Reports Major Hazard

Regulate the design and operation of defined major hazard installations. All necessary measures are required to prevent and limit the consequences of major accidents. Operators of upper-tier sites must produce a detailed Safety Report those of lower-tier sites must prepare a Major Accident Prevention Policy. 

Health and Safety Executive. 1979. Second Report. Advisory Committee Major Hazards. U.K. Health and Safety Commission, 1979. 

The project began with an extensive evaluation of 900 reported incidents involving failures of fixed pipework on chemical and major hazard plant. As part of the analysis a failure classification scheme was developed which considered the chief causes of failures, the possible prevention or recovery mechanism that could have prevented the failure and the underlying cause. The classification scheme is summarized in Figure 2.13. A typical event classification would be... 

Calculation of the Intensity of Thermal Radiation From Large Fires." 1990. First Report of the Major Hazards Assessment Panel, Thermal Radiation Working Group. 

HSC (1977) The Advisory Commission on Major Hazards, First Report, Health and Safety Commission (HMSO). 

The concept of a safety case comes from the requirements of the European Union/European Community (EU/EC) Seveso Directive (82/501/EC) and, in particular, regulations that the United Kingdom and other member states used to implement that directive. United Kingdom regulations (Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards [CIMAH], 1984 replaced by Control of Major Accident Hazards Involving Dangerous Substances [COMAH] in 1999) require that major hazardous facilities produce a safety report or safety case.64 The requirement for a safety case is initiated by a list of chemicals and a class of flammables. Like the hazard analysis approach (Section 8.1.2), experts identify the reactive hazards of the process if analysis shows that the proposed process is safe, it may be excluded from additional regulatory requirements. 

The major hazard that can occur in the high-pressure polyethylene process is a runaway of the reactor and decomposition of ethylene as well as fires, explosion, and disintegration of high-pressure parts. Although the last incidents are well understood, the reasons for runaway and ethylene decomposition have been evaluated only recently. Experience over twenty years has shown that decomposition mostly takes place in the reactor and in the high-pressure separator, but decompositions have also been reported from ethylene-feed and product lines. 

In the House of Commons yesterday, the Home Secretary was asked if he wouldprohibit the sale of this lethal new material. The Home Secretary replied that, as it was clearly a major hazard, Local Authorities would have to take advice from the Health and Safety Executive before giving planning permission. A full investigation was needed and the Major Hazards Group would be asked to report. 

A completed review report can be used to demonstrate to interested parties that a process hazard analysis has been accomplished and all possible actions have been examined and or implemented to eliminate major hazards. 

Reference for 550 ppm x minutes Phos fene Toxicity, A report of the Major Hazards Assessment Panel Toxicity Group, INSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS, Davis Building, 165-171 Railway Terrace, Rugby, Warwickshire CV21 3HQ, UK, 1993 Chapter 2, p. 11. 

The Hull site is a top-tier COMAH establishment and the individual plant safety reports were used as a base to identify the major hazard scenarios. While the Hull plants produce different final products, the key operational stages are the same, i.e., feed system, reactor section, initial separation and recycling, and final distillation train. The Risk Control Systems (RCS) were therefore fundamentally the same but each plant was reviewed in isolation. A total of eight different RCS were considered as part of the review and the process described in HSG 254 was used for each one. The Workbook produced during the review for one of the plants as part the process is attached in Appendix 1. ... 

Institution of Chemical Engineers, "Phosgene Toxicity - A Report of the Major Hazards Assessment Panel Toxicity Working Party", Institution of Chemical Engineers, Rugby, 1993. 

Emergency preparedness a section of the report describes BOC s major hazard review programme and its approach to issuing licences appropriate to the level of risk the site is capable of managing. While the involvement of local statutory authorities is not discussed the group-wide nature of the programme, together with mention of the Exercise BOC Alert in the USA, warrants a yes score. 

Turner, R.M. and Fairhurst, S., Assessment of the Toxicity of Major Hazard Substances, Specialist Inspector Report 21, Health and Safety Executive, London, 1989, pp. 13. 

The Convention specifies the responsibilities of employers with respect to identification of any major installation within their control, notification of the competent authority of any major hazard installatioi which they have identified, establishment and maintenance of a documented system of major hazard control, preparation of safety reports including their revision, update and amendment, and reporting of maj(V industrial accidents to the competent authority. 

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