UNIVERSITY OF MINDANAO

College of Engineering Education

Matina, Davao City

ChE ELECTIVE 3 (ELEC 3)

Submitted to:

ENGR. JAYVEE MOORE DY

College of Engineering Education Professor

Submitted by:

Joebe Zerlyn Naad Gato

B.S. – Chemical Engineering Student

September 6, 2017
Joebe Zerlyn N. Gato Risk Assessment 2nd report / 2nd Exam

Risk Assessment
Before we are going to tackle Risk Assessment, first we need to deal with some

terminologies that revolves around the topic of Risk Assessment:

1) Risk
According to Anjaneyulu & Manickam (2011), it is a combination of the

probability or frequency of the occurrence of a particular hazard and the

magnitude of the unfortunate effects or harm arising to the quality of human

and environmental health. According to our ever-favorite dictionary, Merriam-

Webster Dictionary, it is the possibility of generating loss or injury and that it

could be someone or something that sources the hazard. According to the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), risk depends on the following 3

factors:
i. How much of a chemical is present in an environmental medium

(e.g., soil, water, air);

ii. How much contact (exposure) a person or ecological receptor has

with the contaminated environmental medium; and

iii. The inherent toxicity of the chemical.
2) Hazard
It is the source of danger and injury as stated by Merriam-Webster

Dictionary. They also add in that it is “a game of chance”. Any property,

situation or person can be a hazard when it has a potential to cause harm, this

was stated in by Anjaneyulu & Manickam (2011). For the Department of

Homeland Security, there 3 types of hazard that we should be aware about,

these are taken from their official website (ready.gov/risk-assessment):

i. Natural Hazards
a. Meteorological - Flooding, Dam/Levee Failure, Severe

Thunderstorm (Wind, Rain, Lightning, Hail), Tornado,

Windstorm, Hurricanes and Tropical Storms, Winter Storm

(Snow/Ice)
b. Geological - Earthquake, Tsunami, Landslide,

Subsidence/Sinkhole, Volcano
c. Biological - Pandemic Disease, Foodborne Illnesses
ii. Human-Caused Hazards
a. Accidents - Workplace Accidents, Entrapment/Rescue

(Machinery, Water, Confined Space, High Angle),

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Joebe Zerlyn N. Gato Risk Assessment 2nd report / 2nd Exam

Transportation Accidents (Motor Vehicle, Rail, Water, Air,

Pipeline), Structural Failure/Collapse, Mechanical Breakdown

b. Intentional Acts - Labor Strike, Demonstrations, Civil

Disturbance (Riot), Bomb Threat, Lost/Separated Person,

Child Abduction, Kidnapping/Extortion, Hostage Incident,

Workplace Violence, Robbery, Sniper Incident, Terrorism

(Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives),

Arson, Cyber/Information Technology (Malware Attack,

Hacking, Fraud, Denial of Service, etc.)

iii. Technological Hazards
a. Information Technology - Loss of Connectivity, Hardware

Failure, Lost/Corrupted Data, Application Failure

b. Utility Outage - Communications, Electrical Power, Water,

Gas, Steam, Heating/Ventilation/Air Conditioning, Pollution

Control System, Sewage System

c. Fire/Explosion - Fire (Structure, Wildland), Explosion

(Chemical, Gas, or Process failure)

d. Hazardous Materials - Hazardous Material spill/release,

Radiological Accident, Hazmat Incident off-site,

Transportation Accidents, Nuclear Power Plant Incident,

Natural Gas Leak Supply

e. Chain Interruption - Supplier Failure, Transportation

Interruption
3) Probability

For Anjaneyulu & Manickam (2011), a probability is an occurrence of a

particular event in a given period of time or as one of amongst a number of

possible events.

4) Uncertainty

Anjaneyulu & Manickam (2011) was theoretical in giving in the definition of

uncertainty, it could be what is not known at all or may be the errors in what is

already known. But one thing is for sure, it always interferes on what was to be

expected to happen.

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Joebe Zerlyn N. Gato Risk Assessment 2nd report / 2nd Exam

5) Risk Management

It is the process of implementing decisions about accepting or altering

risks, according to Anjaneyulu & Manickam (2011).

6) Assessment

It is an action upon making a judgement on something, according to

Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

With these, we can now define what Risk Assessment is. Risk Assessment is

simply a scientific process, according to the EPA. According to Anjaneyulu & Manickam

(2011), it is a scientific method tackling and conveying uncertainties upon future

prediction within risks and hazards. Now the topic should really be specified to

Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA). Accompanying human activities, it is the

process wherein evaluation of predicted unfortunate effects to or by the natural

environment from hazards.

 Two Types of Environmental Risk Assessment

According to EPA, Environmental Risk assessment can be divided into two of which

are:
o Human Health Risk Assessment
It is the process to estimate the nature and probability of adverse health

effects in humans who may be exposed to chemicals in contaminated

environmental media, now or in the future.

o Ecological Risk Assessment
It is the process for evaluating how likely it is that the environment may be

impacted as a result of exposure to one or more environmental stressors such

as chemicals, land change, disease, invasive species and climate change.

 Five key step sequence in performing ERA:
According to Anjaneyulu & Manickam (2011), ERA always involve in analyzing

uncertainties thus it is required to follow basic steps where, in reality, is really

repetitive:
I. Hazard Identification – sources of adverse (unfavorable) impacts;
II. Hazard Accounting – scoping, setting the boundaries of the ERA;
III. Scenarios of Exposure – how the hazard might be encountered;
IV. Risk characterization – likelihood and severity of impact damage;
V. Risk management – mitigation or reduction of unacceptable risk.

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Joebe Zerlyn N. Gato Risk Assessment 2nd report / 2nd Exam

These steps addressed the 4 questions:

1. What can go wrong (to cause this adverse consequence)?

2. What is the probability of occurrence (of the adverse consequence)?
3. What are the range and distribution of the severity (of adverse consequences)?
4. What can be done, at what cost, to manage and reduce unacceptable risk and

damage?

References
BOOK:

 Anjaneyulu, Y., & Manickam, V. (2011). Environmental Impact Assessment Methodologies (2nd
ed.). Hyderabad, India: BS Publications.

WEBSITES (all retrieved from: September 5, 2017):

 Environmental Protection Agency (United States of America) Website

o Risk Assessment: https://www.epa.gov/risk/about-risk-assessment
o Human Health Risk Assessment: https://www.epa.gov/risk/human-health-risk-
assessment
o Ecological Risk Assessment: https://www.epa.gov/risk/ecological-risk-assessment
 Ready, the official website of the Department of Homeland Security (United States of America)
o Risk Assessment: https://www.ready.gov/risk-assessment
 Merriam – Webster Dictionary for terminologies
o https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/

Making my way downtown 'Cause everything's so

wrong
Walking fast If you could fall into the
floor And they don't belong
Grades are passed
Do you think that i will help but there's still be a
And I'm jeep-bound you by? probability

'Cause you know I'd read a

thousand laws
Staring blankly ahead 'Cause I need you
If I could just save you
Just thinking away And I'll save you
tonight
Making a way And now I wonder
To teach this class
It's always times like these

When I think of risk Uncertainty's a mystery

And I need you Do you think errors aren't
And I wonder if hazards are
there with me with me?
And you need work

And now I wonder

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Joebe Zerlyn N. Gato Risk Assessment 2nd report / 2nd Exam

'Cause you know I'd read a

thousand laws
Uncertainty's a mystery
If I could just save you
tonight these are 5 steps to follow
by

'Cause you know I'd read a

Ecological Risk Assessment thousand laws

Human Health Risk If I could just save you ...

Assessment
If I could just help you
Environmental Risk tonight
Assessment

has two types...

Making my way downtown

Walking fast

Late na ko

report(er) pa jud

Staring blankly ahead

Everybody's in my way

Making a video

Through the crowd

And I still need you

And I still help you

And now I wonder

If you could fall into the

floor

four questions came in, bai?

'Cause you know I'd read a

thousand laws

If I could just save you

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