UNDERSTANDING DISASTER RISK 2 : HAZARD RELATED ISSUES 3 . 12 . TECHNOLOGICAL RISKS : CHEMICAL ACCIDENTS Coordinating (original) (raw)
Abstract
Chemical accident disasters are unplanned events involving hazardous substances, causing harm to human health, the environment, or economic loss or social disruption. While there is a long history of chemical accidents, with events recorded even more than 100 years ago, the study and implementation of technologies and approaches to preventing, preparing and responding to chemical accidents, only gained widespread attention in the last 40 years. There have been significant advancements in understanding accident phenomena, and in development of technology and management systems to control risks. Nonetheless, beyond a certain level of prevention, meaningful gains in prevention seem to elude our grasp. Indeed, in developed countries, such as European Union (EU) Member States and the USA, that have by far the most sophisticated understanding and oversight of chemical accident prevention, there are still a high frequency of serious chemical accidents each year, resulting in severe human, environmental and economic consequences. Moreover, there is an increasing presence of hazardous industries and of volumes of hazardous substances in commercial use in many developing countries where experience with industrial processing hazards and risks is relatively recent and where social and political infrastructures for dealing with the plethora of externalities accompanying industrial production are inadequate. Most experts do not believe that chemical accidents occur today because our understanding of engineering possibilities runs ahead of our understanding and predictive powers regarding their downsides. Rather, our challenges today stem from a myriad of inputs whose influence on chemical process risks is broadly known and understood, but that go largely unrecognized and unmanaged in organizations and on sites where the risks are actually present. Hence, it is not our lack of knowledge and understanding of how the technology works, but in many cases a lack of access to such knowledge, and in other cases, a failure to prioritize and use it wisely to prevent serious loss. Chemical accidents will continue to happen in the foreseeable future as long as chemicals and chemical processing are important for society. In particular, the usage and applications of chemicals is spreading and not decreasing. Moreover, production, transport and storage of dangerous substances are happening in places where these risks were never a problem before. In the meantime, there is evidence from the repetition of accidents from previous generations within industrialized economies that lessons of the past have been forgotten or ignored. This paper outlines the trends that threaten to increase chemical accident risks and proposes some recommendations to address them.
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![Figure 2: Chemical accident disasters reported from 2012-2016 (N=29), occurring in industries producing, handling or storing dangerous substances, including oil and gas, petrochemical and chemical industries, as well as “non-chemicals” business, such as power generation, food manufacturing, and water treatment. The frequency of chemical disasters occurring in developing countries 2012-2016 was more or less equivalent to that of developed countries, but fatality rates were much higher. It is speculated that risks to humans are less well-managed in developing countries. Non-human impacts (environment, economic loss, property damage) were often quite severe in both developed and developing regions. [53]](https://figures.academia-assets.com/78820470/figure_002.jpg)
](Figure 2: Chemical accident disasters reported from 2012-2016 (N=29), occurring in industries producing, handling or storing dangerous substances, including oil and gas, petrochemical and chemical industries, as well as “non-chemicals” business, such as power generation, food manufacturing, and water treatment. The frequency of chemical disasters occurring in developing countries 2012-2016 was more or less equivalent to that of developed countries, but fatality rates were much higher. It is speculated that risks to humans are less well-managed in developing countries. Non-human impacts (environment, economic loss, property damage) were often quite severe in both developed and developing regions. [53]
![Figure 3. Relationship between the risk management principles, framework and processes (ISO 31000:2009 Risk management - Principles and guidelines) [22]](https://figures.academia-assets.com/78820470/figure_003.jpg)
](Figure 3. Relationship between the risk management principles, framework and processes (ISO 31000:2009 Risk management - Principles and guidelines) [22]
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