HEALTH HAZARDS

As an orientation, a list of health hazards is included from the ATOMOS project. These are also factors to consider when designing a ship control centre. Any design project must deal with identification, assessment, and amelioration of short – or long­term hazards to health occurring as a result of normal operation of the SCC. The following hazards should be considered:

• Noise/vibration—Continuous/impulse sound or vibration that causes dam­age to hearing or vibration injuries in the short or long term. The values and references that cover the conditions that spaces on board ship should meet are to be found in the IMO Code for ‘Noise levels on board ship’.

• Toxicity—Poisonous materials or fumes generated by equipment, capable of causing injury or death in the short or long term. Also consider allergies.

• Electrical—Equipment that may provide easy exposure to electrical shock.

• Mechanical—Exposed equipment with moving parts that are capable of causing injury.

• Musculoskeletal—Tasks that adversely affect either the muscles or skeleton separately or in combination, e. g., lifting of heavy weights, repetitive move­ments, incorrect disposition of displays and/or commands, etc.

• Heat/cold—Sources that provide potential hazards from equipment generation.

• Optical—Equipment that is likely to provide ocular injury.

• Electromagnetic radiation—Other electromagnetic sources; e. g., magnetic fields, microwaves, etc.

Many of these considerations are studied under several MARPOL (The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollutions from Ships) chapters, where information needed to correctly handle dangerous goods is given (ATOMOS, 1998).

Updated: October 7, 2015 — 6:19 pm