SEVESO
Since 1976, following a serious accident in the Italian town of Seveso, there is a European Directive for Serious Accidents, aiming to prevent risks in companies manipulating dangerous chemical products. That directive wants to prevent disastrous consequences for both people and the environment.
The current version of the Seveso regulation, known as SEVESO III, has been transposed within the Spanish legislation through Royal Decree 840/2015.
SEVESO forces industrial establishments with the presence of hazardous substances or mixtures in amounts greater than the thresholds indicated by the regulations, to have identified the existing risks in their plant, as well as to an evaluation system. They must also have measures aimed at preventing such risks from materializing and mitigating the consequences should they occur.
These types of risks, given their danger and the disastrous consequences they can have for people, the environment and facilities, must be identified and assessed quantitatively or qualitatively, by specialized engineers.
Tandem HSE offers technical evaluation services specialized in serious accidents prevention. We also take care of the creation of all the documentation required by the regulation and, if case a serious accent happens, we transfer the required report to the authorities.
SEVESO Notifications
The notification of serious accidents is one of the basic points of the SEVESO regulations. All companies that have risks of serious accidents due to the presence of dangerous substances or mixtures must transmit and continually maintain updated the notification.
In the notification of serious accidents, the quantities of substances or mixtures affected by the directive of serious accidents are declared, classifying them in subsections of Part 1 of Annex I, or in substances named in Part 2 of Annex I. Finally, the weighted sum is performed to determine the indices for sections H, P and E, and thus determine the degree of affectation of the establishment, higher or lower.
Such notification must be made in a thorough manner by strictly following the criteria established in Royal Decree 840/2015, as well as instructions and regional regulations, if any.
Tandem HSE has technicians, engineers and technical means in risks prevention to take care of the elaboration of the notification of serious accidents for your company.
Security Report (SR)
All companies that have activities classified by the regulation of serious accidents as ‘superior’ must complete the elaboration and transmission of the security report.
This document must comply with the provisions of article 4 of RD 1196/2003, basic civil protection guideline for the control and planning of the risk of serious accidents involving dangerous substances. This regulation establishes both the structure and the contents of the document, as well as the quantitative criteria for the calculation of planning areas in the event of a serious accident.
The safety report is a very comprehensive and technical document given the risks we are talking about. This report must include different chapters such as: Basic information for the drafting of the external emergency plans (IBA), containing a description of substances, facilities and processes carried out in the installation; Safety management system and the prevention of serious accidents policy (SGS and PPAG), which describes the entire safety management system implemented, a risk analysis where the scope of the planning areas is determined (alert zone, intervention zone and domino effect zone) of the hypothetical accidents identified.
This document serves as the basis for civil protection agencies in chemical risk matters, for the elaboration of the external emergency plan.
Tandem HSE can elaborate the security report for you. We use powerful programs—EFFECTS (GEXCON) and ALOHA (EPA)—to perform simulations and calculations of the consequences of the possible accidents, in order to create the corresponding prevention protocols as well as the action protocols in case of serious accidents.
Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA)
The quantitative risk analysis examines a series of hypothetical accidents within a location, of which an analysis of different possible effects as well as their potential frequency of occurrence.
We quantify the risk of the activities, calculating the iso-risk curves (individual risk), as well as the FN curve (social risk), if applicable, to determine the acceptability of the risk.
In case of obtaining an unacceptable risk, new safeguards for prevention and mitigation of the hypothetical accidents identified are proposed, in order to reduce the risk.
Tandem HSE can perform your quantitative risk analysis. We use EFFECTS y RISKCURVES (GEXCON), two powerful programs, to create simulations and do the calculations for the risk curves.
Self-Protection Plan (SPP)
The owner of the activity has the legal obligation, according to Royal Decree 393/2007, to establish plans that prevent and control the risks in their activity for people, property and the environment. You must have the necessary means to face the consequences of a possible accident within your facilities and, in addition, you must ensure the coordination of your activities with the local civil protection authorities.
The self-protection plan (SPP) must identify and evaluate all existing internal and external risks, the preventive and control measures required and the action plan in case of emergency.
