Safety Decision-Making for Laboratory Processes in Academia

There is a need for a tool that facilitates safety decision-making in the academic environment. As this environment is very different from that of industry or other public sectors, there is no information available on the factors that influence the decision-making process when it concerns laboratory safety issues. Since most processes are new and change frequently, there is no standard list of safety measures to be applied. Thus, most processes require an initial risk assessment. This work aims to determine the factors that can be evaluated during the risk assessment by the safety expert, which will influence the decision-making process. However, this information is too specific for non-expert decision-makers. A decision aiding tool that provides decisionmakers with a list of the most optimal safety solutions is an effective way to quickly solve laboratory processes safety problems. The results show that subjective optimization methods do not help to overcome the existing contradictions between different decision-makers in the academic environment. Reference methods provide higher reliability because they are more objective and based on existing information. Comparing the Pareto Optimal approach with the two-reference method, the latter demonstrates higher reliability.