Annex A. Explanation of terms used
Acceptability of risk: Risk acceptable to everyone, which everyone would agree without reservation to take or have imposed on them.
Affiliate: An enterprise in which another enterprise has minority voting rights and no effective operational control.
Audit: A systematic examination of a hazardous installation to help verify conformance with regulations, standards, guidelines and/or internal policies. This includes the resultant report(s) but not subsequent follow-up activities. Audits can include examinations performed either by or on behalf of management of a hazardous installation (self or internal audit) or an examination by an independent third party (external audit).
Chemical accident: Any unintentional event, such as a release, fire or explosion at a hazardous installation, involving hazardous substances that has the potential to cause harm to human health, the environment or property. This also covers chemical accidents triggered by the effects of natural hazards.
Chemical or industrial park: A group of two or more sites, facilities or establishments with different operators and in close proximity. They may share infrastructure and some services such as a fire brigade, cooling systems, nitrogen supply, wastewater treatment and electrical supply. The potential for domino effects should be considered.
Community(ies): Individuals living/working near hazardous installations who may be affected in the event of a chemical accident.
Enterprise: A company or corporation (including transnational corporations) that has operations involving the production, processing, handling, storage, use and/or disposal of hazardous substances.
Hazard: An inherent property of a substance, agent, source of energy or situation having the potential to cause undesirable consequences.
Hazardous installation: Fixed installation at which hazardous substances are produced, processed, handled, stored, used or disposed of in such a form and quantity that there might be a risk of occurrence of a chemical accident. This also covers pipelines and transport interfaces such as marshalling yards and port areas, with the exclusion of military installations and the hazard arising from ionising radiation at nuclear installations.
Hazardous substance: Element, compound or mixture which, by virtue of its chemical, physical or toxicological properties, has the potential to cause harm to human health, the environment or property.
A chemical accident that has a significant impact on human health, company operations, the environment, the community or society at large.
A near miss that does not have a serious impact but might have had under different circumstances, that is if the sequence of events had not been interrupted by a planned control measure or by chance.
Inspection: A control performed by public authorities. There may be other parties involved in the inspection, acting on behalf of the authorities. An inspection includes the resultant report(s) but not subsequent follow-up activities.
Local authority: Government body at the local level (e.g. city, county, province). Individual responsibilities within local authorities vary from country to country.
Monitor (or) monitoring: Use of checks, inspections, sampling and measurements, surveys, reviews or audits to measure compliance with relevant laws, regulations, standards, codes, procedures and/or practices; includes activities of public authorities, industry and independent bodies.
Natech: A chemical accident, including spills of oil and oil products, triggered by a natural hazard or natural disaster (such as extreme temperatures, high winds, floods, storms, earthquakes or wildfires).
Operator: The legal or natural person who, under applicable law, is in charge of the installation and is responsible for its proper operation. The concept of operator is defined in the law applicable in the country of the installation, in which attention may be given to criteria such as ownership of certain hazardous substances or possession of a license or permit.
Performance indicator: A means for measuring the changes over time in the level of safety (related to chemical accident prevention, preparedness and response), as the result of actions taken.
Programme: Any legislation, policy, regulation and implementation mechanisms for the prevention of, preparedness for and response to chemical accidents.
Risk communication: The sharing of information, or dialogue, among stakeholders about issues related to chemical accident prevention, preparedness and response including, for example: health and environmental risks and their significance; policies and strategies aimed at managing the risks and preventing accidents; and actions to be taken to mitigate the effects of an accident. For purposes of this document, risk communication includes dialogue and sharing of information among the public, public authorities, industry and other stakeholders.
Risk management: The management policies, procedures and practices used in the activities of communicating, consulting, establishing the context and identifying, analysing, evaluating, treating, monitoring and reviewing risk.
Site, facility or establishment: The whole location under the control of an operator where hazardous substances are present.
Tolerability of risk: A willingness by society as a whole to live with risk so as to secure certain benefits in the confidence that the risk is one that is worth taking and that it is being properly controlled.
Transboundary damage: Any serious damage to human health, the environment or property, suffered by an affected jurisdiction in the event of a chemical accident originating in a different jurisdiction.