A production accident is an unscheduled shutdown or violation of the production process at the enterprise, which leads to material damage and loss of life. A dangerous industrial accident can cause the destruction of buildings, failure of equipment and vehicles, and damage to the natural environment.
A catastrophe is a large-scale industrial accident with a large number of human casualties.
Causes of industrial accidents
An object of a national economy or other purpose, in the event of an accident in which death of people, animals and plants is possible, there is a threat to health or material damage and to the environment, is a potentially dangerous production facility.
The causes of industrial accidents and disasters may be:
- violation of production technology;
- violation of the rules for the operation of machinery, tools, structures and safety equipment;
- defects in the construction of facilities and installation of hardware;
- violation of the repair schedule;
- improper organization of the production process;
- natural disasters.
The consequences of industrial accidents are explosions, fires, destruction of residential and industrial facilities, failure of machinery and equipment. Often as a result of industrial accidents, large-scale atmospheric pollution and the release of aggressive liquids and oil products occur.
Types of Accidents and Hazards
Transport accidents - occurring at production facilities that are not directly related to the movement of vehicles that occur during their movement. The latter type of accidents is characterized by the distance of the scene of the accident from the settlements, the difficulty of providing assistance to the rescue services, and many victims who need medical attention.
Fires, explosions - the most common types of accidents in the modern manufacturing world. Explosive facilities are the first among industrial enterprises using flammable substances, including pipeline facilities and railway vehicles used to transport flammable goods.
Accidents threatening the release of chemicals are industrial accidents that occur due to the leakage of harmful substances during their manufacture, processing, storage, transportation. In some cases, the chemical compounds resulting from an accident are poisonous and deadly.
Accidents with the threat of the release of radioactive substances are likely at sites representing a radioactive hazard: the production and processing of nuclear fuel, the destruction of radioactive waste.
Accidents with the threat of release of biologically active substances - incidents with a relatively rare probability, due to the need to keep information secret, as well as the timely provision of measures to prevent such emergencies. Possible during the use of substances in enterprises or during transportation, dangerous by the severity of possible consequences for the population.
Destruction of buildings and structures - incidents provoked by indirect factors: exceeding the permissible number of people in limited areas, strong vibrations of passing vehicles, excessive pressure on the upper floors of the building. Varieties of collapses: transport communications, industrial buildings, residential and social buildings.
Accidents on electric power and communal systems - lead to complications of the population’s life, disruptions in industrial activity, and agriculture.
Accidents at industrial wastewater treatment plants - entail not only negative consequences for service personnel, but also lead to massive emissions of harmful substances into the environment (autonomous power plants and power networks with a long interruption in power supply, damage to transport and electrical contact networks).
Hydrodynamic are industrial accidents resulting from the destruction of hydraulic structures. As consequences, flooding, destruction of buildings, loss of life, disruption of shipping, destruction of material assets are possible. The greatest number of industrial accidents and catastrophes occurs at explosive facilities and hydraulic structures, which are potentially dangerous. Industrial accidents include those caused by the release of harmful gases and pollutants, and the release of wastewater from hydraulic structures.
Causes of anthropogenic accidents
Accidents of a man-made nature occur due to reasons:
- the degree of deterioration of technical equipment, vehicles and fixed assets up to 90%;
- insufficient level of control of harmful factors and associated with this release of risk detection devices, low level of collective and individual protection of personnel;
- insufficient reliability of energy, transport, agricultural, technological security systems;
- lack of competence of personnel in potentially hazardous enterprises;
- expanding the use of radiation, chemical, biological, fire and explosive substances and technologies;
- imperfection of measures to prevent accidents and reduce the number of casualties, the size of property damage;
- the location of potentially harmful production facilities near settlements and their support systems;
- low state control of potentially hazardous production facilities;
- reduction in the production of personal and collective personnel protection equipment;
- lack of local warning systems regarding the emergency situation at hazardous facilities.
The danger increases significantly in the presence of panic, the dissemination of provocative information, non-performance before authorized persons.
Technical causes of the accident
These include factors independent of the organization of labor:
- flaws in technological processes and tools; design flaws;
- lack of mechanization of work;
- imperfection of fences;
- low quality of safety devices, alarm systems;
- low degree of strength of materials;
- unsafe characteristics of materials and formed reactions during production.
Organizational causes of the accident
Relate to the organization of labor:
- deficiencies in the maintenance of the territory, including walkways and driveways;
- incorrect location of equipment;
- poor organization of jobs;
- violation of the rules for the operation of tools, equipment, vehicles;
- violation of the standards of transportation, storage, storage;
- violation of the norms of scheduled repairs;
- deficiencies in worker safety training;
- incorrectly organized group work;
- low degree of technical supervision during hazardous labor processes;
- misuse of mechanisms;
- lack of fences and their malfunction;
- lack of protective equipment;
- deviation from observance of labor standards (overtime work shifts, overload).
Sanitary causes of the accident
Causes of accidents due to a violation of sanitary standards:
- high toxic fumes;
- lack of lighting;
- noise level, ultrasound is higher than permissible;
- adverse weather conditions ;
- strong radioactive radiation is higher than permissible;
- neglect of personal protective equipment;
- violation of hygiene standards.
Personal causes of accidents
Failure to comply with the internal work schedule, violation of industrial safety rules, illness and other causes can lead to an accident at the production facility.
Psychophysical reasons include:
- overstrain of physical and neuropsychic nature and errors due to stress, monotony of labor;
- mismatch of psychophysiological characteristics and skills to the nature of the work performed, the possibility of perception and processing of information;
- inconsistency of anthropometric data (height, weight);
- occupational diseases due to exposure to harmful production factors.
Accident investigation
The purpose of the technical investigation of the accident is to establish the conditions and causes of the accident, to develop measures to eliminate the consequences and measures to prevent repeated accidents at the facility and other potentially dangerous enterprises.
Investigation of accidents at hazardous production facilities is carried out according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (12/30/2001 No. 197-FZ) and is accompanied by the following actions:
- informing about the accident and accident as a matter of urgency of the Service exercising control over the facility, the local government, an insurance company, the trade union community, the state labor inspectorate in the subject of the Russian Federation;
- adoption of measures to protect the life and health of workers, the environment, property of third parties from emergency consequences;
- assistance in maintaining the situation at the scene of the incident until the time of investigation, with the exception of cases where liquidation of consequences and the provision of medical care are necessary.
If it is impossible to save the circumstances of the accident unchanged, the following series of actions are carried out:
- entering information on photos, video and audio media, a commission is drawn up to create these materials;
- measures to eliminate the devastating consequences at the facility;
- conducting a technical analysis of the causes of the disaster, taking measures to eliminate and prevent emergency causes;
- assistance to the commission of investigation of the incident at the enterprise.
Commission action
During the investigation, the commission members carry out a number of actions necessary to establish the causes of the industrial accident:
- inspection, creation of photo, audio and video information, diagrams and the scene of the accident;
- registration of the protocol for the analysis of the incident;
- an investigation is being conducted in collaboration with rescue services;
- preparation of documentary evidence through a survey of witnesses and explanatory letters from officials;
- analysis of the circumstances that led to the terrible accident or incident, establishing a list of reasons;
- analysis of the nature of technology violations, facility operating conditions;
- production control audit;
- analysis of compliance with industrial safety conditions for energy facilities and hydraulic structures;
- analysis of the conformity of the facility and technology design documentation;
- comparing the legitimacy of design decisions with their changes and implementation;
- identification of inconsistencies in the field of application of equipment;
- identification of malfunctions of personnel protection equipment;
- analysis of staff qualifications;
- verification of the insurance contract regarding damage during operation at the facility;
- quality control of technical documentation for equipment operation;
- establishing the causes of the accident of a technogenic nature and restoring the details of its development on the basis of a survey of witnesses, analysis of documentation, expert opinion, results of the investigative experiment;
- determination of deviations from industrial safety standards and analysis of the behavior of those responsible for errors;
- verification of the performance of duties by the production control service;
- development of methods to eliminate the premises of the accident and its re-occurrence;
- preliminary determination of the amount of damage, taking into account direct losses, socio-economic losses, damage due to improperly used potential of the object, damage to the environment.
An integral document for preparing for a technical investigation of the causes of an industrial accident is the calculation of economic damage, signed by the leadership of the structural unit.
Based on the results of the investigation, the head of the structural unit draws up an order to eliminate the prerequisites and consequences of the accident, introduce measures to stabilize production and bring to justice those who have violated the legislative and regulatory requirements of the Russian Federation.
Technical Investigation Materials
The list of materials regarding the causes of the accident is appointed by the chairman of the commission, taking into account the nature of the accident.
The documentation regarding the causes of the accident at the facility includes:
- an order to establish a commission to investigate the technical causes of the accident;
- act of investigation;
- protocol of investigation of the scene of the accident with photo and video materials;
- report of the chairman of the commission on the conclusion of experts, if necessary;
- expert research on the details of the accident with the provision of calculations, graphical applications, etc.
- reports from the services of mountain rescue units, gas rescue, paramilitary units on the process of liquidation of the accident;
- protocols of interviewing employees involved in the accident, safety officials;
- certified copies of personnel training documentation, excerpts from labor protection briefing magazines;
- certificates of financial, economic, environmental damage;
- an act of production incident according to the established model;
- copy of the contract of insurance of risk for harm in the workplace;
- facts of violations of industrial and energy safety standards in the documentation listing the items;
- data on late informing relevant organizations about the accident.
Documentation Accounting
The commission for the technical investigation of the causes of the accident considers the original documents, in addition - copies and extracts from them, certified by authorized persons at the facility. Documents must be correctly executed, not have corrections, cleanings, additions.
The result of determining the causes of the accident is recorded in the act of investigation, which is stored for up to two years. By a set of materials, they are sent to the territorial body of the investigation service, organizations that participated in the investigation of the causes of the disaster, and other bodies.
Incidents are accounted for by employees and services responsible for industrial safety monitoring in the registration journal, which indicate the date, place, characteristics, causes of the incident, downtime, damage, methods for eliminating the causes of the accident.
About 45 thousand potentially unsafe industrial facilities operate on the territory of the Russian Federation, as a result of which people suffer and die.