Abstract
Fault-Trees (FT) and Event-Trees (ET) are useful analytic tools for the assessment of reliability and safety of complex technical
systems, and occupational health-safety systems (OHSS), as well. In this work we broaden and expand our previous study
regarding the features of FT/ET methods. To clarify this further, in the present article we statistically analyzed the results of a
literature survey, concentrated on FT/ET techniques applied in risk assessment (RA) of OHSSs, in order to (i) depict the
subsistent situation of their application in various occupational fields, and (ii) enhance their handling and usage in RA of OHSS.
The paper consists of two parts, including: (i) a literature survey (for years 2000-2012), concentrated on the main categories of
FT/ET techniques concerning OHSS RA, and (ii) an examination and statistical analysis of the corresponding scientific papers
published by thirteen representative scientific journals of Elsevier_B.V. and IEEE_Inc. The review shows that: (a) FT/ET
techniques are classified into three basic categories (qualitative, quantitative, hybrid), (b) in risk assessment of occupational
worksites, FT/ET application is not quite expanded and has not been extensively incorporated in the main RA methodologies of
OHSSs, despite their significance, (c) the papers with FT/ETs constitute a very small part of the literature (~0.71%), (d) the
qualitative methods present the highest relative occurrence-frequency (59%), and (e) the field of “Industry” concentrates the
highest percentage of the papers (34%).