Avaliação de impactos ambientais pelo método FMEA: o caso do Laboratório de Materiais de Construção do Campus do Sertão

Abstract

The Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) laboratories are required to carry a significant load of research and activities that, directly or indirectly, are major generators of environmental aspects and impacts. In many cases, the monitoring of this generation is not effective enough in the identification and control, resulting in losses with regard to the results proposed by the academic actions. For this reason, the research proposes an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the building materials laboratory at UFAL Campus do Sertão. The intention of the study was to identify the environmental aspects and impacts related to the activities carried out within the laboratory and to investigate its current control mechanisms. To this end, the main actions performed were selected, in addition to the characteristics and conditions of the environment to perform the evaluation by the method of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA). As a result, 16 groups of tests and 4 environmental characteristics were analyzed, 6 of which were classified as having a moderate level of risk and 3 with a relevant level of risk, the most significant within the assessment. For aspects and impacts related to activities and characteristics with moderate and relevant levels, prevention and mitigation measures were suggested and proposed, in addition to the composition of a small document with key information on good practices. Regarding the cases with a relevant risk level classification, it was possible to make a comparison between the current control situation and a future control, provided that prevention and mitigation measures are followed. For these aspects, the value of the Risk Priority Number (RPN) significantly decreased, thus obtaining a less severe risk level classification.