Hazard Identification and Risk Assesment

Question 1

Project Lifecycle: key stages and its appropriate hazard studies

A safety adviser is responsible in planning and implementing safety measures in order to not only promote a safe working condition but to ensure the physical, emotional and social wellbeing of the employees and people surrounded are taken into consideration. In planning and constructing a major chemical plant involving handling hazardous materials or processes, a safety adviser is expected to be responsible in constructing a safety plan in each stage of project development and to introduce organisational safety structure to ensure maximum safety is assured during operation.

Safety studies or else referred as hazard analysis or identification should be carried out in each phase of the project lifecycle including: conceptual phase, process design phase, engineering design phase, commissioning phase and operation phase. The most practical and crucial safety studies are during the conceptual phase. In this phase, preliminary hazard analysis or Hazard Study 1 is carried out to address possible hazard that may result in the operation. This study includes reviewing the past incident history, collecting the information on chemicals used and checking the compliance of the process with legislation and guidelines proposed for the safety measures in the chemical plants. Hazard study in this phase is important in outlining the hazardous properties of materials used such as its toxicity, flammability, possible environmental hazards or tendency to cause a hazard by interaction with other process materials. The knowledge obtained from the hazard study can be used to achieve inherent safety by eliminating the use of hazardous substances or else by choosing less hazardous ...

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