Potential danger – the potential impact on the human body of harmful and dangerous factors that can lead to injury, sudden and severe health problems.

The characteristics of the potential dangers



The potential danger is a universal property of human interaction with the environment and its components. Her character changes from natural factors of human life to all kinds of negative anthropogenic factors, often associated with scientific and technological advances (electricity, all kinds of radiation, high and low temperatures, power system).


Production environment is complemented by increasingly powerful technologies and technical systems that facilitate human labor, make it more productive, and in some cases allow you to go without human intervention. However, the more high-tech environment with which interacts, the more potential danger for him. All production processes are potentially dangerous to health and may cause death.

Potential hazard and risk



The potential danger can be estimated using risk. In practice, complete security is unattainable as long as there is a source of danger. However, you can reduce the risk of danger to a minimum, ensuring maximum safety. As a result, the risk for a long period of time remains unfulfilled or can take the form of an accident.

The main characteristic is the security level – allowable (residual) risk to humans. Using various statistical data, it becomes possible to pre-estimate the risk in different spheres of human activity. For example, the risk of suffering in a car accident can be characterized as follows: for year 1 of the 10 people at risk to get into a car accident.

Acceptable risk in practice is installed in accordance with the achieved in the most affluent similar systems "technical system – man". For example, the probability of a severe accident at the NPP should not exceed 10 (10 to 1 reactored). Acceptable risk it is necessary to provide a complex of necessary measures (technological, technical, organizational) which will minimize the likelihood of danger.