Dataset Information

Feasibility Evaluation of Designated Quantities for Chemicals Requiring Preparation for Accidents in the Korean Chemical Accident Prevention System.

ABSTRACT: To prevent chemical accidents, the United States (US), the European Union (EU), and the Republic of Korea operate legal systems, such as risk management plans (RMP) and process safety management (PSM), to prevent chemical accidents inside and outside the workplace. The duty to implement chemical accident prevention systems and the criteria for being a target workplace are dependent on the designated quantities of chemicals handled. A chemical accident prevention system is obligatory for storage and handling of legally declared chemicals in the workplace. Benzene, toluene, xylene, methyl ethyl ketone, and ethyl acetate are all flammable materials that are commonly used as solvents in the chemical industry. These substances are grouped into flammable substances groups in the US and the EU, and are managed with the same designated quantities. However, in Korea, the designated quantities are: benzene, 10,000 kg; toluene, xylene, and methyl ethyl ketone, 200,000 kg; and ethyl acetate, 20,000 kg. In order to evaluate the validity of the chemical quantities, fire explosion scenarios during chemical accidents were modeled using two modeling programs, Areal Location of Hazardous Atmosphere (ALOHA) and Korea Off-Site Risk Assessment Supporting Tool (KORA) software, under the same conditions. Similar damage radii were found for the five flammable materials with both pool fires and vapor cloud explosions (VCE). Based on these damage radii, the designated quantities of five substances were calculated and included in the range (10,000 to 13,500 kg). The results show that current designated quantities underestimate chemical substances, and for the prevention of accidents and post-management after chemical accidents, it is necessary to manage flammable substances under one grouping.

SUBMITTER: Ahn MS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7142914 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Feasibility Evaluation of Designated Quantities for Chemicals Requiring Preparation for Accidents in the Korean Chemical Accident Prevention System.

Ahn Mun Seob MS Lee Hyo Eun HE Cheon Kwang Soo KS Joo Huoung Gi HG Ochang Chemical Safety Community Son Bu-Soon BS

International journal of environmental research and public health 20200316 6

To prevent chemical accidents, the United States (US), the European Union (EU), and the Republic of Korea operate legal systems, such as risk management plans (RMP) and process safety management (PSM), to prevent chemical accidents inside and outside the workplace. The duty to implement chemical accident prevention systems and the criteria for being a target workplace are dependent on the designated quantities of chemicals handled. A chemical accident prevention system is obligatory for storage ...[more]

PMID: 32188000

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Project description:BackgroundWith the rapid development of China's chemical industry, although researchers have developed many methods in the field of chemical safety, the situation of chemical safety in China is still not optimistic. How to prevent accidents has always been the focus of scholars' attention.MethodsBased on the characteristics of chemical enterprises and the Heinrich accident triangle, this paper developed the organizational-level accident triangle, which divides accidents into group-level, unit-level, and workshop-level accidents. Based on 484 accident records of a large chemical enterprise in China, the Spearman correlation coefficient was used to analyze the rationality of accident classification and the occurrence rules of accidents at different levels. In addition, this paper used TF-IDF and K-means algorithms to extract keywords and perform text clustering analysis for accidents at different levels based on accident classification. The risk factors of each accident cluster were further analyzed, and improvement measures were proposed for the sample enterprises.ResultsThe results show that reducing unit-level accidents can prevent group-level accidents. The accidents of the sample enterprises are mainly personal injury accidents, production accidents, environmental pollution accidents, and quality accidents. The leading causes of personal injury accidents are employees' unsafe behaviors, such as poor safety awareness, non-standard operation, illegal operation, untimely communication, etc. The leading causes of production accidents, environmental pollution accidents, and quality accidents include the unsafe state of materials, such as equipment damage, pipeline leakage, short-circuiting, excessive fluctuation of process parameters, etc. CONCLUSION: Compared with the traditional accident classification method, the accident triangle proposed in this paper based on the organizational level dramatically reduces the differences between accidents, helps enterprises quickly identify risk factors, and prevents accidents. This method can effectively prevent accidents and provide helpful guidance for the safety management of chemical enterprises.

Project description:BackgroundSince 2004, Brazil has had a national policy for occupational health and safety. This policy means companies' tax burden is altered according to the numbers of work-related accidents and ill-health amongst their workers. In 2010, a multiplication factor was introduced to this policy, called the Accident Prevention Factor. The idea of this new multiplication factor is to encourage individual employers to take initiatives to prevent accidents and ill health in the workplace. This study was designed to investigate the incidence of work-related accidents and ill-health in Brazil according to their causes, their severity, and the economic activity in which they occur, and to compare the data before and after the introduction of the Accident Prevention Factor.MethodsAn ecological study was conducted by analyzing the time series of work-related accidents/ill-health between 2008 and 2014 from the Brazilian social security system (Previdência Social) statistical yearbooks. Incidences were calculated per cause, economic activity, and severity of the accident/ill-health. Data from before and after the introduction of the Accident Prevention Factor were compared using the Mann-Whitney test per cause and per economic activity. Statistical analyses were made using the SPSS software, with significance set at 5%.ResultsA reduction in the incidence of work-related accidents/ill-health was found across all the groups of causes analyzed, except for the groups "external causes of morbidity and mortality" and "factors influencing health status and contact with health services." Greater reductions were found for diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue and diseases of the nervous system. Reductions in work-related accidents/ill-health were found in the different economic activities and in the different severity groups. The highest reduction after the introduction of the Accident Prevention Factor was in manufacturing and production (p < 0.05).ConclusionsOverall, the incidence of accidents/ill-health was found to be on decline, except those with external causes of morbidity and mortality and those involving factors influencing health status and contact with health services. The biggest reduction was found in manufacturing and production. However, generally speaking progress still needs to be made in accident prevention and occupational health across a whole range of work environments.

Dataset Information

Feasibility Evaluation of Designated Quantities for Chemicals Requiring Preparation for Accidents in the Korean Chemical Accident Prevention System.

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Feasibility Evaluation of Designated Quantities for Chemicals Requiring Preparation for Accidents in the Korean Chemical Accident Prevention System.

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