INFOTOX | Industrial Fires

Fire Risk Assessments

INFOTOX has conducted several community health risk assessments following major industrial fires. Generally, public reaction to an industrial fire is much more intense due to heightened perceptions of the health consequences of industrial fires compared with fires that occur in residential and commercial properties.

It can be expected that very little, if any, public exposure information will be available for the period during an industrial fire. Invariably, this causes great uncertainty amongst affected residents and put the regulatory authorities and the company involved under immense pressure to make a statement about health risks. Such situations are portrayed in the media as “toxic scares”. Underlying all of these concerns is the factor of potential litigation and financial liability of the company that finds itself in this dilemma.

In the absence of measured air quality data for the hazardous combustion products, certain modelling approaches have been followed and published fire case studies reviewed to estimate release rates of toxic substances from a fire.

The qualifications and experience of INFOTOX in the disciplines of epidemiology, toxicology and physiology have been demonstrated to be essential in the assessment of public exposure to a mixture of air pollutants that may exert health effects. In previous studies of the consequences of industrial fires, INFOTOX dealt with community complaints registers and correlated reported symptoms with airborne concentrations of toxic substances. The INFOTOX activities were dependent on a strong background in exposure assessment and risk assessment and on a sound understanding of the difference between association and causality in the assessment of health impacts. The management of chemical incidents and emergencies requires a multi-disciplinary approach and specialist experience in environmental health sciences often play a leadership role at various stages of the management process.

Concerns of members of the public cannot be disregarded without substantial and sound scientific investigation and assessment. An industrial fire has great potential to cause harm in a community and the residents are entitled to be informed of their risks based on the outcome of a credible human health risk assessment. INFOTOX has demonstrated its competence in this field by conducting several studies that were accepted by the affected communities, the regulatory authorities and the industries in which the fires had occurred.