Danger

See also: Danger (homonymy)

A danger is a characteristic of a thing (a tool, a machine, a product, but also an instruction, a situation, an activity, an organization of work, etc) which can negatively affect integrity (health, safety, etc) of an individual or a thing (an installation, an organization, the Environnement…)

The danger is the prelude to the Risque him even prelude to the Accident. The danger is independent of the probability of which has occurred of the event, whereas the Risque takes account of this probability. To reduce the danger and to reduce the risk are two distinct things.

Thus any cliff is dangerous, because when one walks there, it is possible to fall and to be killed out of there. But the danger will be more or less large according to the possible drop height and the nature of the ground on arrival. And a given cliff will be more or less risky, according to whether surface are slipping or not, provided or not with parapets, etc Ainsi, a cliff can be very risky and not very dangerous (surface of grass slipping without railing but low height and movable ground in bottom) or conversely (firm ground, barriers, indication but great height and rocks in bottom)

In the same way a bottle of product debouchor (often comprising caustic Soda) is dangerous, because an adult can burn himself by handling it or a child can drink it if the bottle is stored in the kitchen. But the danger will be more or less large (according to the nature of the product, its concentration), while the risk will vary according to the precautions of presentation and storage (stopper of safety, place of storage, existence of an unpleasant odor or a presentation which prevents confusion with a drink, etc)

The Inventory of the dangers or the study of danger is a precondition to the Analyze of the risks.

study of danger

The study of danger is legally obligatory in France for all Installation classified for environmental protection. It is the angular stone of the policy of Prévention of the risk. It is an inventory of fixtures, made for a given installation and a given period, taking into consideration its technological, natural and human environment, which has as an aim final to determine which technical measures, of formation/information/sensitizing and adapted methods of exploitation, could:

to reduce the probability of occurrence of the accidents
of limiting gravity of it, if they occurred in spite of the precautions taken
to improve the effectiveness and quality of the helps. (Certain ranked establishments must draw up and regularly update an internal plan of operation (POI), which specifies the organization of the helps and the interventions in the event of accident in the factory. Ranked establishments Seveso “threshold high” (most dangerous) must also produce and test a particular plan of intervention (pi) under the aegis of the Prefect, who organizes the helps in and out of the perimeter in the event of major accident).
to improve the rules of establishment of the dangerous units,
to adapt peripheral town planning
on suspicion to inform the bordering public of the conduits to be held in the event of accident or alarm

With this intention, the industrialist - under the control of the inspection of the classified installations and thus of the DRIRE and the Prefect - list the possible dangers and treats on a hierarchical basis them according to their possible consequences, the probability of occurrence in space and time, their kinetics. The industrialist lists also the tools of prevention and backup facilities available. The study describes the installations and their environment, the products used and their conditions of use, by listing the internal sources of risks (organization of work, technical processes…) and external (seisms, the lightning, dominos effects…), as well as the risks of the ill will type. On this basis, the industrialist must describe the means and tools which it envisaged to limit the probability of expression of the risk. He must evaluate the effects of these means by proposing concrete measures of improvement of safety. The study must be based on the technologies available most efficient and urge the owner to reduce the risks upstream, possibly by changing process or of product for less dangerous alternatives.
L' study includes a geographical evaluation of the zones likely to be touched by the consequence of the possible types of accidents, and it lists the public or private helps adapted and available. The prefect can ask for the complements of study which he would consider necessary, and in the event of particular risks (nuclear power, nanotechnology, biotechnologies, etc), he can request the opinion of a third Expert on the study of dangers, financed by the owner. It is starting from the study of dangers, after possible complements (in general, many), which are worked out, by the inspection of the classified installations. Minimal regulations are then imposed on the owner by an order of the prefect. The directive Seveso 2 transcribed in French right by the ministerial decree of May 10th, 2000 imposed the best taken into account of the “dominos effects” between installations of the same factory or close factories, and a coherent management of this risk.

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