Development of a screening process to identify potential environmental accidents associated with the uncontrolled release of hazardous chemicals in industry, a case study of Hiep Phuoc industrial zone, Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

This study proposed a multiple criteria decision process to identify the industrial facilities and operations that represent potential environmental accidents associated with uncontrolled release of chemicals. Unlike the existing approaches that simply rely on the storing capacity (quantity) and hazard of chemical substances at site, the proposed process takes into consideration the common root causes and recurring themes of the accidents such as unsafe onsite storing and using, inadequate operation training, inadequate safety management and analysis, equipment failure… The issues have been aggregated in a criteria system demonstrating a potential of environmental accident. The screening process comprises of 2 steps: 1) primary screening based on logic analysis; 2) detailed screening based on analytic hierarchy process. This method may overcome some limitations of the traditional approaches such as failure to take into account the state of the chemical safety or the ability to respond to chemical incidents of the facilities. The proposed process has been applied for screening a number of industrial facilities and operations in Hiep Phuoc industrial zone, Ho Chi Minh City. The results are consistent with the regulatory requirements, and reflect the current state of risk of chemical incidents at the facilities. Thus it is expected to facilitate the proper management of chemical safety and development of a feasible chemical accident prevention and response plan.