Overview of problems of risk management of accidents with dangerous chemicals in Europe

The intention of the current paper is to give an overview of problems in managing the accident risks associated with the use and transport of dangerous chemicals in Europe and in the western countries. The notion of an ‘accident generation system’ is used to underline that the focus is on accidental releases, and borderline problems in relation to routine releases are discussed. The management of industrial risk is regulated by national authorities and within the EC most national regulation follows the Community directive on major accident hazards of certain industrial activities. Various common indicators for assessing the consequences of accidents are discussed and evaluated from the point of view of quality and aggregation. The inherent uncertainty in both the data sources and connected to the models used for risk estimation is large, and effective and efficient risk management strategies adopted need to be sufficiently robust to take this uncertainty into account.