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Background The disasters at Seveso, Three Mile Island, Bhopal, Chernobyl, the World Trade Center (WTC) and Fukushima had historic health and economic sequelae for large populations of workers, responders and community members. Methods Comparative data from these events were collected to derive indications for future preparedness. Information from the primary sources and a literature review addressed: i) exposure assessment; ii) exposed populations; iii) health surveillance; iv) follow-up and research outputs; v) observed physical and mental health effects; vi) treatment and benefits; and vii) outreach activities. Results Exposure assessment was conducted in Seveso, Chernobyl and Fukushima, although none benefited from a timely or systematic strategy, yielding immediate and sequential measurements after the disaster. Identification of exposed subjects was overall underestimated. Health surveillance, treatment and follow-up research were implemented in Seveso, Chernobyl, Fukushima, and at the WTC, mostly focusing on the workers and responders, and to a lesser extent on residents. Exposure-related physical and mental health consequences were identified, indicating the need for a long-term health care of the affected populations. Fukushima has generated the largest scientific output so far, followed by the WTCHP and Chernobyl. Benefits programs and active outreach figured prominently in only the WTC Health Program. The analysis of these programs yielded the following lessons: 1) Know who was there; 2) Have public health input to the disaster response; 3) Collect health and needs data rapidly; 4) Take care of the affected; 5) Emergency preparedness; 6) Data driven, needs assessment, advocacy. Conclusions Given the long-lasting health consequences of natural and man-made disasters, health surveillance and treatment programs are critical for management of health conditions, and emergency preparedness plans are needed to prevent or minimize the impact of future threats.

Aim: The article presents issues concerning selected formal and legal elements in the field of emergency plans relating to administrative authorities, plant operators and the State Fire Service. In this context a review of legal acts concerning the functioning of the system of preventing major industrial accidents was made. The subject was based on the provisions of the European Union law and national regulations in the field of environmental law and executive acts indicating the need to supplement them in the task area and to implement uniform principles in the issue of actions taken. Introduction: The main objective of the accident prevention system is to limit, eliminate and remove the effects of a major accident, therefore the public administration and operators of establishments should ensure effective and efficient actions to save life, health, property and the environment. The tasks of preventing, combating and removing the effects of an accident are performed to various degrees by the operators of establishments, administrative bodies, rescue entities, which are conditioned, on the one hand, by legal regulations and, on the other hand, by the organisational capabilities of executive teams. Therefore, it is justified to review legal regulations and to present selected tasks concerning prevention of major accidents in relation to administration bodies, rescue entities and operators of establishments responsible for combating and removing effects of a major accident. Project and methods: The article was developed using a comparative and descriptive analysis of selected elements from legal acts and a review of the literature on the subject. With reference to selected elements of safety against major industrial accidents, empirical research was undertaken using a diagnostic survey method. Methodology: W artykule wykorzystano analizę porównawczo-opisową wybranych elementów z aktów prawnych oraz przeglądu literatury przedmiotu. Odnosząc się w tym zakresie do wybranych elementów bezpieczeństwa wobec przeciwdziałania poważnym awariom przemysłowym, podjęto badania empiryczne, wykorzystując metodę sondażu diagnostycznego. Results: ratowniczego poprzez ujęcie zapisu zadaniowego określającego sposób zwalczania poważnej awarii w przypadku wystąpienia zdarzenia w zakładzie dużego ryzyka. Powyższe uwarunkowania organizacyjno-zadaniowe wskazują co najmniej na potrzebę stworzenia w odpowiedniej formie wytycznych jako rozwiązania alternatywnego w przypadku, gdyby wprowadzenie postulowanych zmian legislacyjnych z różnych względów było niemożliwe. Wskazano również, że zasadne jest wdrożenie w zakładzie poradnika jednolitych „zasad podejmowanych czynności ratowniczych podczas poważnych awarii” tworzonych w oparciu o wymagania ogólne zawarte w przepisie wykonawczym w sprawie opracowania planów operacyjno-ratowniczych. Conclusions: The article points out the need to amend national implementing legislation on the development of an external emergency plan by including a task statement on how to deal with a major accident in the event of an accident at an upper-tier establishment. At the very least, the above organisational and task-related considerations point to the need to create guidelines in an appropriate form as an alternative solution in the event that the proposed legislative changes are not possible for various reasons. It is also advisable for the operators of an establishment to introduce, in the form of a guide, uniform “principles for rescue operations during major accidents”, based on the general requirements contained in the implementing regulation on the development of emergency plans. Keywords: State Fire Service, major accident, emergency plan, operator of a high risk establishment

Natech accidents have an increasing relevance due to the growing number of such events and to their severe consequences. Climate change and global warming are intensifying the occurrence and the magnitude of climate-related natural events, further increasing the risk of cascading sequences triggered by natural disasters impacting industrial installations. The present study focuses on Natech triggered by heat waves. The features of this specific category of Natech events were investigated by past accident analysis, collecting an extended dataset of past events. The dataset analysis allowed the identification of the key factors that characterize these accident scenarios, such as the direct causes, the technological scenario that occurred, the substance categories, and the equipment items more frequently involved. The main direct cause of accidents resulted in an internal pressure increase, exceeding equipment design limits. Fire scenarios represent the most important category of technological scenarios that occurred. Besides equipment items handling liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons, waste storage and processing systems also resulted frequently in accidents, due to the self-decomposition and self-ignition phenomena. The analysis of past accidents also allowed identifying some lessons learned, useful to identify specific actions aimed at preventing and/or mitigating the possible occurrence of these accident scenarios.

Accident prevention is an important prerequisite for achieving sustainable development, and effective crisis learning is a necessary path to it. This article focuses on whether local governments in non-accident areas learn from crises in accident areas, that is “learn from the mistakes of neighbors” and “grow in wisdom.” Using panel data from 2006–2017 for 30 provinces in China, our empirical test discovered that there is not a one-to-one relationship between “learning from neighbors” and “growing in wisdom”; it is a U-shaped relationship between the frequency of major accidents and the crisis learning effect of local government. When the occurrence frequency of major accidents is low, the regulatory effect caused by major accidents leads to the effective crisis learning of local governments. However, when major accidents occur frequently and reach a certain threshold, the crisis learning effect will deteriorate due to an excessive deterrent effect. In this non-linear relationship, the impact of political pressure occurs on two fronts, a gentle U-shaped curve and a shift in the inflection point to the left, implying that political pressure plays a dual role in the crisis learning process of local government. Accordingly, local governments should fully seize the window of time to initiate crisis learning with regulatory effects and delegate political authority to supervise local crisis learning with reasonable compliance.

Major accidents involving flammable substances can lead to significant environmental damage. The operators of chemical warehouses—in order to prevent and mitigate harmful environmental impacts—based on fire prevention strategies should apply “firewater pollution prevention” (FPP) measures. The identification of affected warehouses already in operation is an important law enforcement task. Therefore, the authors—based on the assessment of firewater run-off scenarios—propose a simple and easy-to-use dangerous establishment identification procedure and methodology based on event tree analysis and indexing preliminary risk analysis approaches. Two independent expert groups validated—in the case of 10 facilities—the index components of the approach. The testing of the applicability of the approach took place in parallel with the analyses of the Hungarian operator’s practice. The research results—covering the inspection of 24 facilities—can assist the operators in the effective and unified implementation of FPP measures. In the case of 14 facilities, it was necessary to introduce FPP measures, which highlight the need to improve the law enforcement compliance of identified operators. The investigation results can also contribute to increases in the fire and environmental safety performance of chemical warehouses, which ensures a higher level of environmental protection and people’s health near chemical warehouses.

The management of explosion risk at explosives warehouses allows ensuring the necessary premises for the development, in objective and specific conditions, of the necessary documents for these types of technical infrastructures, right from their design phase and the quantification of the degree of impact on the sites analyzed as well as the areas that are located in their vicinity. In the case of the quantitative evaluation of the explosion risk generated following the detonation of explosive materials, the estimation of the manifestation of hazards identified through the associated risk factors should be carried out based on scientific calculation algorithms and established grapho-analytical models. The paper summarizes part of the results obtained regarding the development of a methodological approach and specific application tools that allow the assessment of the major accident risks generated by explosive materials, the identification, formalization and structuring of the applicable safety requirements to reduce or eliminate the risks in explosive material storage sites.

As a result of economic development and an increase in the volume of industrial production, the use of dangerous substances is increasing despite the fact that most industrial facilities are committed to the principles of environmental protection and sustainable development. Protection of human health and the environment is ensured at the local level by the local safety system. Major accidents typically have an off-site impact that also affects the general public. The most significant asymmetric event is when toxic substances are release into a populated area following a major accident. Early warning systems can significantly reduce the harmful consequences of major accidents that may occur. The operation of a reliable and effective chemical monitoring and public alarm system can be used as a basic device of defence. This ultimately means restoring the symmetry of the local safety system. It was an important scientific objective in Hungary to identify the facilities endangering the population where it is necessary to install chemical monitoring and early warning external protection systems. In this context, the main objective of this study was to present dangerous plant identification methodology and to analyse and evaluate the results of the application of this methodology.

Design, implementation, and operation of any project are affected by the environment where it is developed; at the same time, the project will influence the environment, since during its life cycle it can cause an impact on it. This impact can lead to social, economic, and environmental results. Directive 2014/52/EU, on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, reflects the obligation for the project promoter to consider, in the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) of the project, their vulnerability (exposure and resilience) to major accidents and/or disasters, evaluating both the risk and their effects on the environment, in case these major accidents and/or disasters appear. The IEC 31.010:2019 Risk management—Risk assessment techniques standard defines 45 risk appreciation techniques that are useful when analysing the risks, in general. The objective of this paper is to review these 45 techniques, and establish which ones can be used for the assessment of accidents or disasters required in the specific environmental impact assessment process to accomplish with the regulation. After the revision, the authors propose five risks appreciation techniques that could be used for the assessment of major accidents and or disasters in projects for which EIA has to be carried out.

The education and training program for inspectors of Major Accident Hazard Establishments, specifically the EC Seveso III directive implicated Dutch chemical companies, changed considerably over a fifteen year period. This longitudinal, time-series cross sectional case study describes the development of the education and training program for Major Hazard Control inspectors, acting as regulators from the Labour inspectorate, belonging to the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. A blueprint had to be constructed in order to assess the development and quality of this program in four cross sections over time. The description highlights both the safety related content and the regulator skills parts of the program in its changing context. Professional standards, educational objectives, quality of education, evaluation method, education change process and the response to the dynamic operational environment were examined. The main findings are that the education and training program kept the same main structure over the time period while its contents were adapted to respond to external context changes. Internal evaluation of performance data and education style led to a shift in contents from theoretical knowledge towards safety management and inspection practice oriented experience related knowledge. An active teaching style, increased usage of professional standards and more systematic evaluation, starting from the blue print in this study, offer the best opportunities for further improvement. Current insights on regulatory performance lead to a recommended future perspective for the inspectors’ role to be translated into education and training: balancing empathy, inquisitiveness and support with control and enforcement, or rather: exert tough love, staying between too soft and too hard.

Major accidents are low-frequency, high-consequence accidents which are not well supported by conventional statistical methods due to the scarcity of directly relevant data. Modeling and decomposition techniques such as event tree have been proved as robust alternatives as they facilitate incorporation of partially relevant near accident data–accident precursor data—in probability estimation and risk analysis of major accidents. In this study, we developed a methodology based on event tree and hierarchical Bayesian analysis to establish informative distributions for offshore blowouts using data of near accidents, such as kicks, leaks, and failure of blowout preventers collected from a variety of offshore drilling rigs. These informative distributions can be used as predictive tools to estimate relevant failure probabilities in the future. Further, having a set of near accident data of a drilling rig of interest, the informative distributions can be updated to render case-specific posterior distributions which are of great importance in quantitative risk analysis. To cope with uncertainties, we implemented the methodology in a Markov Chain Monte Carlo framework and applied it to risk assessment of offshore blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico.