Safety measurement techniques

First and foremost, management must clearly understand and appreciate what accident frequency rates are and how they should be used. This is done only by educating members of management on safety measurement techniques so they can understand the strengths and weaknesses of results, measurements, causes, and effects. Once they understand the potential and how to interpret and use aU three types of measurements, they wiU be more likely to employ a balanced and professional approach to using accident statistics. 

The What-if, the checklists and Hazop are well publicized hazard identification tools. But as Bollinger et al. (1996) have pointed out the use of any of these techniques demands knowledge, experience and flexibility. No prescriptive set of questions or key words or list is sufficient to cover all processes, hazards and all impacted populations. Bollinger et al. find that refinement of the quantitative measurement techniques such as safety indices and convergence to a single set of accepted indices would be beneficial. 

As the large scale commercial use of hydrogen fluoride is now well established, particularly in the petroleum industry, the techniques of the use of large size equipment is well known. Reports are available on various aspects of industrial use. A book has been published with particular reference to paraffin alkylation (Phillips Petroleum Company, 13). Corrosion, instrumentation, materials of construction, safety measures, etc., are included. The following journal articles also contain material of interest on large scale technique (Holmberg and Prange, 17, Frey, 18, Fehr, 19). There are certain features that need to be watched, such as corrosion, embrittlement, etc., but the above references deal with these subjects. Corrosion is not particularly serious in properly constructed equipment except where air enters. 

Since the advent of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), tremendous advances have been made in the degree of sophistication and data gathering ability of toxic substance monitoring instrumentation. Traditionally, exposure standards are often limited by the measurement techniques used to determine exposure. The introduction of new, small computers on a chip, particularly those that have an extensive memory and can be programmed, represents a technology that revolutionizes the measurement of occupational exposures, providing more complete and accurate data. A microprocessor-based dosimeter has been developed with this purpose in mind. 

Due to the corrosive and toxic nature of volatile hydrogen fluoride, the fluorodediazoniation of aromatic and heteroaromatic amines in anhydrous hydrogen fluoride (see Section 26.1.2.), though very efficient, inexpensive and easy to scale up, needs special apparatus and safety measures which are not always available in every laboratory. Thus, the Balz-Schiemann reaction remains the most popular way to substitute aromatic amino groups for fluorine on a laboratory scale. Moreover, special techniques have been developed during the last decade to control formation, storage and decomposition of arenediazonium tetrafluoroborates on a large scale. 

The radiation chemical technique of tin alkylhalogenide production remains not veiy promising due to economic reasons (special equipment is needed) and rigid safety requirements (additional safety measures against the effect of radiation are necessary). 

Industrial degreasing tanks can be adapted for vapour etching, subject again to the maintenance of all appropriate safety measures. However, in view of the European programme to eliminate the use of chlorinated solvents within the coming few years the usefulness of the technique could be limited unless sufficiently effective and safe alternative etchants are found. 

With proper safety procedures, radiation can be very useful in many scientific experiments. Neutron activation analysis is used to detect trace amounts of elements present in a sample. Computer chip manufacturers use this technique to analyze the composition of highly purified silicon wafers. In the process, the sample is bombarded with a beam of neutrons from a radioactive source, causing some of the atoms in the sample to become radioactive. The type of radiation emitted by the sample is used to determine the types and quantities of elements present. Neutron activation analysis is a very sensitive measurement technique capable of detecting quantities of less than 1 X 10 9 g. 

The great variety of methods described explains why no example is presented here of the basic measuring set-up. It is recommended to consult the primary sources for tins purpose, which are referenced in Table 3-7. It is rather more important is to discuss parameters which influence the absolute flash-point values and to make some remarks regarding their interpretation. It is important to understand that the flash-point is no physicochemical property of a substance but a technical safety data, the value of which strongly depends on the measuring technique. 

Recently we have developed a new Raman sensor devoted to road de-icing application. Thus, in winter a lot of salt is applied on roads as brine (NaCl solutions in France) in order to preserve the safety of users and traffic flow. However, conventional measurement techniques such as electrical conductivity are inaccurate and difficult to implement (time consuming and dangerous for operators). We have developed a prototype sensor using RS to measure remotely (< 5 cm) and quickly ( 1 sec) the NaCl concentration (0-200 g/1) on the road with an accuracy less than 5%. A second prototype allowing measurements on board a vehiele is still under consideration. 

In order to determine how reliable the nuclear criticality safety measures are for installations, plants, institutions, and the nuclear complex in general, the NSD, IPPE, developed a special database, that uses a technique for determining indices of any danger of failure and corresponding software to determine the frequency of nuclear accidents. The technique has been verified by means of the database on nuclear accidents that have happened in the past at nuclear industrial enterprises. The results of nuclear accident frequency estimation were presented in a paper submitted to the international conference on nuclear criticality safety in Albuquerque [9]. The technique is universal and can be used to estimate the frequency of any accident (e.g., nuclear, radioactive, technological). In order to get the results. 

Schrors B (2012) Safety techniques based on process control. In Hauptmanns U (ed) Plant and process safety, 5. Engineered safety measures, Ullmann s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 8th edition, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2012, doi 10.1002/14356007.q20 q04... 

Simulation involves carrying out laboratory tests using a sensitive measurement technique (such as an adiabatic Dewar) in which the rate of heat loss is less than that which occurs on the plant. To provide an additional safety margin each test is carried out at a temperature 10-20 K higher than the maximum credible temperature that can be achieved on the plant. The test is continued for at least the maximum time that the process can remain at this temperature. 

Basic standards (type A). These fundamental standards contain general principles for safe design or measurement techniques/levels for EMC and may be applied to products when appropriate. The A and B standards are especially important for EMC and machinery. Some examples of basic safety standards for machinery are EN 292-1/-2 (Design Concepts), and EN 1050 (Risk Assessment). The EN 61000-4-X series (lEC 801-X) for immunity levels is an example of basic standards for EMC. 

The content is as widely encompassing as possible for the petrochemical research field. The book is divided into four parts the first three chapters discuss petroleum recovery from wastes, additives use and chemical reactor and the later chapters concentrate on the modelling and simulation followed by mechanism and techniques and remediation and safety measures respectively. 

This paper presents a new approach based on a combination of traditional predictive modelling and event/fault tree analysis techniques, which allows representing at the same time evolution of hazards and normal and abnormal (i.e. failures) performance of safety measures, e.g. variations of process parameters, analysis and inspections, through the food chain for a better estimation of the real impact of such deviations/failures on consumer health. 

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