© Nuffield Foundation 2009 Experts and the public A report from the Health and Safety Executive...

© Nuffield Foundation 2009

Experts and the public• A report from the Health and Safety

Executive

• Produced because of a recommendation from the inquiry into the building of the Sizewell B power station.

• Up to this time (mid 1980s) the discussion of the extent of the risks, to people or to the environment from industrial undertakings tended to be regarded as a matter for experts.

Answer questions 1 and 2


Risk and the tolerability of risk • Tolerating a risk is not the same as

accepting a risk.

• We ‘tolerate’ a risk if we are willing to live with it because of the benefits – while believing that it is being properly controlled.

• Risks we tolerate are not negligible or something we can ignore – we need to keep them under review and reduce them further if we can.

• The risks we 'accept' are the ones that for purposes of life or work, we are prepared to take it pretty well as they are.

Answer questions 3 - 6


Societal risks• Some kinds of risk are

regulated by society as a whole, with the aim of securing general benefits.

• When risks are regulated by society, the relevant judgements cease to be in the hands of the individuals who bear the risk.

• The risks are shifted around, so that some people bear more and others less of them; and the benefits may also be unevenly distributed.

Answer question 7


Attitudes to risk• People view risks differently

according to whether they can judge the hazard directly from experience,

• People are likely to be particularly worried if the cause of the danger is not well understood or is particularly dreaded; perhaps because it could result in large adverse consequences from which individuals could not escape.

• So, public expectations about the levels of protection required, or the level of risk which can be tolerated, may well differ according to the nature of the hazard in question and people's knowledge or feelings about it.

Answer questions 8 and 9

Sizewell A and B nuclear power stations


Industrial risks and the ALARP principleThe main tests applied in regulating industrial risks are very similar to those we apply in day to day life. They involve determining:


• whether a given risk is so great or theoutcome so unacceptable that it must be refused altogether; or

• whether the risk is, or has been made, so small that no further precaution is necessary; or

• if a risk falls between these two states, that it has been reduced to the lowest level practicable, bearing in mind the benefits flowing from its acceptance and taking into account the costs of any further reduction.


Tolerability of risk for workers in the nuclear industry


• The report stated that, the average risk of death for workers in the nuclear industry was between 1 in 20 000 and 1 in 4000 per year with a risk of 1 in 10 000 or better at power stations.

• The higher figure was broadly comparable with the risks borne on average by the workforce in such high risk industries as metal manufacturing and mineral extraction.

• The authors of the report decided that a risk of death around 1 in 1000 per annum is the most that could ordinarily be accepted by substantial groups of workers in any industry in the UK, with that level being exceeded, in practice, only by fishermen and relatively small sub-groups such as helicopter pilots, divers and demolition workers.


Tolerability of risk from the nuclear industry for the public at large


• Societal risks include not only the risk of death but also the costs of dealing with an accident including the consequences of land being unusable because of contamination and the wider disruption of the lives of communities.

• The approach is to compare the risks from the nuclear industry to the risks from other major installations. The report refers to the oil storage and refinery facilities at Canvey Island where a study of risk had led to changes intended to cut the risk major accident causing 1500 deaths to be reduced to 1 in 5000 per year.

Sizewell inlet and outlet for cooling water from the sea

© Nuffield Foundation 2009 Experts and the public A report from the Health and Safety Executive...

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Transcript of © Nuffield Foundation 2009 Experts and the public A report from the Health and Safety Executive...