Quantitative Risk Assessment for Industrial Units Storage of Hazardous Materials

It is necessary to appropriately integrate risk analysis with planning and transport management to prevent a potential danger being transformed into a real event. The aim of this study is to evaluate risks for workers, through a new approach that links the occupational safety health (OSH) and control of major accident Hazard (COMAH) risks, using quantitative assessment. The method has been tested at a chemical storage, in which COMAH legislation is enforced. Workers’ groups have been identified and discriminated. The individual job descriptions and the extension of the hazardous areas within the depot have been considered. In this study the values 100, 30 and 10 have been assumed to quantify the three consequence levels (lethality, irreversible, reversible effects) for a single worker. The value of every OSH risk is calculated according to values of probability and severity. In the presented case study, COMAH is relevant for 45% on the total risk. It has to be stressed that the clerks are unexpectedly, the workers’ group that gives the most contribution to the total risks. The main advantage is that COMAH risks are evaluated according to criteria used in the conventional assessment applied to the occupational field. The results are useful to improve many issues of the safety management, including training, information, personal protective equipment and inspections.