Study of the severity of industrial accidents with hazardous substances by historical analysis

This paper studies the levels of risk in industrial facilities where hazardous substances are used, evaluating the influence of certain variables on the severity of the accidents that have occurred until now. It makes use of the incidents recorded in the July 2001 version of the MHIDAS database. This study reveals that accidents in developed countries are less severe than those that occur in other geographical areas. Also, it establishes the influence on the severity (number of fatalities) of this kind of incident of certain factors: the type of incident and the type and amount of substance involved. Lastly, the extent to which current facilities comply to the risk tolerance criteria in various countries is evaluated with regards to incidents involving explosions. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.