(1) Loss in value, usefulness, etc., to property or things. Harm causing any material loss. (2) Severity of injury or the physical, functional, or monetary loss that could result if hazard is not controlled.

The suggested base line of noise tolerance, which if not exceeded, should result in no hearing loss due to noise. A damage risk criterion may include in its statement a specification of such factors as time of exposure, noise intensity, noise frequency, amount of hearing loss that is considered significant, percentage of the population to be protected, and method of measuring the noise level.

Compensation which may be recovered in the courts by a person who has suffered loss, damage, or injury, whether to person or property, through the unlawful act, omission, or negligence of another. compensatory damages - That amount that will compensate the injured party for injury sustained, and nothing more, to make good or replace the loss. punitive damages - Damages assessed as a punishment to the wrongdoer, or as an example to others, for outrageous conduct or gross, wanton negligence.

A general term denoting liability or potential of injury, illness, damage, loss, or pain.

A physical area or location within which a danger exists.

Attended with risk; hazardous; unsafe. Something that if in normal use, danger or injury can be anticipated by the user. Something without adequate protection. imminently dangerous - Something, by reason of defective construction, that causes an impending or threatening, dangerous situation which could be expected to cause death or serious injury to persons in the immediate future unless corrective measures are taken. inherently dangerous - Something which is usually dangerous even in its normal or nondefective state, such as explosives or poisons, and requires special precautions and warnings so as to prevent injury.

Total full calendar days on which an injured person was unable to work as a result of injury. The total does not include the day of the injury or the day of return to work. (See LOST WORKDAYS.)

Violation of a regulatory standard that does not involve an immediate or direct relationship to the safety or health of an employee.

A term used to describe a person who has lost hearing before the speech patterns were established.

Refers to a person who has lost the ability to hear after normal speech patterns were established.

An injury which terminates fatally and is causally related to an accident. Death resulting from work injuries is assigned a time charge of 6,000 days each according to ANSI 16 standard.

A vital record signed by a licensed physician that includes cause of death, decedents name, sex, date of birth, date of death, place of residence and of death and usually occupation.

A unit used to express the ratio of two amounts of electric or acoustic signal power. The decibel is equal to 10 times the logarithm of the signal power ratio as expressed by the following equation: n(dB) = 10 log10 [(P1)/(P2)]

A condition caused by the formation and growth of bubbles in the blood or tissue resulting from a state of supersaturation with gas. This occurs when the sum of partial pressures of gases dissolved in a tissue exceeds the ambient pressure. It occurs in divers and compressed air workers on return from hyperbaric pressures to surface pressure or in aviators going from surface pressure to hypobaric pressures at altitude. Several specific clinical syndromes are described: Serious Symptom or Type II: Cerebral, Spinal Cord, Vestibular (the staggers), Pulmonary (the chokes). Simple or Type I: Pain-only bends, Skin bends (the niggles).

Removal of a polluting or harmful substance from air, water, earth surface, etc. For example, the process of removing hazardous chemical contamination from objects or areas.

The removal of radioactive material from a location where it is not desired. In regard to personnel it would include both removal of external contamination by washing and removal of internal contamination by the use of chelating agents or similar methods.

(1) Known or unknown unsafe or unwanted physical condition of material and/or equipment due to an inherent or created weakness that may lead to an accident.
(2) Anything that exceeds specifications or standards.

Lacking in some particular way which is essential to the completeness or security of the object.

An exothermic reaction which propagates from the burning gases to the unreacted material by conduction, convection, and radiation. The combustion zone progresses through the material at a rate that is less than the velocity of sound in the unreacted material.

(See OSTEOARTHRITIS.)

Ordinary- negligence is based upon the fact that one ought to have known the results of unsafe acts. Gross- negligence rests on the assumption that one knew the results of acts but was recklessly or wantonly indifferent to the results. All negligence below that called gross- or ordinary- by the courts is slight- negligence.

The number of vehicles occupying a unit length of the moving lanes of a roadway at a given instant. Usually expressed in vehicles per mile.

A variable that is considered to take on values at least in part as a result of the particular value of the independent variable.

The testimony of a witness taken upon interrogatories, not in open court, under oath, in writing and duly authenticated and intended to be used as evidence in court. (See INTERROGATORIES.)

The ability to judge distances of nearby objects by the use of both eyes.

Inflammation or irritation of the skin. Industrial dermatitis is an occupational skin disease. There are two general types of skin reaction: primary irritation dermatitis and sensitization dermatitis. (See IRRITANT.)

The planning of environments, structures, and equipment, and the establishment of procedures for performing tasks, so that human exposure to injury or illness potential will be reduced or eliminated. In product safety, design of the product for safe use.

A procedure for quality testing whereby the material being tested is destroyed in order to obtain the desired measurements.

A glass tube containing specific chemicals which have been impregnated on inert material granules and which will change color when chemicals in air are drawn through the tube.

An exothermic reaction that is characterized by the presence of a shock wave in the material that establishes and maintains the reaction. A distinctive feature is that the reaction zone propagates at a rate greater than sound velocity in the unreacted material.

Unsafe behaviors or unsafe conditions which contribute sequentially or concurrently in a chain of events leading to an accident.

Damage caused by the direct action of a peril as distinguished from damage done contingently.

The sum of compensation payments and medical expenses for an injury.

Any injury or illness, temporary or permanent, which prevents a person from carrying on usual activity. (See PERMANENT DISABILITY, PERMANENT PARTIAL DISABILITY, PERMANENT TOTAL DISABILITY.)

ANSI Standard Z16: An injury which prevents a person from performing a regularly established job for one full day (24 hours) beyond the day of the accident.

The number of disabling (lost time) injuries per million employee-hours of exposure: DIFR = Disabling Injuries x 1,000,000 / Employee-hours of exposure. (See

)

An index computed by multiplying the disabling injury frequency rate by the disabling injury severity rate and dividing the product by 1,000: DII = DIFR x DISR / 1000. This measure reflects both frequency and severity, yielding a combined index of total disabling injury (ANSI Z16). (See INCIDENCE RATE.)

The total number of days charged per million employee-hours of exposure: DISR = Total days charged x 1,000,000 / Employee- hours of exposure. (See INCIDENCE RATE.)

Advanced planning and established procedures for handling emergency situations.

A soft tissue structure between the bodies of the vertebrae. The central portion (nucleus) is a soft, pulpy material surrounded by an annular interplacement of tough, fibrous tissue.

A condition in which the central portion (nucleus) of the intervertebral disc protrudes or herniates through the annular fibrous tissue; it frequently presses on a nearby nerve. The medical term for this condition is herniation of the nucleus pulposus. Other terms commonly used are slipped disc, ruptured disc, prolapsed disc.

The seller may insert in his contract or agreement a statement that he does not warrant at all, or that he warrants only against specified consequences or costs. Disclaimers do not release the manufacturer or defendant from liability for negligence, nor are disclaimers a defense to statutory violations.

The grouping of persons with similar sign and symptoms and diagnostic test results into a disease entity which permits them to be distinguished from people with other disease entities; also, the arrangement of these disease entities into groups with common characteristics.

A blemish, defect, or deformity which harms the appearance or attractiveness of the human body or a physical structure.

A behavioral act or condition involved simultaneously or sequentially in the causal factors leading to an accident, but separated from the accident location by time and/or space.

The amount of radiation delivered to a specified area or the whole body. A dose meter, or dosimeter is an instrument that measures radiation dose. Dose rate is the dose delivered per unit of time. The term dose- or dosage- is also used generally to express the amount of energy or substance absorbed in a unit volume by an organ or individual.

The amount of exposure to a bioactive chemical agent that is received by an organism or individual.

A relationship in which a change in amount, intensity, or duration of exposure is associated with a change, either an increase or a decrease, in risk of a specific outcome.

Death from acute asphyxia while submerged, whether or not liquid has entered the lungs.

An extinguisher containing a chemical which extinguishes fire by interrupting the chain reaction wherein the chemicals used prevent the union of free radical particles in the combustion process so that combustion does not continue when the flame front is completely covered with the agent.

A fire extinguisher designed for use on combustible metals fires, such as sodium, titanium, uranium, zirconium, lithium, magnesium, and sodium-potassium alloys.

In regression analysis, a variable that is not continuously distributed, but which has two or more distinct levels; values are assigned to these levels, usually according to their presence or absence. For instance, the value 1 might be assigned to females and the value 0 to males.

Small solid particles generated by the breaking up of larger particles by processes such as crushing, grinding, drilling, explosions, etc. Dust particles already in existence in a mixture of materials may escape into the air through such operations as shoveling, conveying, screening, sweeping, etc. Dust is a term used in industry to describe airborne sold particles that range in size from 0.1 to 25 microns (1 micron = 1/10,000 cm = 0.001 mm = 1/25,000 in.). [Editor's Note: Although industry may still use the micron,- it is a term outside the International System, and CIPM (International Committee of Weights and Measures) considers it preferable to avoid. Like such terms as fermi,- caloric,- stere,- etc., the micron- is a nonacceptable term in American Society of Mechanical Engineers' publications, and it should be converted to its SI counterpart, viz, 0.000 001m.]

Lesions occurring in the bones, especially in juxta-articular areas, of divers and caisson workers. Small areas of bone die probably as a result of vascular occlusion by gas bubbles. Once detected, the lesions are essentially irreversible. No accepted method of therapy currently exists.