Risk assessment and uncertainty analysis of chemicals in laboratories

For Analysis of risk assessment, the Microbiology Laboratory in University of Nevada, Reno was selected. The Risk due to Fire, Explosion, inhalation exposure and dermal exposure were assessed. The main objective of this thesis was to rank laboratories according to the level of risk. The approach used for Fire and explosion index is from Dow's Fire and Explosion index guide, which was used for large plants. In order to use this approach for laboratories, the parameters were scaled to laboratory standards. A new approach was used for Inhalation exposure and was compared to the previous studies and ranked. Skin Exposure Risk is assessed by using DERMWIN software from EPA and ranked by comparing it to previous studies.; Using Monte Carlo Simulation, an Uncertainty analysis was performed to determine the variability in the physical properties, which were used to calculate the Risk indices. It was seen that there was no much variation of the output for this specific laboratories due to small quantities of substances. The Results obtained for this laboratory for Risk Indices for Fire explosion index, inhalation exposure index, and dermal exposure index were 1, 1, and 1 respectively. The Laboratory had a moderate risk due to fire and explosion risk, it was slightly toxic laboratory in terms of inhalation risk and it had moderate risk due to dermal exposure. From the uncertainty Analysis it was seen that even though there was variation in Ratio of exposure concentration to limit concentration for inhalation exposure, the variation of final risk index was very less. There was variation in dermal exposure risk indices of chemicals in this laboratory. Even though there was variation of fire and explosion index, it remained in the range of moderate risk due to fire and explosion.