Risk analysis in Natech events: State of the art

Natech events (Natural Hazard Triggering Technological Disasters) are industrial accidents caused by natural events such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and so on. In recent decades, the probability of these events occurring has increased, activating the interest of researchers in the study of new methods of risk analysis to prevent and mitigate possible damage to people, the environment, and processing facilities. On the other hand, the concept of multi-hazard is summarized in the combination of two or more threat factors manifested in isolated, simultaneous manner, or by chain reaction, to produce a trigger event of a disaster, where hazardous events can be one or more natural events. Considering that, it is essential to know the progress in risk analysis for Natech events, to identify the gaps for future research. Therefore, in this paper, a systematic review of the Natech events literature with single and multi-hazard approaches was developed. The review was conducted by searching the Science Direct, Web of Science, and Scopus databases for scientific documents. Subsequently, the words Natech and Multi-hazard were taken as keywords, and 208 results were obtained. Then, some management documents were consulted in international organizations to compare academic literature and industrial risk management. In conclusion, the risk analysis methods revised are specific to a particular hazard and apply mainly to earthquakes, floods, and lightning. Regarding a multi-hazard approach, the methods focus on risk mitigation in urban areas without taking into account Natech risk. In the case of industrial risk assessment, some methodologies were found that briefly consider Natech risk in risk assessment processes in industry.     

Spatial analysis of mortality rate of pedestrian accidents in Iran during 2012–2013

Objectives: Considering the high mortality rate of pedestrians in traffic accidents in Iran, the present study aimed to determine the high-risk and low-risk areas of accidents resulting in pedestrian deaths and the spatial analysis of their mortality rates.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 4,371 deceased pedestrians reported by the Legal Medicine Organization in Iran from March 2012 to March 2013. For spatial analysis, the collected data were entered into ArcGIS software version 10.2 and a spatial map of the mortality rate was drawn according to the distribution of data in the provinces. Using this software, high-risk and low-risk areas were identified by calculating the spatial autocorrelation of the data. The Moran’s index of road accident patterns was surveyed and high-risk and low-risk points were identified using the local Getis index.

Results: The age-standardized incidence rate was 6.8 per 100,000. After analyzing the data using ArcGIS software, the local Moran’s index showed a cluster pattern with a high mortality rate in 3 provinces of Mazandaran, Gilan, and Qazvin. In identifying high-risk and low-risk points, the local Getis index showed 3 hot spots with a confidence interval of 99% in Qom, Qazvin, and Mazandaran and 5 hot spots with a 95% confidence interval in Markazi, Tehran, Zanjan, Gilan, and Golestan provinces.

Conclusions: According to the cluster pattern of accidents in the 3 provinces and the presence of hot spots in 9 provinces, it is necessary to identify factors that increase the risk of death in the study provinces in order to reduce the mortality rate among pedestrians due to traffic accidents. Therefore, to reduce the pedestrian mortality rate, especially in high-risk provinces, some studies need to be conducted to determine the risk factors in pedestrian mortality.     

Overcoming the blame game to learn from major accidents: A systemic analysis of an Anhydrous Ammonia leakage accident

This article aims to demonstrate the need for changing the methods with which accidents are analyzed, if we truly wish to use what we uncover from them to learn and enrich our knowledge base of organizational management. The goal is to relinquish the broadly adopted and rather simplistic paradigm that accepts the search for human error and unsafe acts performed by workers, and produces “guilt diagnostics”. Instead, we use a systemic accident analysis methodology, based on the sociotechnical principle of understanding the real operating conditions in which accidents take place. In order to demonstrate the benefits of the theoretical framework, we compare the analyses of an Anhydrous Ammonia gas leakage accident in a fish processing plant using the traditional accident analysis model based on unsafe acts and the proposed systemic approach. The results favor the latter since it tends to be more reliable and offering useful recommendations to safety management processes, thus helping to prevent accidents, especially in complex systems.     

Work-Related Accidents Among Young Workers in Finland

The aim of this study was to discover accident factors specific to young workers, using two accident data sets gathered at the same time but with different methods. The first data set consisted of 99 serious occupational accidents, which occured in Southern Finland in 1988 and 1989. The second data set was based on the interview study of over 13,000 people of whom 792 were involved in an accident at work. Both data sets showed consistently that the accident frequency of young workers was higher than that of older workers. The accidents of young workers, however, were less severe. Young accident victims hurt themselves more often when feeding or cleaning machines. Incautiousness contributed more often to accidents of young workers. In order to prevent occupational accidents of young workers, companies should introduce training programmes for new employees.     

典型耦合优化算法在源项反演中的对比研究

突发大气污染事故中,污染源的快速、准确确定是应急处置的基础.为研究有效的源项评估方法,本文基于美国草原外场SO₂释放实验,利用GA-PSO、GA-NM、PSO-NM 3种耦合算法,分别与高斯点源烟羽扩散模型结合,对源强和位置等污染源参数进行反演与对比,并从算法结构与大气扩散条件方面进行反演效果差异分析.结果表明,从源强反演角度看,PSO-NM反演结果的准确性最高、稳定性最强,平均误差（11.3%）与平均标准偏差（0.7g/s）明显低于GA-NM（16.4%、13.3g/s）与GA-PSO（29.0%、26.6g/s）.从位置反演角度看,PSO-NM的反演结果最为稳定,反演的平均标准偏差（0.29m）明显低于GA-NM（3.20m）与GA-PSO（3.03m）算法;在不稳定和中性扩散条件下,PSO-NM算法的位置反演准确性最高,误差为4.97m;但在稳定扩散条件下,GA-NM的位置反演误差（7.69m）最小.从反演效率角度看,PSO-NM与GA-NM反演时间最短,更适用于污染源的快速确定.     

铅污染事故生态环境损失评估——以台州铅蓄电池企业为例

国内铅污染事故频繁发生,造成了严重的生态环境污染和人体健康损害。通过采用市场价值法、人力资本法和恢复费用法,对铅污染的生态环境损失进行了全面评估。以台州典型的铅蓄电池企业为例进行研究,铅污染总损失为121．83万元,其中土壤修复及监测费用占77.1％;人体健康损失占18．9％;农作物种植损失占4．0％。     

化工园区重大事故风险分析

目前我国对化工园区风险分析的理论研究尚处于起步阶段.针对化工园区这一特殊区域,从整体角度出发,分析研究了化工园区内多个重大事故风险源造成的区域风险,并进行了实例应用.综合考虑多个重大事故风险源产生的风险,分析了其产生风险的叠加效应,绘制出化工园区的个人风险等值线;同时根据ALARP(合理可接受风险水平)准则对化工园区的...     

系统安全投入与事故率可能性边界模型研究

安全科学是一门新兴的交叉学科,根据安全科学的哲学原理和安全科学基本理论,结合经济学原理,分析安全投入与事故率的规律,在此基础上建立安全投人与事故率可能性边界模型,即“P-S”模型。详细分析和描述了“P—S”模型中各参数的安全意义,推导出“P—S”模型的基本表达式,并定量分析了表达式中参数的取值情况,得出系统存在合理安全投入区间、最佳安全投入和最佳安全经济效益事故率。通过分析发现模型可以客观反应系统的安全投入与事故率之间的对立统一规律,安全投入与事故率“P—S”模型的研究对科学、有效的进行安全投入,提高系统的安全效益和经济效益,降低事故率具有一定的意义。     

Investigation on the role of traffic volume in accidents on urban highways

Introduction

Roadway safety is a major concern for the general public and public agencies, as roadway crashes claim many lives and cause substantial economic loss each year. In Iran, a large number of vehicles are involved in road accidents each year, which cause many deaths and extensive property damage; such accidents are among the major causes of death and disability in the country. Method: To reduce roadway accidents, the factors that affect the occurrence and severity of accidents should be scrutinized to prevent or reduce their effect. The method that many researchers have adopted to determine the effective parameters surrounding road accidents in recent years is through statistical modeling of accidents. In this article, the role of different kinds of vehicles in traffic flow are investigated separately in terms of the likelihood of crashes on urban highways, and the vehicles are divided into three groups: passenger cars, heavy vehicles, and light non-passenger car vehicles. Poisson and negative binomial (NB) regression models were applied to model the accidents in this research, which were categorized into two groups: no injury (property damage only) accidents and more severe (injury and fatal) accidents. Results: Ultimately, we conclude that light non-passenger car vehicles (i.e., taxis and motorcycles) play the largest role in the occurrence of crashes on urban highways for both types of accidents.