Identifying and Constructing Risks

In this Section the risk coverage area of events preceding recent accidents is determined. To construct this risk coverage area a number of recent accidents (1995-2002) are discussed. The events present in recent accident trajectories are identified and their risk coverage area is determined. 

In all industrial processes, the safety of operators and staff, as well as the general public in surrounding areas, is of paramount importance. Every effort should be made during design and construction to ensure that the bioseparation plant is safe to operate with all risks identified and minimized through appropriate precautions. 

And construction operatives do take risks, as evidenced in industry-specific accident models. For example, two of the three root causes of accidents under the construction industry-specific Accident Root Cause Tracing Model (ARCTM) developed by Abdelhamid and Everett (2000) are assigned to deliberate risk taking on the part of operatives. Whether they decided to proceed with work activities once an existing unsafe condition had been identified, or decided to act unsafely regardless of the initial conditions of the work environment, either approach requires the identification of the risk - and its subsequent acceptance on behalf of the workforce. 

Most risks that modem societies face are not directly experienced by human senses, but are learned through conmnmication. We rarely face disasters personally. However, the media provide us with ample information about hazardous events (Kasperson, Pidgeon Slovic, 2003 Renn, 2008). Thus, how the media constructs issues, identifies and highlights different risks, will influence heavily how individuals apprehend risk and it will direct what the general population defines as threats (Lupton, 1999). 

Dam safety is the art and science of ensuring the integrity and viability of dams such that they do not present unacceptable risks to the public, property, and the environment. It requires the collective application of engineering principles and experience, and a philosophy of risk management that recognizes that a dam is a structure whose safe function is not explicitly determined by its original design and construction. It also includes all actions taken to identify or predict deficiencies and consequences related to failure, and to document, publicize, and reduce, eliminate, or remediate to the extent reasonably possible, any unacceptable risks. 

These regulations apply to types of premises (14 are listed) in which identified high-risk chemicals are used or stored, buildings subject to the Explosives Act 1875, surface buildings associated with mines and quarries, buildings associated with nuclear activities and construction huts. Essentially the regulations, which do not add any requirements not already specified in the FPA, transfer the responsibility for enforcement from the local fire authority to the HSE. 

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