Pyrotechnics Safety, Risk, Unknown, and Uncertainty

Safety should primarily be prioritized when dealing with pyrotechnics, whether they are home-made or manufactured by professional organizations. Pyrotechnics safety is further supported by the fact that recent incidents involving pyrotechnics caused safety agencies and services to treat such explosives with increased caution once again. The reason behind that is that home-made explosives often are not provided with necessary safety features in contrast to commercially manufactured products. This may result in serious injuries and establishment of the hazardous environment during the application.

However similar uncertainty, unknown, and risk may be, there is a significant difference between three definitions. The risk is a consecutive decision made in spite of the uncertainty and unknown factors. Therefore, the risk is a consequence of uncertainty and inability to take everything into account. For example, when an organization decides to strike a bargain with another party, there is always a possibility that some unpredictable forces (e.g. human factor) may disrupt the process. Therefore, uncertainty is in a way a narrower topic because it is present in the risk and other undertakings as well. Uncertainty may occur, for example, because of the lack of professionalism or due to incorrect calculations. The unknown, in turn, is different from both risk and uncertainty because it does not depend on the consciousness of the person that may be uncertain or may take risky decisions. Unknown factors are ever-present and cannot be entirely mitigated.

Residual risk follows the procedure of risk management. The following formula commonly calculates it: Residual risk = primary risk – risk management measures influence. For example, when an event is about to happen, the residual risk will be determined by a number of risk management actions taken. Therefore, the residual risk may be entirely avoided or significantly high. However, risk management procedures may also trigger another risk which is also very common. The risks that appear when the risk management measures are taken is called secondary risk. Therefore, even though the primary risk may be eliminated, there is no guarantee that there will be no secondary risk.