Chemical risk assessment is a compulsory and necessary procedure for industrial sites, particularly SEVESO sites. It is then used to implement an appropriate prevention and protection policy for employees.
Nevertheless, it is often considered complex due to the diversity of products and preparations involved.
What methodology and tools should be used to carry out a chemical risk assessment on a sensitive site?
Find out how to carry out a chemical risk assessment
- Inventory hazardous products and materials
- Prioritizing potential risks (HPR)
- Assessing chemical risks
Inventory hazardous products and materials
The identification of hazardous products, preparations and materials in each zone and workstation on the site is an essential and decisive step. It determines the quality of the chemical risk assessment, as well as the overall prevention plan and the resultingacquisition of ATEX equipment.
For this reason, an operations manager must be appointed to head the working group in charge. This key player will need to be trained for the task, and have access to all the documentation needed to carry it out.
Key documents include Safety Data Sheets (SDS), which describe all the characteristics of a product and the protective measures to be taken to ensure safe use.
During the inventory, the working group in charge collects the following data:
- Product references
- The quantity used for each product over a given period of time (year, month, etc.)
- Frequency of product use
- Work area where products are used
- Hazard information (see label, with markings and pictograms)
- Information from the MSDS.
At the end of this first stage, the team is in a position to eliminate products that have been stored but are unused, unusable or expired.
Prioritizing potential risks (HPR)
This stage involves classifying and prioritizing risks, focusing on the most hazardous products.
This classification is based on the HRP method, which takes into account several criteria that can be found in the table below (source: INRS).
The combination of each class value gives a score that determines the risk and its dangerousness.
In this way, the calculation-based method provides managers with objective decision-making criteria for identifying high-risk situations requiring specific prevention plans.
Priority risks are classified by Homogeneous Exposure Group (GEH), i.e. a group of people, positions or functions for which exposure is considered to be of a similar nature and intensity:
- The chemical agent approach: risk assessment for all GEHs using chemical agents with a high potential risk.
- The work unit approach: risk assessment for all GEHs operating in a work area with a high overall potential risk, such as ATEX zones.
- The process approach: risk assessment for all GEHs having to comply with a process with a high potential risk.
Assessing chemical risks
This stage brings together the data collected during the prioritization phase, as well as additional information on the use of chemical products and agents.
Risk assessment is based on actual conditions of use and operating conditions. It therefore requires an inventory of the various tasks specific to a GEH. The idea is to estimate the residual risk associated with an individual task, taking into account :
- The dangers of chemical agents.
- Their physicochemical properties.
- The conditions for their implementation.
- Preventive equipment in place.
This data is used to characterize the risk of a GEH.
Only then can an industrial risk management plan be drawn up, with proposed actions depending on the areas assessed.
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