Hazards people

Le Guem F., Tazieff H., and Faivre-Perret R. (1982) An example of health hazard people killed by gas during a phreatic eruption, Dieng Plateau (Java, Indonesia), February 20th (1979). Bull. Volcanol. 45, 153-156. 

Blaikie P. et al., 1994 At Risk Natural Hazards, People s Vulnerability, and Disasters, Routledge, London. 

There are many sources of hazards. People introduce some hazards. All too often, hazards arise from engineering activities, such as planning, design, production, operations, and maintenance. Seldom do engineers or others introduce hazards deliberately. Most likely they are the results of errors, oversight, or other inadvertent, unknowing or unintentional activities. 

Much of the discussion in this book centers around the hazards people face at work, in products, at home and in outside activities. For those responsible for safety through product design or operations and management of work, an approach is looking at the risks associated with each hazard. This chapter addresses risk and risk assessment. 

Blaikei P, Cannon T, Davis I, et al. At Risk Natural hazard, people vulnerability and Disasters [M]. London Routledge, 1994 147-167. 

Blaikie, P., T. Cannon, I. Davis, and B. Wisner. 2004. At Risk Natural Hazards, Peoples Vulnerability and Disasters, 2nd edition. New York Rutledge. 

Generally, the provision and use of any items of personal protective equipment must be seen either as a last resort when aU other methods of protection have failed or an interim method of protection xmtil some form of safe place strategy can be put into operation. It is by no means a perfect form of protection in that it requires the person at risk to use or wear the equipment all the time they are exposed to a particular hazard. People simply will not always do this ... 

Wisner B, Blaikie P, Cannon T, Davis I (2004) At risk. Natural hazards, people s vulnerability and disasters. Routledge, London, p. 471... 

Like carbon, nitrogen is a nonmetal. Pure N2 is prepared by distilling liquified air, and it has a number of uses. Since nitrogen gas is not very chemically reactive, it is used as an inert atmosphere in some industrial applications, particularly where fire or chemical reactivity may be a hazard. People have been killed by accidentally entering chambers filled with nitrogen gas, which acts as a simple asphyxiant with no odor to warn of its presence. Liquid nitrogen boils at a very cold -190°C. It is widely used to maintain very low temperatures in the laboratory, for quick-fi eezing... 

The third of the major hazards and the one with the greatest disaster potential is the release of toxic chemicals. The hazard posed by toxic release depends not only on the chemical species but also on the conditions of exposure. The high disaster potential from toxic release arises in situations where large numbers of people are briefly exposed to high concentrations of toxic material, i.e., acute exposure. However, the long-term health risks associated with prolonged exposure at low concentrations, i.e., chronic exposure, also present serious hazards. 

The hazard posed can be limited by maintaining a zone free of people and property around a storage area of explosive material. The minimum radius of the zone depends on the type and quantity of explosive, the extent and type of barrica ding, and the magnitude of loss that would be encountered if an explosive incident occurred. The maximum distance to which hazardous explosive effects propagate depends on the blast overpressure created, which as a first approximation is a function of the cube root of the explosive weight, W. This is termed the quantity distance and is defined as... 

The assessment of the contribution of a product to the fire severity and the resulting hazard to people and property combines appropriate product flammabihty data, descriptions of the building and occupants, and computer software that includes the dynamics and chemistry of fires. This type of assessment offers benefits not available from stand-alone test methods quantitative appraisal of the incremental impact on fire safety of changes in a product appraisal of the use of a given material in a number of products and appraisal of the differing impacts of a product in different buildings and occupancies. One method, HAZARD I (11), has been used to determine that several commonly used fire-retardant—polymer systems reduced the overall fire hazard compared to similar nonfire retarded formulations (12). 

Beryllium, beryllium-containing aUoys, and beryUium oxide ceramic in soHd or massive form present no hazard whatsoever (31). SoHd shapes may be safely handled with bare hands (32) however, care must be taken in the fabrication and processing of beryUium products to avoid inhalation of airborne beryUium particulate matter such as dusts, mists, or fumes in excess of the prescribed workplace exposure limits. Inhalation of fine airborne beryUium may cause chronic beryUium disease, a serious lung disease in certain sensitive individuals. However, the vast majority of people, perhaps as many as 99%, do not react to beryUium exposure at any level (33). The biomedical and environmental aspects of beryUium have been summarized (34). 

Hazard. A potential source of harm to people, property, or the environment... 

Inherently Safer Design Rather than add on equipment to control hazards or to protect people from their consequences, it is better to design user-friendly plants which can withstand human error and equipment failure without serious effects on safety, the environment, output, and efficiency. This part is concerned with this matter. 

For many years the usual procedure in plant design was to identify the hazards, by one of the systematic techniques described later or by waiting until an accident occurred, and then add on protec tive equipment to control future accidents or protect people from their consequences. This protective equipment is often complex and expensive and requires regular testing and maintenance. It often interferes with the smooth operation of the plant and is sometimes bypassed. Gradually the industry came to resize that, whenever possible, one should design user-friendly plants which can withstand human error and equipment failure without serious effects on safety (and output and emciency). When we handle flammable, explosive, toxic, or corrosive materials we can tolerate only very low failure rates, of people and equipment—rates which it may be impossible or impracticable to achieve consistently for long periods of time. 

IntensiHcation This involves using so little hazardous material that it does not matter if it all leaks out. For example, at Bhopal, methyl isocyanate (MIC), the material that leaked and killed over 2000 people, was an intermediate for which it was convenient but not essential to store. Within a few years many companies had reduced their stocks of MIC and other hazardous intermediates. 

Introduction The meaning o hazard is often confused with risk. Hazard is defined as the inherent potential of a material or activity to harm people, property, or the environment. Hazard does not have a probability component. 

Chemical Exposure Index (CEI) The CEI provides a method of rating the relative potential of acute health hazard to people from possible chemical release incidents. 

Fire and Explosion Index (Ffrom fires and explosions. frequency The rate at which observed or predicted events occur. HAZOP HAZOP stands for hazard and operabihty studies. This is a set of formal hazard identification and ehmination procedures designed to identify hazards to people, process plants, and the environment. See subsequent sections for a more complete description. 

Industrial Hygiene Reviews These reviews evaluate the potential of a process to cause harm to the health of people. It is the science of the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of health hazards in the environment. It usually deals with chronic, not acute, releases and is involved with toxicity. 

The F EI measures realistic maximum loss potential under adverse operating conditions. It is based on quantifiable data. It is designed for flammable, combustible, and reactive materials that are stored, handled, or processed. It does not address frequency (risk) except indirectly, nor does it address specific hazards to people except indirectly. 

Chemical Exposure Index (CEI) Chemical Exposure Index, 1994). The CEI provides a method of rating the relative potential of acute health hazard to people from possible chemical release incidents. It may be used for conducting the initial process hazard analysis and it establishes the degree of mrther analysis needed. The CEI also may be used as part of the site review process. 

Response of People The greatest hazard to people from blast is generally from the deceleration mechanism after people have been Blown off their feet and they become missiles. This occurs at an incident overpressure of about 27 kN/m" (4.0 psi) for long positive-... 

Instrumentation (Arthur D. Little, Inc., and Levine, 1986.) Instrument systems are an essential part of the safe design and operation of systems for storing and handling highly toxic hazardous materials. They are key elements of systems to eliminate the threat of conditions that could result in loss of containment. They are also used for early detection of releases so that mitigating ac tion can be taken before these releases result in serious effects on people in the plant or in the public sector, or on the environment. 

Understanding the Reactive Chemicals and Reactive Chemicals Systems Involved The main business of most chemical companies is to manufacture products through the control of reactive chemicals. The reactivity that makes chemicals useful can also make them hazardous. Therefore, it is essential that people who design or operate chemical processes understand the nature of the reactive chemicals involved. 

Understanding the chemistry of the process also provides the greatest opportunity in applying the principles of inherent safety at the chemical synthesis stage. Process chemistry greatly determines the potential impact of the processing facility on people and the environment. It also determines such important safety variables as inventory, ancillary unit operations, by-product disposal, etc. Creative design and selection of process chemistry can result in the use of inherently safer chemicals, a reduction in the inventories of hazardous chemicals and/or a minimization of waste treatment requirements. 

Raw materials, intermediates, products, by-products, decomposition or unintended products are hazardous. Use of the hazardous materials poses a potential risk to the people and the environment. 

Selecting people with the appropriate capabilities and skills will result in fewer errors being made. Operator selection is important because the operator is a participant in batch processes whereas in continuous plants he/she performs more of a monitoring role. The most experienced and well qualified operators should be assigned to the more hazardous processes. Pair new operators (even experienced operators who are new to the process) with operators experienced in the process. 

Are there industrial and/or commercial neighbors that have highly hazardous chemicals, such that a release of one of these chemicals could have an affect on the facility and its people ... 

The cost of performing the hazard identification step depends on the size of the problem and the specific techniques used. Techniques such as brainstorming, what-if analyses, or checklists tend to be less expensive than other more structured methods. Hazard and operability (HAZOP) analyses and failure modes and effects analyses (FMEAs) involve many people and tend to be more expensive. But, you can have greater confidence in the exhaustiveness of HAZOP and FMEA techniques—their rigorous approach helps ensure completeness. However, no technique can guarantee that all hazards or potential accidents have been identified. Figure 8 is an example of the hazards identified in a HAZOP study. Hazard identification can require from 10% to 25% of the total effort in a QRA study. 

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