Utilization of Risk Analysis Techniques and Accident Investigation Tools Under the Lens of Process Safety: A Study with Companies of a Port City

Accidents in processes are common events in the daily routine of companies, and each one of them has its own standards to approach such events. This article has the objective of assessing the usage of Risk Analysis Techniques by companies located in the port city of Paranagua, in the south of Brazil, under the lens of Process Safety, and comparing with CCPS – Center for Chemical Process Safety – standards and adequacy to brazilian legislation. The economic activities of the city of Paranagua revolves around the seaport. Industries such as warehouses, fertilizers companies, and vegetable oil companies, among other, chose that city to establish logistics and distribution centers due to the proximity with the seaport. During the past years, the city of Paranagua registered an increasing number of accidents in those companies, associated with failures in process safety. This present study intends to evaluate how these companies are handling this subject. Using a standardized form, a survey was conducted to collect data from seven companies located in the city. The results shows that very few risk analysis techniques recommended by CCPS for Process Safety are used among the companies that participated on the survey. It raises a concern to the safety professionals involved considering that, although there is an increasing number of accidents due to process failures, the approach when dealing with such events is not always under the lens of Process Safety and few Process Safety standards are used.