Risk analysis of French chemical industry

Accidental events in chemical industry can cause damages to human health, environment and economy. To prevent such events in industries, it is essential to identify and analyze the past events. To the best of our knowledge, such an analysis has not been done for the French chemical industry sector, which is the second producer in Europe. To fill this gap, 169 events were selected and collected in the French database ARIA (Analysis, Research and Information on Accidents). These events occurred between 1974 and 2014. The causes and consequences of the events were analyzed. The study shows that the causes were mainly related to operator errors. Then, a semi-quantitative analysis of risk was also carried out, based on the frequencies and consequences of the events. This analysis confirms that chemical industry activities present a significant risk. Based on this analysis, national agencies can make some recommendations or rules in order to reduce the number of events in chemical industry.