Pollution Accidents Research Articles

Pollution and fatal traffic accidents in California counties

AbstractWe estimate pollution's causal effect on fatal traffic accidents using instrumental variables. Using variation in fine particulate matter of 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less (PM2.5) because of air temperature inversions and eastward wind, we find that of PM2.5 positively affects fatal traffic accidents. Fatalities increase on average by 1.3% when PM2.5 increases by 1 g/m3. This increase corresponds to 67 more yearly fatalities in California on average. The positive effects we estimate are consistent with mechanisms such as cognitive function due to pollution inhalation. Heterogeneity analysis finds that this mechanism is worsened for non‐rural and for lower‐income counties while it is mitigated by driver risk aversion during poor air quality days.

Risk Assessment of Sudden Water Pollution Accidents Associated with Dangerous Goods Transportation on the Cross-Tributary Bridges of Baiyangdian Lake

The issue of sudden water pollution resulting from accidents is a challenging environmental problem to address. The frequency of transport accidents involving hazardous materials over tributary bridges is steadily rising due to rapid industrialization and urbanization processes. This trend poses a significant threat to both the water’s ecological environment and human well-being. To effectively mitigate the risks associated with water pollution caused by accidents during the transportation of dangerous goods, this research focused on Baiyangdian Lake, the largest freshwater lake in North China. Thid study employed the expert judgment fuzzy language method and Bayesian network model as analytical tools to assess and analyze the potential risks associated with sudden water pollution accidents caused by the transportation of hazardous materials on bridges spanning tributaries. Through an examination of the various risk factors involved, the research identified four primary indicators and ten secondary indicators. Additionally, an oil leakage accident scenario was simulated, and recommendations for risk prevention and control measures were provided. The findings of the study indicated that: (1) The likelihood of risk associated with driver factors, vehicle emergency factors, fuel tank emergency factors, road factors, and lighting factors is elevated. (2) The probability of a dangerous goods transportation accident occurring on the Baiyangdian cross-tributary bridge is substantial, thereby presenting a potential hazard to both the water environment and human health. (3) Vehicle emergency factors, vehicle wear factors, and weather factors exert a significant influence on the incidence of accidents. (4) The highest likelihood of accidents is associated with a combination of factors, including driver fatigue, vehicle and fuel tank deterioration, and adverse weather conditions. (5) In instances where the vehicle and fuel tank are well-maintained, the probability of accidents is greatest on the cross tributary bridge, particularly when the driver is fatigued, weather conditions are unfavorable, and there is a lack of street lighting during nighttime. Implementing emergency prevention and control measures proved to be an effective approach in mitigating the risk of sudden water pollution accidents. This study offers valuable insights into risk mitigation and management strategies for emergent water pollution incidents, and the framework presented herein can be readily applied to other rivers worldwide confronting comparable risk challenges.

Ag+ colorimetric sensor based on graphene oxide/nano-platinum composite

With the development of society, pollution accidents occur more frequently, and the effects of toxic substances containing silver on human health and environment are increasingly extensive. Therefore, the real-time on-site monitoring of silver ions is urgently needed. Based on the catalase-like properties of graphene/nano-platinum composites and the coupling effect between Pt and Ag+, a simple, unlabeled colorimetric sensing method is proposed to achieve the quantitative detection of Ag+. Under optimal conditions, the detection range of Ag+ by this colorimetric sensing method is 0.5–1000 μM, and the detection limit is 0.5 μM, which is lower than the previously reported detection limit of unlabeled Ag+ colorimetric sensing method, showing higher sensitivity and detection range. Under the same conditions, the sensor has almost no response to interference ions, showing good specific recognition ability. In addition, the colorimetric sensing method can be used to detect Ag+ in actual water samples, serving as a new paradigm for visual detection of Ag+.Graphical abstract

Safety first? The effect of studded tyres on traffic accidents and local air pollution

This paper offers empirical insights into the trade-off between local air pollution and traffic accidents by exploiting an annual studded tyre ban in Norway. Studded tyres offer superior traction on icy roads, but also contribute to harmful particulate matter pollution. The use of studs is therefore restricted to certain dates which, due to its dependence on Easter, can differ by over a month from one year to another. I exploit this variation in a type of regression discontinuity in time design. The findings suggest that the use of studded tyres does not decrease the number of traffic accidents. Moreover, there is no evidence that studded tyres increase particulate matter pollution. As studded tyres increases road wear and tear and appears to not contribute to road safety, this paper raises the question of whether North-American and European countries where studded tyres are widely used should revisit their traffic safety policies.

Leaking Gas Source Tracking for Multiple Chemical Parks within An Urban City

Sudden air pollution accidents (explosions, fires, leaks, etc.) in chemical industry parks may result in great harm to people’s lives, property, and the ecological environment. A gas tracking network can monitor hazardous gas diffusion using traceability technology combined with sensors distributed within the scope of a chemical industry park. Such systems can automatically locate the source of pollutants in a timely manner and notify relevant departments to take major hazards into their control. However, tracing the source of the leak in a large area is still a tough problem, especially within an urban area. In this paper, the diffusion of 79 potential leaking sources with consideration of different weather conditions and complex urban terrain is simulated by AERMOD. Only 61 sensors are used to monitor the gas concentration within such a large scale. A fully connected network trained with a hybrid strategy is proposed to trace the leaking source effectively and robustly. Our proposed model reaches a final classification accuracy of 99.14%.

Limit load prediction analysis of X80 pipeline containing corrosion in mountainous landslide section

Currently in China X80 pipeline laying mostly concentrated in mountainous areas, oil and gas pipeline transmission distance, through the complex and diverse terrain, the pipeline by the buried environment will not only appear corrosion defects, but also by the impact of soil slippage to reduce the pressure-bearing capacity of the pipeline, resulting in pipeline perforation, broken, leading to oil and gas leakage accidents, further leading to fire, explosion and environmental pollution and other major safety accidents. In view of the important strategic position of oil and gas pipelines and the severity of accident hazards, it is important to study the ultimate bearing capacity of buried corroded pipelines. With this purpose, this paper analyzes the existing pipe-soil coupling theories based on the large-scale test in the field, optimizes the nonlinear contact model, and establishes a nonlinear corroded pipe-soil interaction model and verifies its accuracy. By using the existing soil load application function and coupling the actual soil slip data, the inhomogeneous movement of soil slip is realized. Based on the existing corrosion size characterization methods, the effect of corrosion size on the ultimate load carrying capacity of intact pipes was further verified by means of a combination of FEA and experiments. Specifically, the effects of soil slip under no load and internal pressure coupled conditions on the mechanical behavior of corroded pipelines are compared and analyzed; the necessity of considering soil slip is clarified; the influencing factors such as pipe corrosion size, operating internal pressure, and corrosion position are analyzed to reveal the failure mechanism of buried corroded pipelines in mountainous areas. By using the pipe displacement at the strain failure as the evaluation index, and using the dimensional analysis method to reveal the relationship between each influencing factor and the ultimate load, the ultimate load prediction formula for corroded pipelines under soil slip actions is derived. The research results can help evaluate the safety condition of existing operating pipelines, release early warning for the structure safety of pipelines, and provide guidance for the safety protection of pipelines in mountainous areas.

Dynamic monitoring of leaking oil diffusion in porous media: An improved method assisting buried oil pipeline condition assessment

The environmental pollution caused by buried oil pipeline leakage is a typical non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) pollution accident. Therefore, it seems more reasonable to assess the condition of buried oil pipelines considering the potential contamination range. The law of oil diffusion in porous soil is very important for the safety management of buried pipelines and the remedy of leakage accidents. This paper proposes a dynamic observation technique of NAPL in porous media for buried oil pipeline leakage. A quantitative relationship between the diesel saturation and color components is established based on the theoretical analysis combined with 21 groups of dyed diesel experimental results. The accuracy of the observation technique is verified by a quantitative analysis of a series of discrete point samplings and a comparison of diesel volume in a diesel diffusion experiment. The results show that the combination of a specified saturation boundary and the color components S and I can effectively track the diesel diffusion fronts. The relative error between the calculated cumulative volume and the injected cumulative volume fluctuates around 5% at different times. This improved technology can effectively make up for the limitation of the traditional light transmission visualization (LTV) under low-intensity light and promote the study of NAPLs diffusion characteristics. Furthermore, the dynamic observation technique of NAPL in porous media for buried oil pipeline leakage monitoring can make a significant contribution to the improvement of the level of buried pipeline leakage accidents and remediation.

A facile approach to fabricating fluorine‐free superhydrophobic cotton fabric with excellent oil–water separation performance

AbstractWith the increasing deterioration of environmental and ecology caused by industrial wastewater pollution and petroleum spill accidents, superhydrophobic materials for oil–water separation have attracted considerable attention. Herein, we propose a facile approach to fabricate fluorine‐free superhydrophobic cotton fabric (CF) for oil–water separation after the coverage of chitosan (CS) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles and the subsequent hydrophobization modification by hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS). The obtained HDTMS‐TiO2/CS@CF showed superhydrophobicity with a high water contact angle of 160.6° as well as excellent self‐cleaning capability, non‐adhesion capability and surface stability. Moreover, the CF was successfully applied for the separation of various oil–water mixtures. The separation efficiency for trichloromethane‐water mixture reached 95.8%, and still maintained 95.6% after 30 separation cycles. In addition, the CF also possessed superior photocatalytic degradation capability for organic contaminant such as oil red O and the degradation rate was 86.2% under UV irradiation for 180 min. The preparation method in this work is simple, environmentally friendly, low‐cost, and easy to produce on a large scale. The findings conceivably stand out as a new method to fabricate superhydrophobic materials and show great application potential in the fields of oil–water separation and water purification.

Numerical investigation on the migration of leaked pollutants after liquid pressurized pipeline leakage regarding oil and gas parallel pipelines situation

Buried parallel pipelines may cause environmental pollution and explosive accidents after leakage due to corrosion, third-party damage or other factors. Here, an actual oil pipeline in-situ is employed as a prototype to establish a two-dimensional incompressible leakage and diffusion model. The model was applied to analyze the effects of different parameters including pipe diameters, burial depths and flat spacing to other pipelines on the diffusion distance of spilled diesel fuel in porous media. The results show that the existence of natural gas pipeline can change both of the polluted shape and the distance range. The natural gas pipeline can effectively inhibit the diffusion range of diesel with the increase of pipe diameter and the decrease of buried depth. A smaller spacing between parallel transmission pipelines, also results in a reduced horizontal diffusion rang. Meanwhile, the dimensionless formulas are fitted based on the Π theorem regarding diesel diffusion range versus diameter of gas pipeline, buried depth, and spacing between parallel pipelines. This study can develop appropriate protocols for detecting and recovering contaminants from paralleling pipeline.

Contribution of hydrogeochemical and statistical tools to the acquisition of water quality in the Bouchegouf Plain (northeast Algeria)

Abstract The Bouchegouf Plain is an industrial and mainly agricultural region. The results of analyses revealed high concentrations of physicochemical and bacteriological parameters in surface and underground waters. The objective of this research is to study the impact of the various discharges on water and the environment. Physicochemical and bacteriological analysis methods are used to characterize the surface and groundwaters. The synthesis of geological, hydrogeological and physicochemical data made it possible to develop models of underground flows and to delimit the perimeters of protection of the wells. The results showed a significant threat to the environment (Mellah and Seybouse streams) and to the waters of the alluvial aquifer. Indeed, the high concentrations of physicochemical and bacteriological parameters, in particular at the point of discharge of the yeast plant, can have harmful effects on fauna, flora and human health (waterborne diseases). Simulations of groundwater flows and pollutant transfer showed that groundwater is strongly affected by the drainage of the Seybouse wadi. Road traffic can also be the source of accidental pollution.

A Comparative Analysis of Public Awareness Level about Drinking Water Quality in Guangzhou (China) and Karachi (Pakistan)

Safe drinking water is fundamental for the existence of life. The establishment of public awareness about drinking water quality is a most significant issue in the protection of health and the wellbeing of humans. The present study focuses on the assessment of community awareness level of, as well as public trust in, the government-provided information about drinking water quality in two highly populated underrepresented megacities of Asia, i.e., Guangzhou (China) and Karachi (Pakistan). The study was conducted to explore the respondents’ knowledge about the existing quality issues and the practices to remove the contaminants in drinking water in both cities, which was determined by numerical analysis using the scoring method system and multinomial regression model. The results show that the respective respondents’ percentage awareness level and positive attitude in Guangzhou were 46.2% and 30.0% compared with 23.1% and 7.4% in Karachi, respectively. The respective percentage of respondents’ trust in media stories/reports about water pollution accidents was 76.0% and 70.8%, while the trust in government-provided information was 79.3% and 39.7% in Guangzhou and Karachi, respectively. The p-values for drinking water quality according to public approval based on sociodemographic parameters (gender, age, family members, household income/month, education, etc.) of respondents in both cities were <0.05, which supports that the variations in acquired results were significant. The study advocates that increased awareness campaigns by government agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in educational institutes and/or community centers can improve the public awareness level, which would subsequently help the governments to enhance the public trust, especially in Karachi. Moreover, the study’s findings have national significance and a worldwide scope, particularly in low- and middle-income regions.

Dioxins and their effect on human toxicity

Background: the interaction of human with dioxin and possible outcome from exposure to such compounds was reviewed. Red flag was raised to investigate these compound following media inquiries dealing with assassination of the Ukraine presidential candidate Victor Yushchenko using the most toxic dioxin, tetrachlorodibenzodioxin or TCDD.
 Results: Human may be exposed to dioxins following environmental, occupational, or accidental pollutant that when enter the body they are either metabolized then eliminated with different capacity depending on individual’s physiology, health, does been administrated, or can be stored in body fat. Detoxification of dioxins occurs by microsomes enzymes that alter their structure by adding oxygen to lipophilic chemicals in the liver. 
 Conclusions: Dioxins exert carcinogenic action in human, and other morbidities such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, and diabetes, and with extend exposure they can disrupt nervous, immune, reproductive, and endocrine system. From the other hand, exposure to high doses within short time cause liver function impairment and chloracne. Deformed fetuses in many births were attributed to dioxins poisoning. Ramifications on health were documented through scientific reports placing dioxins of high toxicity to human.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE P&I CLUB AS A PROTECTION FOR INDONESIAN CARRIER

Sea transportation experiences risks and material loss in its operation. The most significant risks include damage to the vessel and sea pollution due to ship collisions and accidents. The carrier should prioritize the risks. When the underwriter does not cover the risk, the shipowner should establish an association covering the loss among the members to the extent the underwriter does not cover it. This study will examine the importance of the Rule to P&I Clubs and its impact on Indonesian carriers and will also find the differences between P&I Club and Insurance. The research adopts Library Resarch Method, dogmatic legal approach, a descriptive and analytical nature. Due to the method, the following sources have been used: Convention law, domestic legislation, case law, legal textbooks, journal articles, P&I Club Rules, preparatory works, and websites of international organizations and law firms. P&I CLUB covers many accidents which are not covered by any marine insurance. In pollution accidents, P&I covers every detail of the impact of pollution. The difference between P&I Club with marine loss insurance, in general, is that P&I Club covers the loss/damage more extensively, which is not covered by any marine insurance. Keywords: Protection, Indemnity, Carrier.

The interference of marine accidental and persistent petroleum hydrocarbons pollution on primary biomass and trace elements sink

More than 80 % of the primary biomass in marine environments is provided by phytoplankton. The primary mechanism in the trace element sink is the absorption of trace elements by phytoplankton. Because of their difficult degradability and bioaccumulation, petroleum hydrocarbons are one of the most significant and priority organic contaminants in the marine environment. This study chose Chlorella pyrenoidosa as the model alga to be exposed to short and medium-term petroleum hydrocarbons. The ecological risk of accidental and persistent petroleum hydrocarbon contamination was thoroughly assessed. The interaction and intergenerational transmission of phytoplankton physiological markers and trace element absorption were explored to reflect the change in primary biomass and trace element sink. C. pyrenoidosa could produce a large number of reactive oxygen species stimulated by the concentration and exposure time of pollutants, which activated their antioxidant activity (superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, β-carotene synthesis, antioxidant trace elements uptake) and peroxides production (hydroxyl radicals and malondialdehyde). The influence of the growth phase on SOD activity, copper absorption, and manganese adsorption in both persistent and accidental pollution was significant (p < 0.05, F > Fα). Adsorption of manganese and selenium positively connected with SOD, malondialdehyde, and Chlorophyl-a (p < 0.01). These findings convincingly indicate that petroleum hydrocarbon contamination can interfere with primary biomass and trace element sinks.

Near-real-time detection of unexpected atmospheric events using principal component analysis on the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) radiances

Abstract. The three Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instruments on board the Metop family of satellites have been sounding the atmospheric composition since 2006. More than 30 atmospheric gases can be measured from the IASI radiance spectra, allowing the improvement of weather forecasting and the monitoring of atmospheric chemistry and climate variables. The early detection of extreme events such as fires, pollution episodes, volcanic eruptions, or industrial releases is key to take safety measures to protect the inhabitants and the environment in the impacted areas. With its near-real-time observations and good horizontal coverage, IASI can contribute to the series of monitoring systems for the systematic and continuous detection of exceptional atmospheric events in order to support operational decisions. In this paper, we describe a new approach to the near-real-time detection and characterization of unexpected events, which relies on the principal component analysis (PCA) of IASI radiance spectra. By analyzing both the IASI raw and compressed spectra, we applied a PCA-granule-based method on various past, well-documented extreme events such as volcanic eruptions, fires, anthropogenic pollution, and industrial accidents. We demonstrate that the method is well suited to the detection of spectral signatures for reactive and weakly absorbing gases, even for sporadic events. Consistent long-term records are also generated for fire and volcanic events from the available IASI/Metop-B data record. The method is running continuously, delivering email alerts on a routine basis, using the near-real-time IASI L1C radiance data. It is planned to be used as an online tool for the early and automatic detection of extreme events, which was not done before.

Microwave-aided pyrolysis and fragmentation of tar-rich coal and rocks for in situ coal conversion and clean utilization

British Petroleum predicts that coal will account for the largest share in energy resources for power generation until 2040. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that coal will remain a key component of the country's national electricity portfolio at least until 2040. However, due to serious issues including high carbon emissions, environmental pollution, surface subsidence, resource wastage, and mining accidents associated with traditional coal mining and utilization patterns, international communities have called for the abandonment of coal use and adoption of renewable resources. To overcome the disadvantages, we proposed a novel approach for achieving in situ conversion and power generation using subsurface coal. An earthworm-shaped intelligent unmanned mining machine (IUMM) was designed to use high-power microwave energy to pulverize and pyrolyze coal into particles that can be used for power generation via chemical conversion. In this study, we used IUMM-based technology for in situ conversion and utilization of tar-rich coal and recovery of oil and gas from the coal. We quantified the pyrolysis efficiency of the tar-rich coal and the surrounding sandstone as well as the gas–liquid overflow rate of the coal under various high-power microwave irradiation conditions. The critical microwave energy threshold for discriminating tar-rich coal from the surrounding sandstone was determined, which will help to realise automatic pyrolysis of tar-rich coal by IUMM and minimise the damage caused by high-energy microwave radiation to the surrounding rock. This work aids in the production of cleaner energy, while ensuring energy security.

Crowd-Sensing Enhanced Parking Patrol Using Sharing Bikes’ Trajectories

Illegal vehicle parking is a common urban problem faced by major cities in the world, as it incurs traffic jams, which lead to air pollution and traffic accidents. The government highly relies on active human efforts to detect illegal parking events. However, such an approach is extremely ineffective to cover a large city since the police have to patrol over the entire city roads. The massive and high-quality sharing bike trajectories from Mobike offer us a unique opportunity to design a ubiquitous illegal parking detection approach, as most of the illegal parking events happen at curbsides and have significant impact on the bike users. The detection result can guide the patrol schedule, i.e., send the patrol policemen to the region with higher illegal parking risks, and further improve the patrol efficiency. Inspired by this idea, three main components are employed in the proposed framework: 1) <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">trajectory pre-processing</i> , which filters outlier GPS points, performs map-matching, and builds trajectory indexes; 2) <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">illegal parking detection</i> , which models the normal trajectories, extracts features from the evaluation trajectories, and utilizes a distribution test-based method to discover the illegal parking events; and 3) <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">patrol scheduling</i> , which leverages the detection result as reference context, and models the scheduling task as a multi-agent reinforcement learning problem to guide the patrol police. Finally, extensive experiments are presented to validate the effectiveness of illegal parking detection, as well as the improvement of patrol efficiency.

Variations of the Level, Profile, and Distribution of PFAS around POSF Manufacturing Facilities in China: An Overlooked Source of PFCA.

The occurrence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) was investigated inside two manufacturing facilities in China. Levels, profiles, and spatial distribution of the detected PFAS were found to be distinctly site-specific and influenced by the area's historic function, production structure of the plant, downpour-induced accidental pollution, and variations in the adsorption and transport of compounds. Very high concentrations of PFAS [mainly C4 and C8 perfluoroalkyl sulfonic acids (PFSAs)] were found in topsoil and groundwater from both plants, with the highest values of 4.89 × 106 μg/kg dw and 1.10 × 104 μg/L, respectively. Elevated concentrations of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) in this study were attributed to their unintentional formation during the electrochemical fluorination process, which might be an overlooked source of PFCA. PFAS generally showed decreasing trends from shallow layers to the bottom of the soil core and demonstrated some downward migrations at different soil depths with time, and C4-C8 PFAS presented a deeper seepage than their long-chain homologues. Total organic carbon appeared to be more important for PFAS sorption to the topsoil than to the soil core. Workers were at potential risk of exposure to perfluorooctanesulfonic acid via soil at production and storage related sites. This study provides a critical reference for the systematic control of PFAS pollution around manufacturing facilities and a proof for an overlooked source of PFCA.

Literature Review on Power Battery Echelon Reuse and Recycling from a Circular Economy Perspective.

Developing new energy vehicles (NEVs) is necessary to grow the low-carbon vehicle industry. Many concentrated end-of-life (EoL) power batteries will cause large-scale environmental pollution and safety accidents when the time comes to replace the first generation of batteries if improper recycling and disposal methods are utilized. Significant negative externalities will result for the environment and other economic entities. When recycling EoL power batteries, some countries need to solve problems about lower recycling rates, unclear division of echelon utilization scenarios, and incomplete recycling systems. Therefore, this paper first analyzes representative countries' power battery recycling policies and finds out the reasons for the low recycling rate in some countries. It is also found that echelon utilization is the critical link to EoL power battery recycling. Secondly, this paper summarizes the existing recycling models and systems to form a complete closed-loop recycling process from the two stages of consumer recycling and corporate disposal of batteries. The policies and recycling technologies are highly concerned with echelon utilization, but few studies focus on analyzing application scenarios of echelon utilization. Therefore, this paper combines cases to delineate the echelon utilization scenarios clearly. Based on this, the 4R EoL power battery recycling system is proposed, which improves the existing recycling system and can recycle EoL power batteries efficiently. Finally, this paper analyzes the existing policy problems and existing technical challenges. Based on the actual situation and future development trends, we propose development suggestions from the government, enterprises, and consumers to achieve the maximum reused of EoL power batteries.

Frequency and Causes of Oil Spill Accidents from Ships and Storage Tanks in Quanzhou, China

With the rapid development of Quanzhou, the risk of offshore oil spill accidents has increased. Once a spill accident takes place, the spilled oil causes decades or even hundreds of years of continuous pollution to the marine environment. The direct economic loss may be as high as hundreds of millions of yuan, while the natural resources that are almost impossible to fully recover after such pollution may generate inestimable indirect economic losses in the long term. Therefore, predicting the accident probability, analyzing the causes of risk and putting forward suggestions for improvement have important practical guiding significance for reducing the risk and improving the emergency prevention and ability to control offshore oil spill accidents. Based on the statistical data of cargo throughput, the number of ships entering and leaving the port, and maritime pollution accidents in Quanzhou from 2011 to 2020, the frequency of oil spills during the 14th Five-Year Plan could be predicted by using the direct calculation method and fault tree analysis (FAT). The results show that the frequency of operational and average oil spills from ships are once in 4.92 years and once in 2.41 years, respectively, while the frequency of oil spills from storage tanks is once in 7.28 years. The main causes are anthropic factors, which are manifested as irregular operation, misoperation, unfamiliar equipment, disorganization of the emergency response and failure of the emergency facilities. Therefore, the suggestions put forward for reducing accidents in the future include enhancing the inspection of crew member qualifications as well as the offshore supervision of engineering operation vessels and fishing vessels, increasing the proportion of terminal emergency equipment and personnel and participation in emergency actions, clarifying the division of responsibilities between the terminal and cleanup company, and revising the relevant standards for the evaluation of the terminal's ability to cope with the emergency of offshore oil spill accidents.