Risk management: role of social factors in major industrial accidents

Abstract

An important role of societal factors in creating ‘favorable’ conditions for the occurrence of major industrial accidents. This general conclusion rests on the analyses of several serious accidents which took place in recent years, such as the Chernobyl catastrophe, Three Mile Island and Bhopal tragedies. Main factors of social nature, including regulatory functions and mechanisms, legal aspects and economic considerations, acting in conjunction with technological factors, create preconditions which make major industrial accidents possible. The situation in the industrial safety sphere in the former USSR and its successor, the Russian Federation, taken as a case study, demonstrates the validity of the points raised in the presentation and serves as a basis for several conclusions. The three major accidents amply demonstrate the importance of societal factors in the origin and development of human-made technological disasters.