Hazard identification safety assessment

According to Kharbanda and Stallworthy (1988) safety is a concept covering hazard identification, risk assessment and accident prevention. Safety should always come first and remain so despite of costs. Good design and forethought can often bring increased safety at less cost. 

The major change is in Section 4.3.1 - Environmental Aspects under ISO 14001 and Planning for hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control under OHSAS 18001. OHSAS is much more detailed and prescriptive in how hazards are identified, and how risks are identified, assessed and controlled compared to how aspects and impacts are managed under ISO 14001. The environmental benefits derived from implementation of ISO14001 would similarly be expected to be realized by including occupational health and safety into the applicability of an environmental management system. For the record, many organizations have chosen to add occupational health and safety into the scope of their ISO 14001 EMS. 

The Safety Management Program covers a broad spectnim of issues fiom hazard identification and assessment to hazard control during deagn and operations to enhance worker and public safety. 

This chapter comments on the Management Review elements pertaining to Hazard identification Risk assessment and prioritization Progress made in risk reduction The effectiveness of procedures to eliminate or control identified hazards and risks Actions taken on the recommendations made in safety and health audits and The extent to which set objectives have been met. 

Providing ways for employees to become involved in hazard identification and assessment, prioritizing hazards, safety training, and management system evaluation... 

Requirements for risk assessments are more explicit in the 2007 revision of BS OHSAS 18001 2007, Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems—Requirements. Commonly spoken of as 18001, this British Standards Institution publication now says The organization shall establish, implement and maintain aprocedure(s) for the ongoing hazard identification, risk assessment, and determination of necessary controls. ... 

Guidelines for Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Risk Control (HIRARC). (2008). Department of Occupational Safety and Health Ministry of Human Resources Malaysia. Retrieved from http //bit.ly/bBXZYW. 

Consistent with the obligation to ensure that compliance remains in the workplace (and not with Government) new performance based standards require hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control. Such activities are basic and necessary to a functional system of safety management, but the requirement introduces a subjective element into the process which continues to cause problems and disputes as to whether what has been done complies with the legal requirement (Dell, 2001). 

System Conceptualisation, Representation and Scoping (System Analysis). This stage of the analysis is often omitted from safety literatnre and standards. This preparatoiy phase is necessaiy in order to provide a stmctured framework and systematic approach for the hazard identification, risk assessment, and for snpporting a holistic approach to the analysis. Some form of system description model, for example state transition model or sequence and collaboration diagrams, should be used as the basis for hazard identification, as the hazards resulting from each system interface, process or interaction can be elicited. The novel approach, developed as part of the research, to system conceptualisation in support of safety analysis, is discussed later in the book ... 

Banks, W., Wells, J. E. (1992). A Probabilistic Risk Assessment Using Human Reliability Analysis Methods. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis, Human Factors, and Human Reliability in Process Safety. New York American Institute of Chemical Engineers, CCPS. 

In this study detailed fault trees with probability and failure rate calculations were generated for the events (1) Fatality due to Explosion, Fire, Toxic Release or Asphyxiation at the Process Development Unit (PDU) Coal Gasification Process and (2) Loss of Availability of the PDU. The fault trees for the PDU were synthesized by Design Sciences, Inc., and then subjected to multiple reviews by Combustion Engineering. The steps involved in hazard identification and evaluation, fault tree generation, probability assessment, and design alteration are presented in the main body of this report. The fault trees, cut sets, failure rate data and unavailability calculations are included as attachments to this report. Although both safety and reliability trees have been constructed for the PDU, the verification and analysis of these trees were not completed as a result of the curtailment of the demonstration plant project. Certain items not completed for the PDU risk and reliability assessment are listed. 

Hazard identification can be performed independent of risk assessment. However, the best result is obtained if they are done together. One outcome is that hazards of low probability and minimal consequences are identified and addressed with the result that the process is gold-plated. This means that potentially unnecessary and expensive safety equipment and procedures are implemented. For instance, flying aircraft and tornadoes are hazards to a chemical plant. What are the chances of their occurrence, and what should be done about them For most facilities the probability of these hazards is small No steps are required for prevention. Likewise, hazards with reasonable probability but minimal consequences are sometimes also neglected. 

In addition to an overview of government regulations, the book introduces the resources of the AICHE Center for Chemical Process Safety library. Guidelines are offered for hazard identification and risk assessment. The book concludes with case histories drawn directly from the authors experience in the field. 

FIG. 23-1 The hazard identification and risk assessment procedure. [Guidelines for Hazards Evaluation Procedures, Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) copyright 1985 AICHE and reproduced with permission. ]... 

In the chemical safety report, the hazard assessment of a particular substance is based on the data set provided in the technical dossier. This contains substance-specific information on physicochemical properties as well as on toxicological and ecotoxicological hazards. One objective of the hazard assessment is the substance s hazard identification, which comprises the determination of its physicochemical and hazardous properties for the purpose of classification. Concerning human health hazards, both human and nonhuman information is taken into consideration and evaluated with respect to the classification criteria laid down in the Dangerous Substances Directive and in the CLP Regulation, respectively. However, in most cases human data do not exist, so the hazard identification has to be based on data from animal experiments. With respect to teratogenicity, this hazardous property may in principle be detected in the following toxicity studies ... 

Although dose-response assessments for deterministic and stochastic effects are discussed separately in this Report, it should be appreciated that many of the concepts discussed in Section 3.2.1.2 for substances that cause deterministic effects apply to substances that cause stochastic effects as well. The processes of hazard identification, including identification of the critical response, and development of data on dose-response based on studies in humans or animals are common to both types of substances. Based on the dose-response data, a NOAEL or a LOAEL can be established based on the limited ability of any study to detect statistically significant increases in responses in exposed populations compared with controls, even though the dose-response relationship is assumed not to have a threshold. Because of the assumed form of the dose-response relationship, however, NOAEL or LOAEL is not normally used as a point of departure to establish safe levels of exposure to substances causing stochastic effects. This is in contrast to the common practice for substances causing deterministic effects of establishing safe levels of exposure, such as RfDs, based on NOAEL or LOAEL (or the benchmark dose) and the use of safety and uncertainty factors. 

The design and operation of a process plant form an integral part of safety and systematic procedures and should be employed to identify hazards and operability and, where necessary, should be quantified. During the design of a new plant, the hazard identification procedure is repeated at intervals. This is first performed on the pilot plant before the full-scale version as the design progresses. Potential hazards whose significance can be assessed with the help of experiments are often revealed by this study. 

Dr. Frank P. Lees s Loss Prevention in the Process Industries Hazard Identification, Assessment and Control, Second Edition, ISBN 0750615478. This is a three-volume set published by Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK, 1996. Dr. Frank Lees s epic three-volume masterpiece is without a doubt the premier source of practical and statistical process safety reference material. Within the 3,962 pages of valuable facts, nearly every aspect of process safety is covered. The information is useful to process safety engineers, engineers in the process industries, insurance professionals,... 

Process Safety Management (Control of Acute Hazards), Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA), Washington, D.C., 1985. This booklet presents a number of ideas on hazard identification, hazard assessment, and hazard control in just 47 pages. 

ASSESSMENT OF RISKS TO HUMANS EXPOSED TO PESTICIDES 2 The Four Steps in Risk Assessment 2 Hazard Identification 2 Dose-Response Assessment 3 Margin of Safety Approach 3 Quantitative Risk Assessment 3 Exposure Assessment 4 Risk Characterization 4 RISK MANAGEMENT 5 ADVANCES IN DATA INTERPRETATION 5 Probabilistic Approaches 5 Recognition of the Tier Approach 5 Aggregate Exposure 6 Cumulative Exposure 6 Impact of New Scientific Advances 7 Post-Registration Monitoring 7 HARMONIZATION OF REGULATORY APPROACHES SUMMARY 9... 

A one-page, memory-jogging safety assessment checklist was made available by Trevor Kletz in 1976. [6] The checklist is still valid today. After a review of several Management of Change policies from several major companies, it appears that Kletz s checklist or a similar checklist was used as a basis for a few companies procedures, Frank Lees [14] has cataloged and presented a number of checklists in Hazard Identification and Safety Audit. Lees states ... 

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