Emergency response planning for chemical accident hazards : key points and conclusions for Seveso enforcement and implementation

Emergency response combines with prevention and mitigation to form the risk management triad of control measures for reducing chemical accident risks. In fact, standard good practice dictates that appropriate emergency response measures are identified for every major accident scenario of a hazardous operation. Consistent with this philosophy, emergency planning has been taken on board as an essential component of the Seveso Directive since its inception in 1982. Within the current Seveso Directive (2012/18/EU), under Article 12, emergency planning for upper-tier sites is assigned as a direct obligation to both the operator (for internal emergency planning) and the authorities (for external emergency planning). These obligations present considerable challenges for the authorities, in particular, in verifying that internal emergency planning of each upper tier site is conducted in accordance with Seveso requirements and existing performance standard; that a parallel process for external emergency planning is established; and an appropriate strategy is defined to inform populations potentially at risk from the accident scenarios of concern. To bring improvements and consistency to Member State practices in this regard, the European Commission and the Irish Health and Safety Authority organised a workshop in 2012 for Seveso inspectors from EU and aligned countries to exchange information on challenges and successes in implementing emergency planning obligations. This publication summarizes the main conclusions and observations from the workshop discussions.