Risk assessment terms describing process

Hazard analysis and risk assessment systems have been used for many years by certain heavy equipment manufacturers (HEM) in their design processes to achieve inherently safer products. Keep in mind that their principle concern in using the risk assessment method described here is product safety and the avoidance of injury to users of their equipment, or to bystanders. There are variations in the terms used in the several versions of this industry s Hazard Analysis System. In one version, these are the Risk Assessment Variables ... 

Other terms used to describe this phase of the risk assessment process include problem dehnition, problem characterization, risk profiling (EC 2000), and scoping phase. ... 

Last, but not least, safety is considered in terms of the analysis of the risks associated with potential hazards identified by detailed consideration of the proposed process flowsheet. Safety is the number one concern for chemical engineers and the reader should not confuse the fact that it is the focus of the final chapter in this book with its order of importance. However, in order to carry out a hazard study and risk assessment, one must understand the concepts on which a process flowsheet is developed, and these are covered in the preceding chapters. The procedure describe in Chapter 10 is recognised as best practice in the process industry sector. 

Ecological risk assessments evaluate ecological effects caused by human activities such as draining of wetlands or release of chemicals. The term "stressor" is used here to describe any chemical, physical, or biological entity that can induce adverse effects on individuals, populations, communities, or ecosystems. Thus, the ecological risk assessment process must be flexible while providing a logical and scientific structure to accommodate a broad array of stressors. 

The boxes used throughout this document serve several purposes. Some boxes provide additional background and rationale for terms, whereas other boxes expand on concepts described in the text. The boxes at the end of each chapter highlight issues that are integral components of the risk assessment process but require more research, analysis, and debate. Further discussion of these issues is reserved for later guidelines. 

Sari and Kubat (2012) describe a model that provides an index of intervention designed to save maximum life within shortest term and with limited economic resources in case of an earthquake. In the first phase of the model, the definition of the vulnerability and calculations of the number and locations of people in danger are provided. The second phase of the process is the evaluation of the blockage risks of the roads within a network because of the collapsed buildings. Afterwards, predictions of the major routes that people use frequently to reach the city main road network and major destinations in the urban configuration are estimated with space syntax theory. The outputs of the model are the road risk and the index of intervention . Each value provides information for total risk assessment and intervention priorities against the earthquake risk. The model is applied to a case study from Istanbul, Turkey. 

The term risk assessment is frequently (and erroneously) used to describe the complete hazard reduction process. 

Heikkila et al. (1996) have expanded the work of Hurme and Jarvelainen (1995) with environmental and safety aspects (Fig. 11). The alternatives are simulated to determine the material and heat balances and to estimate the physical properties. Then the alternatives are assessed in economic terms for which the internal rate of return is used. The environmental effects are estimated by equivalent amount of pollutant that takes into consideration the harmfullness of the different effluent substances. With environmental risks are also considered aspects of occupational health to choose inherently healthier process. Even though most health related rules are considered later in the work instructions, health effects should also be a part of the decision procedure. The inherent safety is estimated in terms of the inherent safety index as described later. 

The deviation scenarios found in the previous step of the risk analysis must be assessed in terms of risk, which consists of assigning a level of severity and probability of occurrence to each scenario. This assessment is qualitative or semi-quantitative, but rarely quantitative, since a quantitative assessment requires a statistical database on failure frequency, which is difficult to obtain for the fine chemicals industry with such a huge diversity of processes. The severity is clearly linked to the consequences of the scenario or to the extent of possible damage. It may be assessed using different points of view, such as the impact on humans, the environment, property, the business continuity, or the company s reputation. Table 1.4 gives an example of such a set of criteria. In order to allow for a correct assessment, it is essential to describe the scenarios with all their consequences. This is often a demanding task for the team, which must interpret the available data in order to work out the consequences of a scenario, together with its chain of events. 

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