Underlying public cries for better or increased inspections that often follow an industry disaster or near-disaster is a fundamental problem of virtually every regulatory agency and regulated industry: the number of regulated firms far exceeds the resources of agencies to inspect those firms. Research at the Risk Center is directed towards examining the value of enhancing the role that third-parties play in implementing regulations.
Conference on “Roles for Third Parties in Improving Implementation of EPA’s and OSHA’s Regulations on the Management of Low-Probability, High-Consequence Process Safety Risks.” November 18, 2010
The Center is completing a study in partnership with USDA on lessons to be learned from the current use of third parties in implementing non-food related safety regulations that might add value to USDA’s discharge of its food safety regulatory obligations. The non-food related regulations that are being examined are in this context are boiler and pressure vessel integrity; certification of company financial accounting statements; machinery and machine guarding; and prevention of chemical process accidents.
Roles for Third Parties in Improving Implementation of EPA’s and OSHA’s Regulations on the Management of LP-HC Process Safety Risks. Isadore Rosenthal (2011)
Roles for Third Parties in Implementing USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)’s Food Safety Process Management Programs. Isadore Rosenthal and Howard Kunreuther (2010)
Data from the risk management program (RMP) database of accident histories collected by the US Environmental Protection Agency for the period 1996–2000 under section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act Amendments is compared with OSHA reported occupational illnesses and injuries (OII) for the same period. The analysis can be considered a test of whether good everyday safety performance is a foundation for preventing or mitigating relatively rare major accidents. We find only weak evidence that this is the case for the US chemical facilities reporting in the RMP database.
Linking OII and RMP Info Data: Does Everyday Safety Prevent Catastrophic Loss?
Michael Elliott, Paul Kleindorfer, Joseph DuBois, Yanlin Wang, Isadore Rosenthal
International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, Vol. 10, Nos. 1/2, November 2008
THE REPORT of THE BP U.S. REFINERIES INDEPENDENT SAFETY REVIEW PANEL James A. Baker, III; Frank L. “Skip” Bowman; Glenn Erwin; Slade Gorton; Dennis Hendershot; Nancy Leveson; Sharon Priest; Isadore “Irv” Rosenthal; Paul V. Tebo; Douglas A. Wiegmann; L. Duane Wilson (2007)
Survey of Facilities Certified to the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System Standard.
Haitao Yin, ERB Institute, University of Michigan; Howard Kunreuther, Wharton Risk Center; Ulku Oktem, Wharton Risk Center. (2007)