About CAPRI
Chemical disaster management entails the collection, analysis and dissemination of data and information related to chemical disasters. CAPRI was developed by the JRC-MAHB with the view that up until now chemical accident information is so decentralized that it may be a barrier to understanding where and how past accidents occur and thus, may be a barrier to preventing also future chemical accidents. Such data can be found across numerous open source repositories managed by governmental institutions, academia and industry bodies. Indeed, there is no real "ecosphere" for finding data and information on chemical accidents. Moreover, the knowledge created in the past may become inaccessible in the future due to ageing factors, such as ageing ITC technologies and changes in the priorities of organisations that have facilities access to part of the knowledge base. Moreover, awareness of the significance and contribution of particular accidents to process safety may also be lost with the retirement of the experts that investigated or studied the accidents and generated the lessons learned that were used to make improvements.
As such, there is currently a lack of a data “ecosphere” where all data and information are aggregated and interpreted in a contextualised environment as well as retained for the next generation of chemical safety experts. In response to this need, the JRC-MAHB has created CAPRI.
The CAPRI platform is intended to be a knowledge-retention centre on selected chemical accident events whose knowledge can be used to inform decisions on chemical accident risk management and governance. In particular, the portal serves as an “ecosystem” where stakeholders can find information on known chemical disasters of the past, as well as important accidents in the development of national international standards and regulatory frameworks.
CAPRI provides awareness on chemical disasters to the safety community and the public and draws attention to lessons learned across a spectrum of chemical disaster management activities including mitigation, prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. Promoting these lessons learned can contribute worldwide to preventing the occurrence of chemical disasters and minimizing their negative impacts on the exposed people, public health, the environment, and business.
Furthermore, CAPRI is part of a knowledge “retain and transfer” strategy to minimize losing critical knowledge, expertise and skills, contacts, institutional and historical knowledge due to retiring experts or turnovers and ageing ICT. This strategy will curtail the loss of institutional knowledge and transfer it to the younger generations thereby ensure operational continuity within the chemical safety community.
The CAPRI ecosphere is currently made of five modules:
- Worldwide disasters: list of accidents across the globe that meet the criteria described as level 5 or 6 in the European scale of industrial accidents.
- Historic events: official reports of worldwide accidents that contributed to the development of new regulatory requirements provided valuable lessons learned, and shaped current process safety strategies towards efficient risk management.
- Media incident database: visualisation of worldwide accidents collected through media reports for the GMI-CHEM database (Global Media Information on Chemical Accidents).
- Online resources: figures and data files, generated from JRC-MAHB studies of specific trends and lessons learned from chemical disasters.
The content of CAPRI is provided “as is”, with every effort and attempt to ensure it is accurate and current. However, JRC-MAHB does not, and cannot, assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of such content. Also note that JRC-MAHB cannot and will not assume any responsibility or liability for the information or content of third-party sites.
Therefore, reliance on such information is at your own risk. JRC-MAHB strongly advises that you verify any data and information on which you want to rely for your intended use by checking official publications and authoritative publishers such as governmental institutions, academia, and industry. You may need to do further research to find further information you are looking for.
Please note that JRC-MAHB does not, and cannot, assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, reliability of information created by third parties. Therefore, if relying on particular cases for an analysis or publication, you are strongly advised to make an effort to verify critical details that are important for your work whenever possible. Often, there are more detailed accounts in documents produced by governmental institutions, academia, and industry. If you cannot find any further information on cases you are using for your work, then you are advised to note this limitation in any report and conclusions that make reference to these data. Please remember that, in many cases, you will need to search in the local language(s) as well as English to find the information you seek.
If you choose to use information from this portal for your own purposes, without any further verification, you should be aware of its limitations and also communicate them in conjunction with any conclusions you may publish based on the information.
