A holistic approach for assessing occupational health risk due to fugitive emissions in petrochemical processes: Inherent health hazard level index (IHHLI)

Fugitive emissions from petrochemical facilities have become a major concern due to their impact on plant productivity, the environment, and health. In regard to health, petrochemical workers are at higher occupational health (OH) risk due to their continuous exposure to these harmful emissions. Inherent OH and safety indexes are the most common methods used for assessing OH risk due to fugitive emissions. These methods usually focus on the sources of health hazards, such as chemical substances, process conditions, and process equipment. Therefore, these methods are considered good for measuring the severity of the OH risk. However, based on the source, pathway, receptor (SPR) model, the OH risk due to fugitive emissions is also dependent on the pathway and receptor, where leak and exposure hazards may take place, respectively. For a holistic OH risk assessment, these hazards need to be considered. This was achieved by developing an OH risk assessment methodology that provides an effective assessment that takes into consideration hazards at the source, pathway, and receptor. This paper focuses on the source part of the SPR model, while the pathway and receptor parts will be covered in future publications. This paper presents an index-based method named the inherent health hazard level index (IHHLI) developed for evaluating the severity of the fugitive emission-induced OH risk. The IHHLI is developed by an expert-based selection of the most common and relevant health hazard indicators published in the literature. Based on industry testing, the IHHLI can provide a reliable OH hazard evaluation.