Continuing our process safety management journey

Abstract

“…in the eyes of the public the industry is one.” Trevor Kletz (b. 1922) Process safety risk reduction efforts are a part of our journey to make our chemical industry safer for people and the environment. This article focuses on our process safety risk reduction efforts, providing (1) a brief historical discussion, (2) a framework for today's current practices, and (3) a proposal for some future efforts. Process safety practices have evolved over the years and continue to evolve today as we share our new practices and theories. In addition, today's digital age continues to enhance our ability to share information across the globe, and it has accelerated the changing nature of the public's view of the chemical industry—the public's concept of acceptable societal risk. Our right to operate chemical facilities is based on several factors, including our effect on neighboring communities, the public's changing perception, and the governmental regulations created in response to major fires, explosions, and toxic releases. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2012

Three decades after Bhopal: What we have learned about effectively managing process safety risks

“…Improving process safety performance is our goal on our journey to prevent incidents and to improve process safety performance . Three decades after Bhopal, incident investigations continue to reveal that one or more of the process safety systems designed to manage the process safety risks have failed due to poor safety leadership and support.…”

Process Safety Management (PSM) for managing contractors in process plant

“…Unfortunately, such major accidents are becoming incrementally harder to control with the increasing scale and complexity of the modern chemical process industries (CPI) (Cui et al, 2012;Vaughen & Kletz, 2012). As the industrial processes become even more complex and the number of conditions to be controlled becomes something that may threaten to overwhelm the existing safety management procedures of the facilities or plants, an ever evolving chemical accident prevention system needs to be implemented to prevent major industrial accidents.…”

Implementation of Safety Performance Framework (SPF) In Process Industries to Avoid Disasters

“…As PSM is an integral part of process safety, therefore, since its inception, all worldwide process industries and regulatory bodies have acknowledged its importance and its brighter future in terms of saving human and capital assets from accidental losses [11][12][13]. Moreover, there are total fourteen elements in it which are process safety information (PSI), process hazard analysis (PHA), operating procedures (OP), employee participation (EP), training, contractors, pre-startup safety review (PSSR), mechanical integrity (MI), hot work permit (HWP), management of change (MOC), incident investigation (II), emergency planning and response (EPR), compliance audits (CA), and trade secrets (TS) [14][15][16]. Table 1 shows the standard codes for each PSM element.…”