Evaluation of the health consequences in Chemicals road transport accidents: Using a fuzzy approach

The most common way of transporting hazardous materials in many countries, including Iran, is road transport. This increases the risk of exposure to these materials. Hence, the assessment of the consequences of exposure can help to manage the transportation of these materials. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the health consequences of accidents in road transport of chemicals.

In this study, a fuzzy inference system was designed and implemented. The system has three input parameters: "The concentration of released chemicals", "The degree of vulnerability of the exposed community" and "The toxicity of the released material". The output of this system expresses the degree of exposure severity coefficient. This coefficient demonstrates the severity of the damage to individuals in the exposure of chemicals.

Due to the release of chlorine gas in the target area, the radii affected were divided into two low risk areas (up to 187 m) and safe (more than 187 m). The most severe exposures in the sensitive group of society (children, elderly people and individuals with underlying problems in group 4 with a coefficient of 0.92) and adolescents and middle aged in group 3 (with severity coefficient of 0.776).​

Our results showed that group 4 was considered as the most sensitive exposure group in determining the safe distance. Also showed that the use of fuzzy approach to simulating the health consequences of chemical transport can be used.