I looked at the Health and SafetyExecutive to find out some information on chemical industry related accidents in the UK, so I could get an idea of how many there has been and how much damage they cause. From a table in the ‘review of high-cost chemical/petrochemical accidents since Flixborough1974’ I can see that there have been 20 high cost accidents as well as another 25 other additional accidents on to of these. From this I can deduce that accidents do occur in these very dangerous industries (when you think about the materials/chemicals they use). Having said this, this particular review mentioned the Flixborough accident that occurred in the UK in 1974. I have not previously heard of this accident, I mean I wasn’t even born then, but having briefly looked it up, it seems to have been a tragic event.
The Flixborough incident from my understanding occurred due to a crack in a reactor, which consequently leaked cyclohexane before it could be prevented. The mixture of cyclohexane and air became ignited and caused an explosion killing 28 people and injuring 36, which is extremely unfortunate.
Essentially to prevent accidents like this occurring the industry has to be able to reduce any existing rick and reduce it to a manageable level, accidents do and will happen, but we can control their possibility none the less. Some ways to reduce risk are:
- considering emerging new technologies that could help lower risks
- understanding hazards
- understanding potential/common-cause failures
- ensuring network security
- learning from past incidents
(methods take from process safety and functional safety)
Main Sources Used:
[1]http://www.chemengonline.com/process-safety-functional-safety-support-asset-productivity-integrity/?pagenum=1
No comments:
Post a Comment