, viz.:
sociologists and psychologists. To their mind, the estimation of
life of a human being in terms of money is not right from the
ethical point of view.
To our mind, all methods of risk estimation, involving
technical, economical and ethical ones, may be used and have
success.
The world practice shows that the risk problems are most
urgent energetic and chemical industry.
The average price of an accident in chemical industry ranges
from 30 to 50 millions USD. The average cost of an accident in
oil refining pipe-lines is over 100 millions USD. The accidents
at plants of chemical industry and energetic were accompanied by
fires and explosions. In consequence of this, there were great
human sacrifices, contamination of the atmosphere and waters.
Corrosion of pipe-lines, tankage and that of equipment is one of
essential reasons for such accidents.
It can be seen that environmental control and safety are
indispensable elements in investigations of quality. A system of
risk estimation should therefore be taken into account when
revising the standards of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000.
In the last couple of years, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has begun to require ecological risk
assessment. EPA has provided agency-wide guidance for performing
human health risk assessment since 1986 and provides detailed
guidance for risk assessments.5,6,7
The general risk assessment paradigm presented by the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences and adopted by U.S. agencies is
generally applicable to ecological risk assessments (Figure 3.).
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The problems of quality and risk are very urgent in
Lithuania. They involve integration into ES and its market in the
first place. In second place, the elements of higher risk present
at the territory of Lithuania are also very important to both
Lithuania and all the European region. They involve the developed
gas network, oil processing industry, oil pipe-lines, the atomic
power plant and giant plants of chemical industry.
Lithuania needs very much experience and help of West
Countries to evaluate the quality and lessen the risk Presently,
provision is made for work in the field of risk corrosion in
energetic and chemical industry of Lithuania. It would include
monitoring as well as investigation of international, European
and national standards in this field.
References