Citation

Kirchsteiger C. Process. Saf. Environ. Prot. 2000; 78(2): 81-90.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Institution of Chemical Engineers and European Federation of Chemical Engineering, Publisher Hemisphere Publishing)

DOI

10.1205/095758200530493

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this paper, European Commission policy issues in industrial risk management are discussed, especially with regard to the new Directive on the control of major accident hazards involving dangerous substances (Seveso II Directive). In all new risk management related elements of this Directive, such as Safety Reports, Safety Management Systems or Land Use Planning, particular emphasis is given to efficient flows of relevant information among the operators of a site that falls under the Directive (Seveso Plant), the national Competent Authority, the European Commission and the general public. Two types of information can be distinguished: data describing the risk potential of Seveso Plants and data describing the full spectrum of accident causation and evolution at such plants. The first type of risk related information is available prior to a major accident (information on risk sources), while the second one is available only posterior to such events (accident data). The Commission's efforts to implement the Directive resulted not only in the establishment of a EU wide major accidents database (MARS, in operation since the days of the predecessor legislation, Seveso I), but also the current aim of establishing a Seveso Plants information system (SPIRS). In this paper, on the basis of experience with these two systems, developments with regard to the implementation of the Seveso I Directive in the EU Member States during the last 15 years are described, and trends in the number of Seveso Plants and number of major accidents that occurred at such plants are discussed. It is shown that the rate of occurrence of major accidents is approximately constant, and, since the number of risk sources has increased, the number of accidents per unit of activity therefore has decreased. Also, due to a different classification scheme, a significant increase in the number of Seveso Plants from Seveso I to Seveso II can be expected.