Risk Management Decision

Process definition and design criteria Process and equipment design Company memory (management information) Documentation of risk management decisions Protective systems Normal and upset conditions Chemical and occupational health hazards... 

Process documentation and knowledge Documentation of hazards, equipment design, risk management decision, etc. applies... 

Policies and procedures for risk management decisions must be estabhshed and be clear and simple if the massive, but necessary, workload of risk assessment and management is not to cripple the chemical industiy s worldwide competitive position and consume inordinate resources through inefficiency. 

EPA. 1999d. Methyl parathion risk management decision. Office of Pesticide Programs. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Http //www.epa.gov/pesticides/citizens/mpfactsheet.htm. May 20, 1999. 

Fig. 18 Inputs to the Ecosystem at risk management decisions (modified after Stahl et al. [53])...

Process Knowledge and Documentation—The main features here are process definition and design criteria, process and equipment design, company memory (management information), documentation of risk management decisions, protective systems, normal and upset con-dtions, and chemical and occupational health hazards. 

Risk assessment is carried out to enable a risk management decision to be made. It has been argued that the scientific risk assessment process should be separated from the policy risk management process but it is now widely recognised that this is not possible. The two are intimately linked. 

A risk analysis can be applied to fixed facilities or transportation movements, although much of the attention today still centers on the former. In a fixed-facility risk analysis, QRA can aid risk management decisions with respect to... 

Nakanishi, J. Oka, T. (1998) The Importance of Risk-Benefit Analysis in Risk Management Decision Makings A Cast Study of a Mercury Pollution Prevention Measure in Japan. Paper presented to OECD Workshop, London. 

Decision making, process risk management decisions, documentation, 105-106 Decision point, chemical reactivity tests, 90 Decommissioning, chemical reactivity hazard management, 25 Decomposition pressure test, chemical reactivity tests, 88... 

Procedural controls, process controls, 98-99 Process controls, 96-100 active controls, 98 inherently safer approach, 97 mitigation techniques, 99 passive controls, 97-98 procedural controls, 98-99 safe operating limits, 99-100 Process definition, documentation, 102-104 Process design, documentation, 105 Process hazard analysis (PHA) risk assessment, 92-93 screening methods, 63 Process risk management decisions, documentation, 105-106... 

In making risk management decisions it is important to take into account nontechnical factors in addition to scientific and economic information. Recent crises in the food industry have indicated that consumers perceptions about risks are driven by factors that would not be considered in conventional risk assessments. Research has shown that factors such as whether sub-groups (particularly children) might be affected, whether the hazard is familiar, if there are effects on the environment or if risks and benefits are equitably shared can determine consumers reactions to an issue. 

But while recognizing these limitations in our laws and the imperfections of our regulatory institutions, let us now move on to the specific risk management approaches that are applied to the many sources of risk. As mentioned earlier, these brief reviews are of limited scope and emphasize only the various ways in which risk assessment results figure in risk management decisions. 

Risk management combines the risk assessment with economic, political, public opinion, and other considerations to determine a course of action. These judgments seldom satisfy everyone. The principles of toxicology form the foundation for the risk assessment and ultimately for the risk management decisions. Individual and community involvement in the decision-making process is a critical part of developing sound policies to minimize risks to people and the environment. 

Irrespective of the risk, assumptions and decisions will have to be made because of uncertainty. Implications of attempting to characterize all variability and uncertainty in the risk assessment need to be considered. For example, exaggerating uncertainties can obscure the scientific basis of risk management decisions, leaving the impression that the decision has been arbitrary in nature (NRC 1989). The purpose of the uncertainty factor together with the type of assessment (e.g., deterministic or probabilistic, protective or best estimate) must be clearly communicated. Uncertainty factors can be described in 3 categories ... 

In this chapter we provide an overview of the chemistry of the lower and upper atmospheres. In Chapter 2, we illustrate how this chemistry plays a critical role in the concept of an integrated atmospheric chemistry system —a loop that starts with emissions (anthropogenic and natural) and ultimately closes with scientific health and environmental risk assessments and associated risk management decisions for the control of air pollutants. 

Finally, through legislative and administrative action, health-protective and cost-effective risk-management decisions can be made, and regulatory actions implemented, that directly affect the starting point of our atmospheric system, that is, the primary emissions and their sources. 

Well before the PP became a political slogan, government agencies and the chemical industry built precauhon into risk management decisions. A decision by a chemical company not to market a potentially hazardous product is seldom if ever publicized, but the world would certainly have experienced a large number of additional severe accidents from chemicals if precaution had not prevailed among responsible industry decision mak-... 

Under the TSCA, a new chemical is a chemical substance that is not already included on the TSCA Inventory, and is intended to be used for a commercial purpose (other than as a drug or pesticide) in the USA. Section 5 of the TSCA requires manufacturers or importers of a new chemical to notify the EPA (i.e., submit a premanufacture notification, PMN) before manufacturing or importing the chemical. The EPA has only 90 days (extendable to 180 days under certain circumstances) from the time of receipt of the notification to determine if an unreasonable risk may or will be presented by any aspect of the new industrial chemical, and make risk management decisions and take action to control any unreasonable risks posed by the chemical [17]. If after 90 days the submitter of a new chemical is not notified by the EPA of any regulatory restrictions or test requirements, they can legally market or import the chemical. 

In the case of biological contamination, the identification of risk became obvious by experience, the risk assessment was made unambiguous by epidemiology, and the immediate and obvious effectiveness of the risk management decisions demonstrated their wisdom in the absence of elegant quantitative risk extrapolation models and projections of costs per case averted. Costs of water treatment and distribution became trivial relative to almost all other essential commodities, and in the public expectation the biological safety of drinking water became axiomatic. 

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