Welcome. My name is Genserik Reniers,
and I'm a professor at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands,
as well as at the University of Antwerp and at the KU Leuven in Belgium.
My research is situated within the field of chemical safety and security.
In this module, we're going to talk about risks in the chemical industry.
Chemical disasters lead to anxiety,
societal disruption, and fear.
People are scared by chemical accidents because
a potentially devastating human consequences,
such as suffering related to intoxication,
burns, inhalation of carcinogenic agents,
and what have you.
Many of you may know the oil platform disaster of Deepwater Horizon in 2010.
An estimated number of 4.9 million barrels of oil were spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.
It was the largest marine environmental disaster ever in the United States.
Eleven people died in that accident and the environmental damage was truly huge.
The worst disaster ever that took place in the chemical industry, however,
happened in 1984 in Bhopal,
a city located in the middle of India.
This accident was caused by a toxic cloud of gas and
led to some 4000 immediate fatalities.
In total, the death toll is now estimated to have risen to a number as high as 20,000.
However, compared with other causes of death,
fatalities due to chemical disasters are very rare.
In fact, they are actually lower than many other fatality risks.
Research indicates that worldwide since 1917 until now,
some 25,000 fatalities have occurred in chemical disasters.
Conversely, if taking all industrial sectors in the world into consideration,
some 25,000 fatalities occurred due to occupational accidents every month.
And the dreadfulness of chemical accidents is mainly related with the impact of
the consequences of chemical risk and
the fact that the number of people may die simultaneously.
This fear perception is further fed by chemical accidents and spills,
where national and international broadcasting
shows men in white suits with gas masks and footage alike.
However, the perception should also be fed by the fact that for every disaster,
many disasters have been averted in the chemical industry,
due to regulation, training, learning from accidents,
the right preventive and/or mitigation measures and sometimes also thanks to luck.
Nonetheless, when a major accident occurs,
where chemical substances are involved,
society will rightfully ask for thorough investigations and
measures such as a similar accident will never happen again.
Moreover, trust from civilians and politicians in
activities involving hazardous materials decreases.
The so-called license to operate is questioned.
A phrase that is sometimes hurts is a trust comes
by foot and races away with the speed of a sports car.
This is very true in the chemical industry.
Therefore, it is crucial to understand perception and its influence on decision-making.