Ensuring Consistency of Corporate Risk Criteria

The recently published CCPS text Guidelines for Developing Quantitative Safety Risk Criteria makes a strong case for corporations developing risk criteria. One topic addressed in the text is the development of criteria for use in single cause – consequence risk analysis methodologies such as Layer of Protection Analysis. The advent of the LOPA technique and its widespread adoption in the chemical industry has significantly increased the need for single cause – consequence scenario risk criteria. For companies which adopted the use of LOPA as a risk analysis methodology as an extension of their Process Hazard Analysis technique, risk criteria for injuries may have been established without consideration being given to the broader issues of individual and societal risk.

Guidelines for Developing Quantitative Risk Criteria indicates that appropriate anchors for corporate risk criteria are the existing governmental risk criteria. Even if a company does not plan on doing Quantitative Risk Analysis which would require the establishment of individual or societal risk criteria, the governmental established values for these risk criteria can still provide the anchor for a company to determine if the risk criteria being used in their LOPA analyses are harmonized with these values. Existing governmental guidance on risk criteria for use in LOPA can also be used to ensure appropriate values for single scenario risk criteria.