Risk and hazard

The hazard and risk of chemicals (e.g., pesticides), should be of concern to users. Hazard is the danger of exposure to a chemical risk is the magnitude of harm resulting from such an exposure and the possibility of its happening. This may be formulated as  

A highly toxic chemical (e.g., a pesticide) may be used without causing harmful effect if it is handled with care and caution. Exposure to pesticides can be minimized by wearing protective clothing and equipment and by learning to handle pesticides carefully. If the exposure to the pesticide is low or even nil, the risk is reduced, even when handling highly toxic pesticides. 

Present knowledge regarding the transformation of less harmful chemical(s) into more hazardous ones or vice versa is sketchy. The growing concern about chemical safety and health hazards from innumerable substances present around us in developed and third world countries has been well documented.1-18 Meaningful 

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The remaining step in the hazard identification and risk assessment procedure shown in Figure 1 is to decide on risk acceptance. For this step, few resources are available and analysts are left basically by themselves. Some companies have formal risk acceptance criteria. Most companies, however, use the results on a relative basis. That is, the results are compared to another process or processes where hazards and risks are weU-characterized. 

Accidents in chemical plants make headline news, especially when there is loss of hfe or the general public is affected in even the slightest way. This increases the public s concern and may lead to government action. The terms hazard and risk are defined as follows ... 

Government regulations reqmre hazard and risk analysis as part of process safety management (PSM) programs. These are part of the process safety programs of many chemical process facilities. 

Definition of Terms Following are some definitions that are useful in understanding the components of hazards and risk (CPQRA, 1989, pp. 3, 4). 

Hazard and Risk Assessment Tools The hazard and risk assessment tools used vary with the stage of the project from the early design stage to plant operations. Many techniques are available, both quahtative and quantitative, some of which are hsted in the following section. Reviews done early in projects often result in easier, more effective changes. 

It is essential that good techniques be developed for identi ng significant hazards and mitigating them where necessaiy. Hazards can be identified and evaluated using approaches discussed in the section on hazard and risk analysis. 

ERPG is defined in the section on hazard and risk analysis. 

Jones, D., Nomenclature for Hazard and Risk Assessment in the Process Industries, Second Edition, Rugby, Wai-wickshire, UK Institution of Chemical Engineers, 1992. 

Hazard and risk explained. Control of Substances hazardous to Health Regulations 1988 (COSHH) Do you use a steam/water pressure cleaner You could be m for a shock ... 

Contains the health hazards and risks, toxicological data, and first aid procedures Exposure routes and limits signs and symptoms target organs and medical conditions aggravated by exposure. 

Often an organization will strive for the elimination of a specific toxic material from a given process. Alternatives will also have other hazards and risks that require an informed choice. The industrial hygienist, chemist, and safety engineer play an important role in developing the information for making the selection between alternatives. 

Deactivation and D D actions can range from stabilization of multiple hazards at a single site or facilities containing chemical or radioactive contamination, or both, to routine asbestos and lead abatement in a nonindustrial structure. Strategies include programs that meet compliance objectives, protect workers, and make certain that productivity and cost-effectiveness are maintained. The content and extent of health and safety-related programs should be proportionate to the types and degrees of hazards and risks associated with specific operations. 

Occupational Delineating occupational hazards and risks and prevention... 

The official report sums up the lessons of the fire by saying that it might have been prevented or its severity greatly reduced if a more detailed assessment of the inherent hazards and risks of the plant had been carried out by the company beforehand and if adequate records had been kept to build up a history on which an inspection and replacement program could have been based. 

Protective systems are employed to reduce/eliminate hazards and risks, and may be viewed as a special category of process equipment. Ten examples of protective systems are provided below. The management of protective systems information should occur within the management of systems for process and equipment. However, with protective systems equipment, it is particularly... 

In Section 20.2, equations for tlie reliability of series and parallel systems are established. Various reliability relations are developed in Section 20.3. Sections 20.4 and 20.5 introduce several probability distribution models lliat are extensively used in reliability calculations in hazard and risk analysis. Section 20.6 deals witli tlie Monte Carlo teclinique of mimicking observations on a random variable. Sections 20.7 and 20.8 are devoted to fault tree and event tree analyses, respectively. 

A description of operations on site and of the hazards and risks that might affect the recipient. 

Before continuing, it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of hazard and risk because they are often used interchangeably which is inappropriate and potentially confusing. Hazard is defined as an inherent capacity of an agent to result in harm, whereas risk is defined as the probability that harm may result under the appropriate set of circumstances. This relationship can be expressed with the following formula ... 

Safe, S. (1998) Hazard and Risk Assessment of Chemical Mixtures Using the Toxic Equivalency Factor Approach. Environmental Health Perspectives, 106(Suppl. 4), 1051-1058. 

A note of caution is appropriate at this juncture as many confuse the inherent hazard of materials with risk. This will be covered in slightly greater detail later in this chapter, but it is important to distinguish between hazard and risk. Risk is defined as being a function of the inherent hazard of a material and the potential, or likelihood, for exposure ... 

A Resources to identify chemicals of concern B Chemical toxicity C Exposure assessment tools D Hazard and risk assessment tools E Safer chemistry design tools... 

A large number of research and review papers have been published in recent years on the integration of data on physicochemical properties, in vitro derived toxicity data, and physiologically based kinetics and dynamics as a modeling tool in hazard and risk assessment [72-85]. 

Measures used to parameterise, or to limit, these component elements may vary between different t es of hazard and risk, between different components of the overall environment, or between different economic and cultural systems but the underpinning logic of the approach remains a transparent and potent taxonomy. 

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