CL7007
SAFETY AND HAZARDS IN CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Lecture 3
(Module 1)
By
Dr. Nirupama
1
Accident and Loss Statistics
Accident and loss statistics are important measures of the effectiveness of safety programs. These
data must be used carefully. Mostly they represent only average and do not reflect the potential for
single episodes involing substantial losses.
The three systems considered:
• OSHA incidence rate,
• Fatal accident rate (FAR), and
• fatality rate, or deaths per person per year.
The OSHA incidence rate is based on cases per 100 worker years. A worker year is assumed to
contain 2000 hours (50 work weeks/year X 40 hours/week).
The OSHA incidence rate is therefore based on 200,000 hours of worker exposure to a hazard. The
OSHA incidence rate is calculated from the number of occupational injuries and illnesses and the
total number of employee hours worked during the applicable period.
The FAR (fatality accidental rate) reports the number of fatalities based on 1000 employees working
their entire lifetime. The employees are assumed to work a total of 50 years. Thus the FAR is based
on 108 working hours.
The last method considered is the fatality rate or deaths per person per year. This system is
independent of the number of hours actually worked and reports only the number of fatalities
expected per person per year. This approach is useful for performing calculations on the general
population, where the number of exposed hours is poorly defined.
Problem 1
A process has a reported FAR of 2. If an employee works a standard 8-hr shift 300 days per year,
compute the deaths per person per year.
Problem 2
If twice as many people used motorcycles for the same average amount of time each, what will
happen to
(a) the OSHA incidence rate,
(b) the FAR,
(c) the fatality rate, and
(d) the total number of fatalities?
Scientific Principles
Effective discovery of root causes is not a easy or simple task. Successful investigation is an iterative
process based on scientific principles with the ultimate purpose being prevention of a repeat unit. It
is a systematic, through and intellectually honest.
There are four stages that must be successfully completed in order to prevent a repeat event of
similar nature:
✓ Identify what happened and how it happened)
(identifying and understanding the scenario)
✓ Determine why it happened
(identify the specific underlying and contributing scenario)
✓ Identify preventive remedies
(recommendations and action items)
✓ Implement changes to existing practices and systems
(accompanied by sharing lessons learned to all those who could benefit)
Engineering aspects of industrial safety in relation to economic
and operational aspects
• Safety is good business and, like most business situations, has an optimal level of activity beyond
which there are diminishing returns.
• If initial expenditures are made on safety, plants are prevented from blowing up and experienced
workers are spared.
• Higher safety expenditures result in uncompetitive product pricing: The company will go out of
business. Each company needs to determine an appropriate level for safety expenditures.
• Excessive expenditures for safety equipment to solve single safety problems may make the system
unduly complex
• Engineers must make every effort to minimize risks within the economic constraints of the
process.
Three types of chemical plant accidents
Type of Probability of Potential for Potential for
accident occurrence fatalities economic loss
Fire
Explosion
Toxic release
Accidents follow a three-step process:
• initiation (the event that starts the accident),
• propagation (the event or events that maintain or expand the accident), and
• termination (the event or events that stop the accident or diminish it in size
Accidents follow a three-step process:
• initiation (the event that starts the accident),
• propagation (the event or events that maintain or expand the accident), and
• termination (the event or events that stop the accident or diminish it in size)
A worker walking across a high walkway in a process plant stumbles and falls toward the edge. To
prevent the fall, he grabs a nearby valve stem. Unfortunately, the valve stem shears off and
flammable liquid begins to spew out. A cloud of flammable vapor rapidly forms and is ignited by a
nearby truck. The explosion and fire quickly spread to nearby equipment. The resulting fire lasts for
six days until all flammable materials in the plant are consumed, and the plant is completely
destroyed. This disaster occurred in 1969 and led to an economic loss of $4,161,000. It
demonstrates an important point: Even the simplest accident can result in a major catastrophe.
Identify the initiation, propagation, and termination steps for this accident.
Reference
Chemical Process Safety: Fundamentals with Applications: Daniel A.
Crowl and J.F.Louvar
