A new paradigm for commercial relationships -- Behavioral economics in deal-making -- The trust factor : the keystone of negoeconomics -- Rules of the game : defining and setting expectations -- Preparation and analysis prior to bargaining : the first 5 phases of the negotiation process -- Creating a culture of trust and openness -- Where the "bigger" comes from: expanding the range of negoeconomic potential -- Style choices -- Sealing the deal : the second 5 phases of the negotiation process -- How big is my piece? : how the added value is shared -- Dealing with stress, threats, and bluffing -- Make the pie bigger and nobody loses -- Conclusion : restoring trust to the marketplace : it all starts with you
"Deal-makers who are stuck on the traditional path define success as concluding a transaction at the cheapest possible acquisition cost. This approach takes only two variables into account: price and quantity. Haggling for the cheapest price is really not negotiation at all, according to Jensen's way of thinking. He suggests these people are not really aware of the process that can yield a mutually beneficial result, enhancing the value of the take-away for both parties. Haggling for the deepest discount eliminates the magic ingredients that expand the room to negotiate and, consequently, the range of variables the delegates have to work with in order to make the pie bigger. The magic ingredients are trust and cooperation."--
Denmark was heavily militarized until the Napoleonic wars. After heavy territorial losses to Sweden in 1814 and to Prussia in 1864, it concluded that only the Copenhagen area could be defended and spent much on fortifications there before World War I. The interwar period combined isolated neutrality with a low Danish military profile (about 1% of GNP); after the German occupation during World War II it joined NATO and rearmed. Its arms expenditures have quadrupled in absolute terms since about 1950, but have receded from about 3 to about 2% of GNP. This rearmament has been at about NATO pace and slightly slower than European NATO. It also indicates that Denmark has taken a more relaxed view since the 1960s than Norway and Finland. If military expenditures are reduced, the conversion problems will primarily concern manpower: some 40,000 persons are directly employed by the defence ministry. A reduction of some 3% per annum could be absorbed without anybody losing employment, but a slower reduction might be called for to avoid demographical problems in the armed forces. In addition, the closing of air and naval bases and regiments would create local problems. Most defence materiel is imported; domestic orders — and some compensation purchases linked to import — employ some 5,000 persons in Denmark. Lost orders would normally create conversion problems. Some 5,000 additional persons produce goods and services to the ministry other than `defence materiel proper' (construction, maintenance, etc.). There would often be an alternative civilian market, but closing major bases down may in some cases make the local market too small to absorb the lost military demand.
In: Ecotoxicology and environmental safety: EES ; official journal of the International Society of Ecotoxicology and Environmental safety, Band 80, S. 216-223
Abstract Diesel engine exhaust (DEE) is carcinogenic and potentially hazardous for those working in close proximity to diesel-powered machines. This study characterizes workplace exposure to DEE and its associated particulate matter (PM) during outdoor construction activities. We sampled at 4 construction sites in the Copenhagen metropolitan area. We used portable constant-flow pumps and quartz-fiber filters to quantify personal exposure to elemental carbon (EC), and used real-time instruments to collect activity-based information about particle number and size distribution, as well as black carbon (BC) concentration. Full-shift measurements of EC concentration ranged from < 0.3 to 6.4 µg/m3. Geometric mean (GM) EC exposure was highest for ground workers (3.4 µg/m3 EC; geometric standard deviation, GSD = 1.3), followed by drilling rig operators (2.6 µg/m3 EC; GSD = 1.4). Exposure for non-drilling-rig machine operators (1.2 µg/m3 EC; GSD = 2.9) did not differ significantly from background (0.9 µg/m3 EC; GSD = 1.7). The maximum 15-min moving average concentration of BC was 17 µg/m3, and the highest recorded peak concentration was 44 µg/m3. In numbers, the particle size distributions were dominated by ultrafine particles ascribed to DEE and occasional welding activities at the sites. The average total particle number concentrations (PNCs) measured in near-field and far-field positions across all worksites were 10,600 (GSD = 3.0) and 6,000 (GSD = 2.8)/cm3, respectively. Sites with active drilling rigs saw significantly higher average total PNCs at their near-field stations (13,600, 32,000, and 9,700/cm3; GSD = 2.4, 3.4, and 2.4) than sites without (4,700/cm3; GSD = 1.6). Overall, the DEE exposures at these outdoor construction sites were below current occupational exposure limits for EC (10 µg/m3 in Denmark; 50 µg/m3 in the European Union), but extended durations of exposure to the observed DEE levels may still be a health risk.
Objectives Work and research with nanomaterials (NMs) has primarily focused on innovation, toxicity, governance, safety management tools, and public perceptions. The aim of this study was to identify academia and industry occupational safety and health (OSH) managers' perceptions and handling of NMs, in relation to safety culture.
Methods Semistructured interviews were carried out with OSH managers at six academic institutions and six industrial companies. The interview statements were coded into five topics regarding NMs: risk comprehension, information gathering, actions, communication, and compliance. The statements were then coded according to a five-step safety culture maturity model reflecting increasing occupational safety maturity from passive, to reactive, active, proactive, and exemplary occupational safety.
Results The safety culture maturity of the academic institutions were primarily active and proactive, whereas the industry group were primarily active and reactive. None of the statements were rated as exemplary, with the majority reflecting an active safety culture. The topics varied from a passive approach of having no focus on NMs and regarding risks as a part of the job, to applying proactive measures in the design, production, application, and waste management phases. Communication and introduction to OSH issues regarding NMs as well as compliance provided challenges in both academia and industry, given the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of students/staff and employees. Workplace leaders played a crucial role in establishing a legitimate approach to working safely with NMs, however, the currently available OSH information for NMs were described as insufficient, impractical, and inaccessible. There was an embedded problem in solely relying on safety data sheets, which were often not nanospecific, as this may have led to underprotection.
Conclusions There is a need for more structured, up-to-date, easily accessible, and user-friendly tools and information regarding toxicity and threshold limit values, relevant OSH promotion information, legislation, and other rules. The study underscores the need for politicians and engineers to collaborate with communication experts and both natural and social scientists in effectively framing information on NMs. Such a collaboration should allow for flexible deployment of multilevel and integrated safety culture initiatives to support sustainable nanotechnology and operational excellence.
Introduction Generated dust during the powder handling processes at the workplaces causes serious worker exposure risk. Dustiness of a powder is the most relevant factor influencing powder exposure potential. The purpose of this study was to incorporate Safe-by-Design approach to reduce dustiness of particularly nanostructured powders to ultimately reduce the worker exposure.
Methodology Several physio-chemical properties of nanostructured powders and handling activity parameters were studied to determine their impact on powder dustiness. The first phase of the study was experimental in which dustiness and release tests were carried out. In the second phase, qualitative modelling was done with an objective of the dustiness prediction based on the powder physio-chemical properties and activity handling energy.
Results While increasing some properties, e.g. bulk density, electrostatic charge potential, decreased dustiness index, increasing other parameters, e.g. water repellence, increased the dustiness index, with linear and non-linear relationships. Increase in dustiness was observed with increasing fiber diameter and stiffness for high aspect ratio powders. Handling energy factors corrected dustiness indices from standard dustiness test methods reduced their deviation from real world powder handling activities, particularly for pouring and transferring.
Conclusions Based on the results, safe-by-design approach can be applied to nanostructured powders by altering powder and process properties to pre-emptively reduce their dustiness (if not eliminate). The developed qualitative modelling is a first step in this direction which can be used as a predictive new approach methodology to be employed in the early stages of product innovation to reduce worker exposure risk.
Abstract Several exposure assessment models use dustiness as an input parameter for scaling or estimating exposure during powder handling. Use of different dustiness methods will result in considerable differences in the dustiness values as they are based on different emission generation principles. EN17199:2019 offers 4 different dustiness test methods considering different dust release scenarios (e.g. powder pouring, mixing and gentle agitation, and vibration). Conceptually, the dustiness value by a given method can be multiplied with a scenario-specific modifier, called a handling energy factor (Hi), that allows conversion of a dustiness value to a release constant. Therefore, a Hi, scaling the effective mechanical energy in the process to the energy supplied in the specific dustiness test, needs to be applied. To improve the accuracy in predictive exposure modelling, we derived experimental Hi to be used in exposure algorithms considering both the mass- and number-based dust release fraction determined by the EN17199-3 continuous drop (CD) and the EN17199-4 small rotating drum (SRD) test methods. Three materials were used to evaluate the relationship between dustiness and dust levels during pouring powder from different heights in a controlled environment. The results showed increasing scatter and difference between the Hi derived for the 2 test methods with increasing pouring height. Nearly all the Hi values obtained for both SRD and CD were <1 indicating that the dustiness tests involved more energy input than the simulated pouring activity and consequently de-agglomeration and dust generation were higher. This effect was most pronounced in CD method showing that SRD mechanistically resembles more closely the powder pouring.
Abstract The plastics industry is a major contributor to the world economy, and in 2019 alone, there were some 480 million metric tons of plastic produced worldwide. Although a great deal of attention has been given to measuring and understanding the extent of plastic in the environment and its associated human exposure, much less is known about the human exposure to plastics during its production. The aim of this study is to characterize in detail the particulate matter (PM) emitted from various processes involved in the manufacturing and recycling of plastics. Here we report our findings from an initial campaign carried out at a Danish plastics factory. Online instruments were used to determine the particle number and mass concentrations for particles in the range of 10nm to 10µm, over the course of five hours, at both near- and far-field positions with respect to activities associated with the processing of plastics, including extruding, thermoforming, mixing, crushing, and rolling. For fine particles (<300nm), the average total particle number concentrations associated with these activities were 3.3x104, 4.0x103, 2.8x104, 3.5x104, and 6.9x104 #/cm3, respectively. Respirable dust concentrations were 13, 7, 9, 7 (calculated), and 12 µg/m3, respectively, and total dust concentrations were similar or slightly higher. These data suggest that the principal contributions to human exposure in the facility are fine and ultrafine particles. In addition to the real-time data and mass concentrations, samples are also analyzed for elemental composition and plastics. This research was supported by FFIKA, a grant from the Danish government.
One- and two-box models have been pointed out as useful tools for modelling indoor particle exposure. However, model performance still needs further testing if they are to be implemented as trustworthy tools for exposure assessment. The objective of this work is to evaluate the performance, applicability and reproducibility of one- and two-box models on real-world industrial scenarios. A study on filling of seven materials in three filling lines with different levels of energy and mitigation strategies was used. Inhalable and respirable mass concentrations were calculated with one- and two-box models. The continuous drop and rotating drum methods were used for emission rate calculation, and ranges from a one-at-a-time methodology were applied for local exhaust ventilation efficiency and inter-zonal air flows. When using both dustiness methods, large differences were observed for modelled inhalable concentrations but not for respirable, which showed the importance to study the linkage between dustiness and processes. Higher model accuracy (ratio modelled vs. measured concentrations 0.5–5) was obtained for the two- (87%) than the one-box model (53%). Large effects on modelled concentrations were seen when local exhausts ventilation and inter-zonal variations where parametrized in the models. However, a certain degree of variation (10–20%) seems acceptable, as similar conclusions are reached. ; This research was funded by the Spanish MINECO (CGL2015-66777-C2–1-R, 2-R and 679 RTI2018-098095-B-C21) and Danish Government (FFIKA, Focused Research Effort on Chemicals in 680 the Working Environment). Additional support was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project CEX2018-000794-S), Generalitat de Catalunya AGAUR 2017 SGR41, and 682 FEDER (European Regional Development Fund) "Una manera de hacer Europa". ; Peer reviewed
