A Brief Review of Recent Development of Process Safety Management for Chemical Industry in East Asia

Since the chemical production of China overtook that of US in 2008/2009, the total chemical production and exports in East Asia has increased rapidly since 2000s. Now, China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan combined to export more than one quarter of tops 15 countries (with 78%) of the world. Those prosper development had also brought about some severe unfortunate incidents due to miss management. There were many new laws of process safety management enacted since 2000s or even recently—along with the newly establishment of national /local emergency response measures after 2010. Some results were observed as the incidents rates decreased. However, more fundamental changes will be needed to cover the old infrastructures, such as pipelines, old petrochemical plants…etc. In addition, the laws and actions to avoid industrial grade chemicals to be used as food additives or entering the food process will be the food safety issues for the years to come.