RISK ANALYSIS STUDY OF ROAD TRANSPORT OF ETHYLENE-OXIDE

A quantitative risk analysis is presented for road transportation of e thylene oxide. The procedure is outlined, discussing the amount and de pth of information required. Based on analysis of the data relevant to accident frequency, consequences of historical accidents, meteorologi cal conditions and resident population, the route was divided into a n umber of portions. Then, reference was made to a couple of weather con ditions, assuming two typical release sizes and the complete series of possible outcome predictions for each release, which were estimated u sing a commercial software package for consequence analysis. All the i nformation was combined to give, directly, the individual risk, as a f unction of the distance from the route, and the societal risk (F-N cur ve), using a simple computer routine. The results showed that the exam ined transportation case represented a real hazard for the population and some mitigative actions were proposed, testing their effectiveness . (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.