Abstract
Legislation that governs the health and safety of communities near major-hazard installations in South Africa is largely based on existing legislation that had been developed in the United Kingdom and other European Union countries. The latter was developed as a consequence of several major human-induced technological disasters in Europe. The history of the evolution of health-and-safety legislation for the protection of vulnerable communities in European Union (EU) countries, France, Malaysia and the USA is explored through a literature survey. A concise comparison is drawn between EU countries, the USA and South Africa to obtain an exploratory view of whether current South-African legislation represents an optimum model for the protection of the health-and-safety of workers and communities near major-hazard installations. The authors come to the conclusion that South-African legislation needs revision as was done in the UK in 2011. Specific areas in the legislation that need revision are an overlap between occupational health and safety and environmental legislation, appropriate land-use planning for the protection of communities near major-hazard installations, the inclusion of vulnerability studies and the refinement of appropriate decision-making instruments such as risk assessment. This article is the first in a series that forms part of a broader study aimed at the development of an optimised model for the regulatory management of human-induced health and safety risks associated with hazardous installations in South Africa.
Highlights
The society in which we live becomes more complex every day as a result of a multitude of factors such as economic development, wars, terrorist attacks, technological innovation, societal demands for wealth creation and an increased awareness of the impact of human activities on the health and safety of people (Perrow 1999)
The safety impact that major-hazard installations could have on people was not addressed in the publication. One reason for this is that environmental matters in South Africa are governed by the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), (Act 107 of 1998), and the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations of August 2010 under the national and provincial Departments of Environmental Affairs (South African Government Printer 1998) whilst the Major Hazard Installation Regulations are governed by the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Act 85 of 1993) (LexisNexis Butterworths 2003b) under the Department of Labour
The Major Hazard Installation Regulations are based on the UK Control of Major-accident Hazards (COMAH) Regulations that flowed from the Seveso II Directive of the European Union
Summary
The society in which we live becomes more complex every day as a result of a multitude of factors such as economic development, wars, terrorist attacks, technological innovation, societal demands for wealth creation and an increased awareness of the impact of human activities on the health and safety of people (Perrow 1999). It would appear that the safety of human communities, as far as the human-induced impact of major-hazard industrial installations are concerned, has not enjoyed the same priority as environmental issues in South Africa. The safety impact that major-hazard installations could have on people was not addressed in the publication One reason for this is that environmental matters in South Africa are governed by the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), (Act 107 of 1998), and the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations of August 2010 under the national and provincial Departments of Environmental Affairs (South African Government Printer 1998) whilst the Major Hazard Installation Regulations are governed by the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Act 85 of 1993) (LexisNexis Butterworths 2003b) under the Department of Labour. In South Africa, the prime focus of the latter is the safety and health of workers in organisations (the labour force) and to a lesser extent that of the general public
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