The European chemical industry has a longstanding commitment to improving the safety of its plants and processes for people and the environment. The industry adheres to EU legislation on process safety and the prevention industrial accidents and develops voluntary initiatives to further improve its performance.
Seveso II – preventing major industrial accidents
The EU’s Seveso II Directive focuses on the prevention and control of major industrial accidents involving dangerous substances. It applies to some thousands of establishments where dangerous substances are present in quantities exceeding the thresholds defined in the directive. The chemical industry accounts for about 50 percent of the current Seveso sites.
Cefic sees Seveso as a well-established and effective regulatory framework to ensure that appropriate attention is devoted to the relevant industrial sites. Over the years, Seveso has also contributed to the dissemination of best practices in process safety management, many of which were originally developed by the chemical industry, for example in the area of emergency response.
In December 2010, the European Commission published a draft proposal for amending the Seveso II Directive. The objective is to align Seveso’s scope to the EU regulation on the classification, labelling and packaging of chemicals (CLP).
The European chemical industry supports the Commission’s aim to maintain the high standard of major accident prevention in Europe and subscribes to the recommendations made by the stakeholders in the Commission’s technical working group for the revision of the directive.
Cefic stresses that re-classification of substances results from the need to align Seveso with the CLP system, not new major-accident hazards. It is thus important to ensure that the revision does not lead to unintended scope extension that will drain company and authority resources without improving major accident prevention. Cefic also advocates for a risk-based approach to public information and inspection requirements.
Driving continuous improvement in process safety
Process safety is not just about preventing major accidents. Implementing a safety culture focused on continuous improvement in all industrial sites requires constant attention. The goal for companies is zero incidents.
The European chemical industry supports and drives voluntary initiatives to help companies identify, assess and control the potential risks resulting from their operations. Improving health, safety and environmental performance is also a key objective of the global chemical industry’s Responsible Care initiative.
In cooperation with the European Process Safety Centre (EPSC), Cefic contributes to developing performance indicators and management models for process safety, giving guidance on their application and sharing best practice. In 2011, Cefic published Guidance on Process Safety Performance Indicators to facilitate the development of broadly applicable process safety metrics.
The focus on safety has to be maintained throughout the entire value chain. Among other initiatives, the chemical industry promotes and implements best practices for the safe transport of chemical products.