Planning for emergencies—lessons from the chemical industry

Abstract Safety, an area of crucial and overriding importance in industry, is a concept covering hazard identification, risk assessment and accident prevention. The problem of awareness of risk can be seen as one of failure of communication and of mis-management. It is fundamental that for the avoidance of risk, the risk must first be known. Then its significance must be determined. The expert may seek to quantity it, but the public perception of risk is highly subjective and has nothing to do with statistics. This introduces a communication gap which should be closed. Communication becomes crucial when planning for emergencies. This has two main areas of responsibility: planning within the plant of industrial complex, developed by the companies themselves, and emergency planning for the locality, developed by the authorities in cooperation with the manufacturers concerned. Typical internal emergency planning arrangements are described and emergency plans for the community at large, and the need to be prepared for the unforeseen are discussed in the light of the U.S. Environmental Agency's Chemical Emergency Prepared-ness Plan.