Risk prioritization.Hazard identification

Techniques that allow each individual to assess specific perceived risk and hazard identification with a practical method to prioritize issues. Refer to Chapter 9, Risk Perception— Defining How to Identify Personal Responsibility . 

Introduction Theprevious sections dealt with techniques for the identification of hazards and methods for calculating the effects of accidental releases of hazardous materials. This section addresses the methodologies available to analyze and estimate risk, which is a function of both the consequences of an incident and its frequency. The apphcation of these methodologies in most instances is not trivial. A significant allocation of resources is necessary. Therefore, a selection process or risk prioritization process is advised before considering a risk analysis study. 

Organization for HAZMAT Emergencies Part 1 Hazards Analysis Uses case studies to explain hazard identification, vulnerability analysis, risk assessment toxicity, flammability, and reactivity of chemicals prioritizing hazards and how vapor plumes are affected by weather and chemical composition. 

Prioritization and Identification (Chapter 3) Corporate / Management Level Hazards of the worldwide transportation operations are not clearly understood Risk management priorities have not been identified Corporate-level prioritization of all transportation hazards Identification of low-risk materials that can be limited to a primary management system review Identification chemicals, modes of transportation, and specific facility operations escalated for more detailed risk analysis... 

This chapter comments on the Management Review elements pertaining to Hazard identification Risk assessment and prioritization Progress made in risk reduction The effectiveness of procedures to eliminate or control identified hazards and risks Actions taken on the recommendations made in safety and health audits and The extent to which set objectives have been met. 

A hazard identification and analysis system must be implemented to systematically identify basic and unforeseen safety and health hazards, evaluate their risks, and prioritize and recommend methods to eliminate or control hazards to an acceptable level of risk. Through this system, management must gain a thorough knowledge of the safety and health hazards and employee risks. 

Hazard identification and analysis is a vital process. The outcome establishes the severity of harm that can result from an incident. However, event probability must also be considered to properly assess, prioritize, and act on risks. When making... 

Fundamentally, the language of safety professionals should focus on hazard identification and analysis and assessing the risks derived from those hazards, followed by giving prioritized counsel on improvements on safety-related management issues. It should be understood that the entirety of purpose of those responsible for safety, regardless of their titles, is to manage their endeavors with respect to hazards so that the risks deriving from them are at acceptable levels. 

Hazard identification and risk management Is the closed-loop process that identifies and evaluates hazards and prioritizes the corresponding risks so that that can be adequately managed. 

The identification of hazardous material transportation scenarios stems from the identification and prioritization step of the TRM framework presented in Chapter 1. This process results in the generation of a hst of activities and transportation scenarios that may require special attention, including additional resources for further risk analysis and risk management activities. 

XYZ Chemical has similar operations consisting primarily of pesticide and herbicide manufacturing operations in the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. Since the operations are similar, the prioritization process (illustrated in Table 3.4) consists of cataloging all chemicals in transit (in and out of their facilities), modes of transport, qnantities, and nnmber of annual shipments. Specifically, the prioritization process is a combination of the hazards- and consequence-based prioritization processes illnstrated in Figure 3.4. If this process were expanded to a likelihood- or risk-based process, then additional factors (e.g., the number of shipment, length of shipment) may have been included in the prioritization. With this data collected, the hazards of each chemical and the potential impacts are docnmented based on the chemical physical properties and quantities in transit. With all of the information collected, the following qualitative ranking is nsed to prioritize issnes for escalation and identification of countries and operations that will need to condnct more detailed risk analyses ... 

In Chapter 3, XYZ Chemical conducted a corporate-level identification and prioritization of all worldwide hazardous material transportation activities. Based on this hazard-based prioritization activity, the chemicals listed in Table 4.3 were identified as potentially higher risk and escalated for further facilily/operational-level reviews. Facility review means the inbound and outbound hazardous material transportation activities for each XYZ Chemical plant moving these chemicals. 

Identification and Prioritization Consists of (1) cataloging the hazardous materials and modes of transportation, (2) identifying sensitive areas and potential points of failure along the transit route, and (3) understanding interactions with other stakeholders in the supply chain. This process enables the identification of shipments that may require special attention, including escalating issnes/scenarios for more detailed risk analysis. 

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) examines systems, element by element (Systems Safety Society 1997,3-111). The analysis procedure requires the identification of the individual components that make up the system under examination. With the components identified, the modes in which the component failures as well as the effects that that failure has upon the system are determined. A further step to the FMEA procedure is the examination of the risk associated with the failure. The risk, also referred to as criticality, provides the investigators with a method of ranking the hazards in the system and providing a method for prioritization of hazards. 

Subsection 4.2 in the Planning Section sets forth additional problem identification mechanisms in its requirements for Assessment and Prioritization. In summary, employers are to have processes in place to identify and analyze hazards, assess the risks deriving from those hazards, and establish priorities for amelioration that, when acted on, will attain acceptable risk levels. Appendix K Bibliography and... 

In the planning processes, occupational health and safety management systems issues are identified, analyzed, and prioritized. Those issues are defined in the standard as hazards, risks, management system deficiencies and opportunities for improvement. After the identification and analysis process, objectives are then to be established that offer the greatest opportunities for improvement. The following steps are to draft a documented implementation plan to achieve the objectives and to allocate the necessary resources. 

Risk analysis refers to techniques for identifying, characterizing, and evaluating hazards. The identification of risk, defined in Eq. (12.1), and risk analysis found their way into many applications where they can add value in prioritization and management processes. The application of general risk analysis principles to help prioritize and manage the inspection program for plant equipment, now commonly referred to as risk-based inspection (RBI), is one of the newest applications of risk principles [3]. Some examples of risk criteria and associated units are shown in Table 12.1. 

---