Romanian project for risck assessment for transport and storage of hazardous substances

Due to the increasing public awareness of the potential risks associated with the transportation and storage of hazardous materials, the environmental impact assessment of these activities has become an issue of major importance. This paper presents a project, which establishes a national action plan for hazardous substance transport and storage evaluation. Such a program is sustained by the necessity to obtain an adequate method for rapid and efficient estimate of individual and social risk due to transport and storage of hazardous substances in Romania. The main objective is to develop regional strategies for risk assessment in the mean of: establishing the areas borders that must be investigated and their particular characteristics; identifying the storage and transport activities in the area; determining hazards; establishing the analysis criteria and prioritizing the study areas; evaluating the continuous emissions; studying the major accidents; studying the population health; classifying the risks; establishing a national strategy; implementing politics/action direction/measures. The project expectation is to provide a decision tool for risk managers and authorities in order to permit or to limit transportation and storage of hazardous substances.