A Methodology for Dynamic Assessment of Laboratory Safety by SEM-SD

Laihao Ma, Xiaoxue Ma, Jingwen Zhang, Qing Yang and Kai Wei
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Laihao Ma: School of Marine Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Xiaoxue Ma: School of Public Administration and Humanities, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Jingwen Zhang: School of Public Administration and Humanities, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Qing Yang: School of Public Administration and Humanities, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Kai Wei: School of Public Administration and Humanities, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Lab safety problems have become an impeding factor that cannot be ignored in normal teaching and scientific research activities at colleges and universities. As the risk factors of lab accidents can be conceptualized as occurring at multiple levels, systematically improving and optimizing lab safety is the crucial route to accident prevention in labs. In this paper, a novel method that integrates a structural equation model (SEM) and system dynamics (SD) is presented to dynamically assess lab safety with the characteristics of insufficient data and uncertainty. On the basis of a questionnaire investigation, the SEM was utilized to determine the influencing factors on lab safety and acquire the path coefficients among these factors, which were embedded into the SD model as the weight of the influencing factors. An illustration was carried out to test and validate the proposed method, and a sensitivity analysis was also conducted to recognize variables contributing the most to the improvement of lab safety. The results demonstrated that the safety input of human and management subsystems is the most effective to improve the lab safety; meanwhile, “safety awareness”, “emergency ability”, “operation skills”, “safety culture” and “safety training” are the top five contributing factors, which can promote lab safety in the shortest time.

Keywords: lab safety; safety input; influencing factors; SEM; SD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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