IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reensy/v169y2018icp160-165.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using the ALARP principle for safety management in the energy production sector of chemical industry

Author

Listed:
  • Abrahamsen, Eirik Bjorheim
  • Abrahamsen, HÃ¥kon Bjorheim
  • Milazzo, Maria Francesca
  • Selvik, Jon TømmerÃ¥s

Abstract

In the context of chemical industry, in particular in high hazard industries, the adoption of safety measures is essential to reduce risks and environmental impacts, due to the release of dangerous substances, at level that is reasonably practicable. The ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practicable) principle is broadly used for decision-making in safety management, supported by cost-benefit analyses and the grossly disproportionate criterion, but without paying the proper attention to the decision frame (defined by the level of uncertainty and knowledge of the chemical phenomena, the use of best available technologies, the potential of major losses due to the release of hazardous materials and other items). In this paper, by examining the energy production sector of chemical industry, it will be argued that the decision context makes the application of the ALARP principle not always proper, whereas a dynamic interpretation, in which decisions are made oscillating between two borderlines, where in one case reference is made to expected values and in the other one to the precautionary principle, is more appropriate.

Suggested Citation

  • Abrahamsen, Eirik Bjorheim & Abrahamsen, HÃ¥kon Bjorheim & Milazzo, Maria Francesca & Selvik, Jon TømmerÃ¥s, 2018. "Using the ALARP principle for safety management in the energy production sector of chemical industry," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 160-165.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:169:y:2018:i:c:p:160-165
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2017.08.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832017300960
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ress.2017.08.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aven, Terje, 2017. "Improving risk characterisations in practical situations by highlighting knowledge aspects, with applications to risk matrices," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 42-48.
    2. Eirik Bjorheim Abrahamsen & Jon Tømmerås Selvik & Håkon Bjorheim Abrahamsen, 2017. "A note on the layered approach for implementing ALARP and the grossly disproportionate criterion," International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(3), pages 204-210.
    3. Jan Erik Vinnem, 2007. "Offshore Risk Assessment," Springer Series in Reliability Engineering, Springer, edition 2, number 978-1-84628-717-6, March.
    4. E B Abrahamsen & T Aven & R S Iversen, 2010. "Integrated framework for safety management and uncertainty management," Journal of Risk and Reliability, , vol. 224(2), pages 97-103, June.
    5. Stéphane Hallegatte, 2006. "A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the New Orleans Flood Protection System," Post-Print hal-00164628, HAL.
    6. Binder, Monika, 2002. "The Role of Risk and Cost-Benefit Analysis in Determining Quarantine Measures," Staff Research Papers 31911, Productivity Commission.
    7. Aven, Terje, 2010. "On how to define, understand and describe risk," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 95(6), pages 623-631.
    8. Monika Binder, 2002. "The role of risk and cost-benefit analysis in determining quarantine measures," International Trade 0203002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Terje Aven & Ortwin Renn, 2010. "Risk Management and Governance," Risk, Governance and Society, Springer, number 978-3-642-13926-0, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Yinuo & Xie, Shuyi & Tian, Zhigang, 2022. "Risk assessment of buried gas pipelines based on improved cloud-variable weight theory," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    2. Langdalen, Henrik & Abrahamsen, Eirik Bjorheim & Selvik, Jon Tømmerås, 2020. "On the importance of systems thinking when using the ALARP principle for risk management," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    3. Jieyin Lyu & Shouqin Zhou & Jingang Liu & Bingchun Jiang, 2023. "Intelligent-Technology-Empowered Active Emergency Command Strategy for Urban Hazardous Chemical Disaster Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-28, September.
    4. Mocellin, Paolo & Pilenghi, Lisa, 2023. "Semi-quantitative approach to prioritize risk in industrial chemical plants aggregating safety, economics and ageing: A case study," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    5. Leif Inge K. Sørskår & Eirik B. Abrahamsen, 2017. "On how to manage uncertainty when considering regulatory HSE interventions," EURO Journal on Decision Processes, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 5(1), pages 97-116, November.
    6. Abrahamsen, Eirik Bjorheim & Selvik, Jon Tømmerås & Milazzo, Maria Francesca & Langdalen, Henrik & Dahl, Roy Endre & Bansal, Surbhi & Abrahamsen, Håkon Bjorheim, 2021. "On the use of the ‘Return Of Safety Investments’ (ROSI) measure for decision-making in the chemical processing industry," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    7. Abrahamsen, Eirik Bjorheim & Milazzo, Maria Francesca & Selvik, Jon T. & Asche, Frank & Abrahamsen, HÃ¥kon Bjorheim, 2020. "Prioritising investments in safety measures in the chemical industry by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    8. Sørskår, Leif Inge K. & Selvik, Jon T. & Abrahamsen, Eirik B., 2019. "On the use of the vision zero principle and the ALARP principle for production loss in the oil and gas industry," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    9. Hausken, Kjell, 2021. "The precautionary principle as multi-period games where players have different thresholds for acceptable uncertainty," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leif Inge K. Sørskår & Eirik B. Abrahamsen, 2017. "On how to manage uncertainty when considering regulatory HSE interventions," EURO Journal on Decision Processes, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 5(1), pages 97-116, November.
    2. Tu, Anh Thuy & Beghin, John C., 2005. "Tariff Escalation and Invasive Species Risk," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19518, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    3. Aven, Terje, 2013. "A conceptual framework for linking risk and the elements of the data–information–knowledge–wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 30-36.
    4. Chengyan Yue & John C. Beghin, 2017. "Tariff Equivalent And Forgone Trade Effects Of Prohibitive Technical Barriers To Trade," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: John Christopher Beghin (ed.), Nontariff Measures and International Trade, chapter 8, pages 139-150, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Annette Weier & Paul Loke, 2007. "Precaution and the Precautionary Principle: two Australian case studies," Staff Working Papers 0705, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia.
    6. J Montewka & P Krata & F Goerlandt & A Mazaheri & P Kujala, 2011. "Marine traffic risk modelling – an innovative approach and a case study," Journal of Risk and Reliability, , vol. 225(3), pages 307-322, September.
    7. Tu, Anh Thuy & Beghin, John & Gozlan, Estelle, 2008. "Tariff escalation and invasive species damages," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 619-629, November.
    8. Veland, H. & Aven, T., 2013. "Risk communication in the light of different risk perspectives," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 34-40.
    9. David Adamson & David Cook, 2007. "Re-examining economic options for import risk assessments," Murray-Darling Program Working Papers WP3M07, Risk and Sustainable Management Group, University of Queensland.
    10. Tu, Anh T. & Beghin, John, 2004. "Intra-Industry Trade, Imperfect Competition, Trade Integration and Invasive Species Risk," Conference papers 331239, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    11. Aven, Terje & Hiriart, Yolande, 2011. "The use of a basic safety investment model in a practical risk management context," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1421-1425.
    12. Lindner, Robert K. & McLeod, Paul, 2009. "ACIAR’s 25 year investment in fruit-fly research," 2009 Conference (53rd), February 11-13, 2009, Cairns, Australia 47617, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    13. Lofgren, Hans & Robinson, Sherman, 2004. "Public Spending, Growth, and Poverty Alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis," Conference papers 331292, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    14. Damian Maye & Jacqui Dibden & Vaughan Higgins & Clive Potter, 2012. "Governing Biosecurity in a Neoliberal World: Comparative Perspectives from Australia and the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(1), pages 150-168, January.
    15. Skogdalen, Jon Espen & Vinnem, Jan Erik, 2012. "Combining precursor incidents investigations and QRA in oil and gas industry," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 48-58.
    16. Aven, Terje, 2012. "The risk concept—historical and recent development trends," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 33-44.
    17. Sisira S. Withanachchi & Ilia Kunchulia & Giorgi Ghambashidze & Rami Al Sidawi & Teo Urushadze & Angelika Ploeger, 2018. "Farmers’ Perception of Water Quality and Risks in the Mashavera River Basin, Georgia: Analyzing the Vulnerability of the Social-Ecological System through Community Perceptions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-26, August.
    18. Aven, Terje & Renn, Ortwin, 2018. "Improving government policy on risk: Eight key principles," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 230-241.
    19. Sven Ove Hansson & Terje Aven, 2014. "Is Risk Analysis Scientific?," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(7), pages 1173-1183, July.
    20. Yang, Ya Ling, 2020. "Comparison of public perception and risk management decisions of aircraft noise near Taoyuan and Kaohsiung International Airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:169:y:2018:i:c:p:160-165. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/reliability-engineering-and-system-safety .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.