Ann. occup. Hyg., Vol. 47, No. 5, pp. 430, 2003
© 2003 British Occupational Hygiene Society
Published by Oxford University Press
Book Review |
Health, Safety and Accident Management in the Chemical Process Industries, Heinz Heinmann (Editor). Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York. ISBN 0-8247-0675-7. 654 pp.
99 Listowel Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 6HX, UK
This book is one of a series of reference and textbooks on the chemical industries, and is primarily intended for regulatory officials, engineers, technicians, maintenance personnel and university students. Although this book focuses on meeting environmental pollution and occupational safety and health legislation in the United States, many of the concepts and methodologies presented are applicable anywhere.
A sizeable part of this book is dedicated to health risk assessment. A structured approach is presented for health hazard identification that includes the principles of toxicology and epidemiology, the dose–response relationship, exposure assessment, and health risk analysis and characterization. One of the most useful features of this book is that each section is supported by a number of worked examples and a summary, followed by a list of questions aimed at testing the reader’s ability to demonstrate understanding of the concepts or application.
Causes of accidents in the chemical industry that include human error and hardware failures are reviewed with illustrative examples and case studies as well as the consequences in terms of flammable/toxic releases, fire and explosion. These include the mechanics of fire/explosion and techniques for dispersion modelling. Elements of planning for emergencies are also well presented.
This book introduces the concept of quantified risk assessment (QRA) as it applies to the chemical processes. Risk assessment techniques such as preliminary hazard analysis (PHA), hazard and operability study (HAZOP), failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), fault tree analysis (FTA) and event tree analysis (ETA) are illustrated with practical examples that provide a reasonable depth to provide familiarity with these techniques.
One of the most complex concepts of QRA is the mathematical treatment of data. This book provides a clear and logical approach to QRA. This includes the collection of relevant failure data and their sources as well as estimating the probability/frequency of different accident scenarios. Techniques such as reliability technology, probability distributions and Monte Carlo simulation are notable examples that are well presented by this book. The only drawback, however, is the lack of a clear quantified criterion for the tolerability of risk, similar to that provided by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK.
This book presents a unique approach to integrating health, safety and environmental risks in the same risk assessment model, which is much needed to implement HSE management systems in the oil, gas and process industries.
Occupational hygienists and safety professionals working in the process industry, as well as university students (both undergraduates and postgraduates), will find this book a useful guide. For the casual reader, however, although this is a valuable addition to the academic field, it is quite heavy going, and while well written, it is certainly not bedtime reading.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||