Process Safety Management

Today's article will be discussing the Process Safety Management standard issued by OSHA.  There are 14 element to this standard, we will briefly describe each part and what it entails.  So, what is this process safety management standard?  Well, according to the site https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/processsafetymanagement/ , this standard is issued to deal with the hazards associated with chemicals that are highly hazardous.  What are the components?  The 14 components of the standard include process safety information, process hazard analysis, operating procedures, training, contractors, mechanical integrity, hot work, management of change, incident investigation, compliance audits, trade secrets, employee participation, pre-startup safety review, and emergency planning and response.  Lets discuss these steps in a little detail.  All of this information can be found on the site https://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3132.html . Process safety information includes having the employee write down all of the hazards associated with the chemicals being used in the process, writing down information about the technology being used in the process and writing down all of the information about the equipment being used in the process.  This is done so that employees understand the hazards because they have had to write them down and know them.  Process hazard analysis is very similar to process safety information.  It is the process of identifying hazards, as well as evaluating and controlling them.  The employer is required to use one or more of many methods listed in this site in order to properly evaluate any of the hazards that are being analyzed.  Operating procedures includes all of the instructions involved in conducting an operation safely in the workplace.  The procedure needs to include the operation phase, operating limits and the health and safety considerations.  Training is pretty self explanatory.  There must be training done by each employee involved in an operating procedure and refresher training must be done every three years or less.  Proper documentation of each employees training record must be kept in order to show that they have received and are keeping up with training.  The contractors part of project safety management, or PSM, is stating that contractors employees are to understand that the PSM requirements and safety procedures apply to them even though they may only be there for a short time or for a specialty job operation.  Mechanical integrity describes how an employer must keep the equipment up to date and inspected regularly to make sure it works properly.  If there are any malfunctions, use on that machinery is prohibited until the problem has been fixed, then further use may continue.  A hot work permit is required to be kept on file until the hot work is completed. What is hot work?  Well according to the site https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/safety_haz/welding/hotwork.html , hot work is when ignitable sources are next to flammable materials.  These include cutting and welding.  This permit is to describe the fire protection and prevention have been implemented before any hot work is done, the date that the hot work is being done on as well as the location  the hot work is being done at.  Management of change discusses the procedures that have been written in order to managing changes made to any procedure.  This can include chemicals or technology changes.  Incident investigation is the process that must occur no later than 48 hours of an incident in order to find the chain reaction of events that happened in order for an incident to occur in the workplace.  A list of personnel and task required in this investigation can be found on the site above.  Compliance audits states that the last two audits must be kept on file, and also that they are being done at least once every three years to make sure that everything checks out okay.  Everything in the audit must be documented.  Trade secrets states that an employer must make all information available in order to comply with the PSM.  Employee participation is done when the employer makes sure that the employees and representatives are being told the information needed to know that is in the PSM.  Pre-startup safety review is when the employer needs to conduct a safety review on a process due to a change in the system, whether that be new procedure or the introduction of a new chemical as well as introducing a new facility into the operation.  Lastly, emergency planning and response discusses that the entire employee population at a plant must be aware of the emergency action plan in case of an emergency.  This includes the disposal of hazardous chemicals.  I hope this article has been helpful in providing information about what the PSM is and what it entails.