The most comprehensive techniques for identifying hazard sources and detecting potential accident risks are here!

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The most comprehensive techniques for identifying hazard sources and detecting potential accident risks are here! Potential accident hazards refer to hidden dangers, that is, things or disasters that are concealed and pose a high risk. Potential accident hazards refer generally to unsafe human behaviors, unsafe conditions of equipment and materials, and management deficiencies within a production system that can lead to accidents. Potential accident hazards are categorized into 21 major types: fires, explosions, poisoning and asphyxiation, water-related disasters, collapses, landslides, leaks, corrosion, electric shocks, falls, mechanical injuries, coal and gas outbursts, injuries caused by road facilities, injuries caused by road vehicles, injuries caused by railway facilities, injuries caused by railway vehicles, injuries in water transportation, injuries at ports and docks, injuries in air transportation, injuries at airports, and other types of hazards. During enterprise safety inspections, attention should be paid to the following commonly occurring accident hazards: 1. Unsafe human behavior, which includes 11 main categories and represents the primary direct cause of accidents in production. 1. Ignoring safety, disregarding warnings, and making operational errors. 2. Manually causing the safety devices to fail. 3. Using unsafe equipment. 4. Use hands instead of tools for operation. 5. Improper storage of objects. 6. Venturing into dangerous places. 7. Climbing or sitting in unsafe locations. 8. There are behaviors that cause interference and distract attention. 9. Ignoring the use of individual labor protection equipment and tools, or failing to use them correctly. 10. Unsafe attire. 11. Errors in handling and dealing with hazardous materials such as those that are flammable or explosive. II. The safety status of objects: There are mainly 4 categories, which are also the primary direct causes of object-related accidents in production. 1. Devices for protection, insurance, signaling, etc., are missing or defective. 2. Defects in equipment, facilities, tools, and accessories. 3. Lack of or defective personal protective equipment. 4. The working environment at the production (construction) site is poor. III. There are mainly 7 types of management deficiencies, which are also the main indirect causes at the management level in work-related accidents. 1. Defects in technology and design. 2. Insufficient safety production education and training. 3. Unreasonable labor organization. 4. Lack of inspection or incorrect guidance regarding on-site work. 5. There are no rules and regulations on work safety management and safe operating procedures, or they are incomplete. 6. There are no accident prevention and emergency response measures, or they are inadequate. 7. Inadequate efforts to address potential accident hazards, with insufficient funding allocated. Identification of hazardous and harmful factors: Hazardous factors refer to those that can cause injury or death to people, or sudden damage to objects ； Harmful factors refer to those that can affect a person’s health, cause diseases, or lead to chronic damage. Generally, the two are not distinguished from each other and are collectively referred to as dangerous and harmful factors. I. Classification of hazardous and harmful factors Classifying hazardous and harmful factors is the basis for their analysis and identification. There are many methods for classifying dangerous and harmful factors, with the following two being the main ones: 1. Classification based on the direct causes of accidents and occupational hazards. According to the \"Classification and Codes for Dangerous and Harmful Factors in Production Processes,\" such factors are divided into the following 6 categories: (1) Physical dangerous and harmful factors. 1) Defects in equipment and facilities – insufficient strength, poor stiffness, lack of stability, poor sealing, stress concentration, design defects, exposed moving parts, brake defects, and other defects in equipment and facilities. 2) Protection defects: lack of protection, defects in protection devices and facilities, inadequate protection, improper support, insufficient protection distance, and other protection defects. 3) Exposed live parts, electrical leakage, lightning, static electricity, electric sparks, and other electrical hazards. 4) Noise: Mechanical noise, electromagnetic noise, hydrodynamic noise, other noises. 5) Vibration: mechanical vibration, electromagnetic vibration, hydrodynamic vibration, other vibrations. 6) Electromagnetic radiation and ionizing radiation: X-rays, gamma rays, alpha particles, beta particles, protons, neutrons, high-energy electron beams, etc ； Non-ionizing radiation: ultraviolet light, lasers, radiofrequency radiation, ultra-high voltage electric fields. 7) Moving objects: solid projectiles, splashing liquids, rebounding objects, rock and soil slides, sliding of stacked materials, air current entrainment, rock bursts, and other hazards caused by moving objects. 8) Open flames 9) Substances with high temperatures that can cause burns: high-temperature gases, high-temperature solids, high-temperature liquids, and other high-temperature substances. 10) Low-temperature substances capable of causing frostbite: low-temperature gases, low-temperature solids, low-temperature liquids, and other low-temperature substances. 11) Dust and aerosols: Excludes explosive and toxic dust and aerosols. 12) Poor working environment: messy working conditions, subsiding foundations, defective safety passages, poor lighting, harmful light exposure, inadequate ventilation, oxygen deficiency, poor air quality, poor water supply and drainage, water inrush, forced postures, excessively high or low temperatures, excessively high or low air pressure, high temperature and humidity, natural disasters, and other issues related to a poor working environment. 13) Signal defects: absence of signal facilities, inappropriate selection of signals, incorrect signal location, unclear signals, inaccurate signal display, and other signal defects. 14) Marking defects: no marking, unclear marking, non-standard marking, inappropriate selection of markings, defects in marking location, other marking defects. 15) Other physical hazards and harmful factors (2) Chemical hazards and harmful factors 1) Flammable and explosive substances: Flammable and explosive gases, flammable and explosive liquids, flammable and explosive solids, flammable and explosive dusts and aerosols, other flammable and explosive substances. 2) Spontaneously combustible substances 3) Toxic substances: toxic gases, toxic liquids, toxic solids, toxic dusts and aerosols, other toxic substances. 4) Corrosive substances: Corrosive gases, corrosive liquids, corrosive solids, other corrosive substances. 5) Other chemical hazards and harmful factors (3) Biological hazards and harmful factors 1) Pathogenic microorganisms: Bacteria, viruses, and other pathogenic microorganisms. 2) Vectors of infectious diseases 3) Harmful animals 4) Harmful plants 5) Other biological hazards and harmful factors (4) Psychological and physiological hazards and harmful factors 1) Excessive load: excessive physical load, excessive auditory load, excessive visual load, and other types of excessive load. 2) Abnormal health condition 3) Engaging in prohibited tasks 4) Psychological abnormalities: emotional disorders, risk-taking tendency, excessive stress, and other psychological issues. 5) Recognition function defects: perception delay, recognition errors, and other recognition function defects. 6) Other psychological and physiological hazards and harmful factors (5) Behavioral hazards and harmful factors 1) Command errors: Mistakes in command, commands that violate regulations, and other command-related errors. 2) Operational errors: mistakes in operation, violations of procedures, and other operational faults. 3) Supervision failures 4) Other errors 5) Other behavioral hazards and harmful factors 6) Other hazards and harmful factors. 2 Classification by accident type: Referring to the \"Classification Standards for Work-related Injuries and Deaths of Enterprise Employees\" (GB6441), and taking into account factors such as the cause of the incident, the inducing factors that lead to the accident, the harmful agents, and the manner of injury, hazards and harmful factors can be classified into the following 20 categories. (1) Object strike refers to the situation where an object, driven by gravity or other external forces, moves and strikes a person, resulting in injury or death; it does not include object strikes caused by mechanical equipment, vehicles, lifting machinery, collapses, etc. (2) Vehicle-related injuries refer to accidents involving falls of people and collapse, falling, or crushing of objects caused by the operation of an enterprise’s motor vehicles during motion. This does not include accidents occurring during lifting operations by lifting equipment, towing of vehicles, or when vehicles are at a standstill. (3) Mechanical injuries refer to injuries such as pinching, collision, shearing, entanglement, twisting, crushing, cutting, and piercing caused by direct contact between moving (or stationary) parts of mechanical equipment, tools, and workpieces with the human body; these do not include mechanical injuries caused by vehicles or lifting machinery. (4) Lifting injuries refer to crush injuries, falls, injuries caused by objects (such as lifting gear and loads), and electric shocks that occur during various lifting operations (including crane installation, maintenance, and testing). (5) Electric shock, including casualties caused by lightning strikes. (6) Drowning includes drowning from falls from heights, but does not include drowning due to water inrush in mines or underground. (7) Burns refer to burns caused by flames, hot objects, chemical burns (burns inside or outside the body caused by acids, bases, salts, or organic substances), and physical burns (burns inside or outside the body caused by light or radioactive substances); electrical burns and burns resulting from fires are not included. (8) Fire (9) Fall from height refers to injury or death accidents caused by falling during work at heights, excluding accidents resulting from electric shock. (10) Collapse refers to accidents that occur when an object, under the action of external forces or gravity, exceeds its strength limit or experiences a loss of structural stability; examples include soil and rock collapses during trenching, scaffolding failures, and the collapse of stacked materials. This term does not apply to roof and slope failures in mines, nor to collapses caused by vehicles, lifting equipment, or blasting. (11) Roof and sidewall collapse (12) Water inrush (13) Blasting Refers to casualties occurring during blasting operations. (14) **Explosion** refers to **explosion accidents that occur during the production, processing, transportation, and storage of such substances and their products.** (15) Gas explosion (16) Boiler explosion (17) Container explosion (18) Other explosions (19) Poisoning and asphyxiation (20) Other injuries II. Methods for identifying hazardous and harmful factors The choice of identification method should be determined based on the nature and characteristics of the object under analysis, its different life stages, as well as the knowledge, experience, and skills of the analysts. The two commonly used identification methods are as follows: 1. Intuitive experience analysis method (1) Comparison and experience method. The comparison and experience method involves using relevant standards, regulations, checklists, or relying on the analyst’s observational and analytical skills, along with experience and judgment, to analyze the hazardous and harmful factors in a company. (2) Analogical method: The analogical method involves using experience from identical or similar engineering systems or working conditions, along with statistical data on occupational safety and health, to infer and analyze the hazardous and harmful factors in a company. 2. System safety analysis methods: System safety analysis methods involve the use of certain techniques from system safety engineering evaluation to identify hazardous and harmful factors. System safety analysis methods are often used for new systems that are complex and lack accident experience. Common system safety analysis methods include event trees, fault trees, etc. III. Main contents of identifying dangerous and harmful factors 1. Site selection: Analysis is conducted from aspects such as engineering geology, topography and landforms, hydrology, natural disasters, surrounding environment, meteorological conditions, transportation facilities, and fire protection capabilities. 2. Plant layout (1) General plan: Zonal arrangement of functions (production, management, auxiliary production, living areas) ； Layout of facilities for high temperatures, hazardous substances, noise, radiation, and flammable and explosive materials ； Process flow layout ； Layout of buildings and structures ； Orientation, wind direction, fire separation distance, safety distance, health protection distance, etc. (2) Transportation routes and docks: factory roads, factory railways, hazardous materials loading/unloading areas, and factory docks. 3. Fire resistance rating, structure, fire protection, explosion prevention, safe evacuation, orientation, natural lighting, transportation access, etc., of buildings and structures. 4. Production process parameters: materials (toxic, corrosive, flammable, and explosive materials), temperature, pressure, speed, operating and control conditions, as well as accident and out-of-control scenarios. 5. Production equipment and installations (1) Chemical engineering equipment and installations: high temperature, low temperature, corrosion, high pressure, vibration, critical equipment, control, operation, maintenance, as well as emergency situations in case of failures or mistakes. (2) Mechanical equipment: moving parts and workpieces, operating conditions, maintenance tasks, misoperation, and errors in operation. (3) Electrical equipment: power outages, electric shocks, fires, explosions, misoperation and improper handling, static electricity, lightning. (4) Equipment with high risk, and equipment for working at heights. (5) Special monomer equipment and installations: boiler rooms, acetylene stations, oxygen stations, oil depots, hazardous materials warehouses, etc. (6) Areas with hazardous working conditions such as dust, toxic substances, noise, vibration, radiation, high temperatures, and low temperatures. (7) Management facilities, emergency rescue facilities for accidents, and auxiliary production and living hygiene facilities. Classification of the fire hazards of substances: According to the “Code for Fire Protection Design of Buildings”, the fire hazards associated with the production, use, and storage of substances are classified into five categories: Class A, B, C, D, and E. The classifications are summarized as follows: 1. Class A (1) Liquids with a flash point < 28°C. (2) Gases with an explosion lower limit of <10%, as well as solid substances that, when exposed to water or water vapor in the air, can produce gases with an explosion lower limit of <10%. (3) Substances that can decompose on their own at room temperature or oxidize in air, thereby causing rapid spontaneous combustion or explosion. (4) Substances that, at room temperature and in contact with water or water vapor in the air, can produce flammable gases and cause combustion or explosion. (5) A strong oxidizing agent that is highly prone to combustion or explosion when exposed to acids, heat, impact, friction, catalysis, or flammable inorganic substances such as organic compounds or sulfur. (6) Substances that can ignite or explode when subjected to impact, friction, or contact with oxidizers or organic substances. (7) Production carried out in enclosed equipment at a temperature equal to or above the substance’s own autoignition point. 2. Category B: (1) Liquids with a flash point of ≥28°C and <60°C. (2) Gases with a lower explosion limit of ≥10%. (3) Oxidizers that do not belong to Class A. (4) Chemical flammable hazardous solids that do not belong to Class A. (5) Oxidizing gas (oxidative gas). (6) Suspended dust and fibers that can form explosive mixtures with air, as well as liquid droplets with a flash point of ≥60°C. (7) Items that can undergo slow oxidation when in contact with air at room temperature, and in which accumulated heat leads to spontaneous combustion. 3. Class C (1) Liquids with a flash point of ≥60°C. (2) Combustible solids that do not belong to categories A or B. 4. Class D (1) Production processes that involve processing non-combustible materials, and that generate intense radiant heat, sparks, or flames under high temperatures or in a molten state. (2) Various types of production that utilize gases, liquids, or solids as fuels, or that involve burning gases and liquids for other purposes. (3) Production of non-flammable materials for use or processing at normal temperatures. (4) Stored flame-retardant items. 5. Class V (1) Production of substances that are difficult to ignite, used or processed at normal temperatures. (2) Non-combustible items stored. Identification of Major Hazard Sources I. Major Hazard Sources Broadly speaking, any equipment, facility, or location that may lead to a major accident can be considered a major hazard source. **The standards “Identification of Major Hazard Sources” and the “Work Safety Law” contain clear provisions regarding major hazard sources. A major hazard source refers to a unit (including sites and facilities) that permanently or temporarily produces, transports, uses, or stores hazardous substances in quantities equal to or exceeding the critical level. II. Criteria for identifying major hazard sources At present, internationally, major hazard sources are identified based on the types of hazardous and harmful substances and their limits. The Seveso Directive in the EU lists 180 hazardous and harmful substances along with their limits. Our country has issued the standard for identifying major hazard sources, namely «Identification of Major Hazard Sources» (GB18218). All major hazard sources must undergo safety assessments and inspections, and subject to the requirements arising from these assessments and inspections, they must be under close monitoring. Main strategies and measures for addressing potential hazards: 1. Adopt mechanized and automated production. Mechanized and automated production is not only an important means for developing production but also the fundamental way to achieve intrinsic safety. Mechanization can reduce the intensity of labor, while automation can decrease the risk of physical injuries. Intrinsic safety refers to the property of equipment, facilities, or technical processes that possess built-in functions capable of fundamentally preventing accidents from occurring. Specifically, it includes three aspects: 1. Fool Proof safety function. 2. Fail Safe function. 3. The aforementioned safety functions should be built into the equipment, facilities, or process technologies. II. Installation of safety devices Safety devices include protective devices, safety locks, and warning devices, etc. III. Enhancing mechanical strength: Mechanical equipment, devices, and their main components must possess the necessary mechanical strength and safety factors. IV. Ensuring electrical safety and reliability. Electrical safety measures typically include protection against electric shock, electrical fires and explosions, as well as protection against static electricity. The basic conditions for ensuring electrical safety are as follows: 1. Safety certification. 2. Backup power supply. 3. Protection against electric shock. 4. Electrical fire and explosion prevention. 5. Anti-static measures. V. Maintain and service machinery and equipment as required. Machinery and equipment are the main tools for production; during operation, it is inevitable that some of their components gradually wear out or get damaged prematurely, which can lead to accidents involving the equipment. Such accidents not only cause production to come to a halt but may also result in injuries to the operators. Therefore, to keep machinery and equipment in good condition at all times and prevent equipment failures as well as accidents resulting in injuries or deaths, regular maintenance and scheduled inspections are necessary. VI. Maintain a reasonable layout of the workplace. The workplace is the area where workers use machinery, tools, and other auxiliary equipment to process raw materials and semi-finished products. A well-organized structure and rational layout not only facilitate production but are also essential conditions for ensuring safety. Scattered metal scraps, lubricants, emulsions, raw materials, and half-finished products in the workplace, along with uneven floors, can all lead to accidents. VII. Provision of personal protective equipment: It is necessary to provide personal protective equipment with appropriate protective functions, based on the hazards and risk factors as well as the type of work, as a supplementary measure. Copyright notice: This article is reprinted from “EHS Home”