Global process safety incidents in the pharmaceutical industry
The objective of this research is to analyse global process safety incidents within the pharmaceutical industry in terms of their consequences and factors contributing to the incidents. There were 73 process safety incidents leading to 108 fatalities found between 1985 and 2019. Trends between the n...
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| Published in: | Journal of loss prevention in the process industries Vol. 68; p. 104279 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier Ltd
01-11-2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | The objective of this research is to analyse global process safety incidents within the pharmaceutical industry in terms of their consequences and factors contributing to the incidents. There were 73 process safety incidents leading to 108 fatalities found between 1985 and 2019. Trends between the number of incidents, number of fatalities, location, and contributing factors were identified and summarized. The most reported fatalities occurred in 2018 & 2019. 83% of fatalities occurred in China and India. Explosions were associated with 71% of incidents, which resulted in 89% of fatalities. For most of the international incidents, incident investigations were not available and thus insufficient details were available to determine the causes. Contributing factors were available or estimated from available data for about half of the incidents, with the following most common: hazard awareness & identification; operating procedures; design; safeguards, controls & layers of protection; safety culture; and preventive maintenance. These findings can be used as a basis to improve process safety performance in the pharmaceutical industry.
•A database of 73 global process safety incidents was developed between 1985 and 2019, associated with 108 fatalities.•Trends between the number of incidents & fatalities, location, and causal factors were identified and summarized.•Half of the incidents found occurred in China and India, leading to 83% of fatalities.•One-third of the 73 incidents resulted in multiple fatalities, and five with five or more fatalities.•Hazard awareness & identification was the primary factor contributing to incidents, with five other key factors. |
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| ISSN: | 0950-4230 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jlp.2020.104279 |