Modelling the occupational exposure of workers to certain hazardous chemicals

¹ National Institute for Research and Development in Mine Safety and Protection to Explosion – INSEMEX, 32-34 G-ral Vasile Milea street, 332047, Petrosani, Hunedoara county, Romania
² University of Petroşani, Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Department of Automation, Computers, Electrical Engineering and Energetics, 20 Universităţii street, 332006, Petrosani, Hunedoara county, Romania
³ ”Constantin Brancusi” University of Targu Jiu, Republicii, 210135, Targu-Jiu, Gorj county, Romania

^* Corresponding author: vlad.pasculescu@insemex.ro

Abstract

Hazardous substances are considered to be liquids, gases or solids which are of risk for the health and safety of workers and they may be found in almost all workplaces, including in SME’s. Hazardous substances include chemical agents, but also biological ones, such as bacteria, viruses, mould etc. Most chemicals used in the industry present risk for the workers, depending on their physico-chemical properties. Directive 2012/18/EU is the legal act which regulates the chemical substances field within the Member States, regulation dealing with the control of hazards involving dangerous substances which may lead to major accidents. In Romania, Law 59 dated April 2016 on controlling the hazard of major accidents caused by hazardous substances evaluates “hazardous chemicals”, describing the risk for people and regulating concentrations of such substances. By using the commercially available Phast consequence modelling package, within this study were modelled leaks of several chemical substances used in the industry, in order to estimate their hazardous influence extent. The current article is a significant work on modelling of discharge and atmospheric dispersion of hazardous substances using state-of-the-art consequence modelling software. Emergency Response Planning Guidelines (ERPG) are used as reference exposure levels within the present study. Output data of computational modelling are significantly influenced by input parameters. In this regard, the effects of the latter for ensuring robustness of the simulation and for identifying improvements have proven to be necessary.