Health Risk Management as an Innovative Mechanism for Ensuring Oil Refineries are Safe for the Local Population

The research is aimed at developing and approbation of decision-making algorithm to ensure environmental safety of oil refining areas for local population based on the mechanism of health risk assessment. Its implementation at all stages of the life cycle of environmentally hazardous production facilities ensures compliance with the regulatory level of environmental impacts on the border of the enterprise sanitary protection zone and the adjacent residential areas.

Methodologically, the research is based on conceptual provisions of the risk management theory and corresponding standards of ISO 31000 series, which prescribe regulated risk management procedures: risk identification (by risk hazards and their sources); risk assessment and their prioritization by degree of significance; planning and implementation of risk management tools; monitoring residual risks. Risk assessment was performed using the standard Russian health risk assessment methodology.

The algorithm is a set of sequential procedures for making decisions to ensure the residual health risk meets regulatory requirements. Emphasis is placed on the stages of design and operation of an environmentally hazardous facility when the level of health risks posed is particularly sensitive to the results of the decisions made. Timely identification of hazards and assessment of health risks allows to define the location of environmentally hazardous facilities at the design, considering their risk-posing capacity. During operation stage, the riskiest areas of the sanitary protection zone boundary and the industrial site, priority facilities and chemical toxicants (in terms of created risks) are identified. This provides a basis for adjusting the industrial and environmental control programs, prioritizing investment programs and plans of environmental protection (considering the expected reduction of the health risk), as well as operational documentation (to minimize the possibility of creating high risk emissions). Risk management tools are used - risk avoidance, reducing the severity of consequences, reducing the probability of risks.

The algorithm makes it possible to ensure meeting the regulatory requirements for residual health risk during the operation of environmentally hazardous oil refinery facility, while avoiding significant financial costs because of environmentally insufficient planning and technological decisions made. The algorithm can be used for the operating industrial facilities and new construction objects, regardless of the industry specifics. It is applicable to chemical pollution of atmospheric air, acoustic and electromagnetic influence, pollution of water

Keywords: risk management; health risk assessment; chemical air pollution; regulatory level of residual health risk; priority risk-posing oil refineries, priority risk-posing chemical toxicants.