EUROPEAN-COMMUNITY RESEARCH IN MAJOR INDUSTRIAL HAZARDS

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss EC research in ma jor industrial hazards (MIH). Within this paper and within the EC's re search and legislative activities, the following definition of MIH is used: 'dangerous events having the potential to give rise to serious i njury or damage beyond the vicinity of the workplace but which occur a s a result of industrial technology rather than naturally occurring ph enomena'. In general, such major hazards in the chemical and petrochem ical sectors are associated with four types of hazardous inventories, which can be grouped as follows: (i) large quantities of flammable/exp losive substances, mainly hydrocarbons and derivatives; (ii) large qua ntities of unstable or very reactive substances, peroxides, nitrates, liquid hydrogen and oxygen; (iii) large quantities of common toxic che micals such as chlorine and ammonia; and (iv) small quantities of very toxic chemicals. To put the EC research in context, the discussion is extended to cover related EC legislation (since one of the purposes o f the research is to serve EC policy-making) and also European researc h that is outside EC programmes.