Communication process safety professionals

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) has a 30-year history of involvement with process safety for chemical processing plants. Through its strong ties with process designers, builders, operators, safety professionals and academia, the AIChE has enhanced communication and fostered improvement in the high safety standards of the industry. AIChE publications and symposia have become an information resource for the chemical engineering profession on the causes of accidents and means of prevention. 

Such success stories may come from within the organization or from external sources including other companies and even other industries. Professional and trade associations, safety organizations, and some customers or suppliers as well as other business publications and sources can be sources for such information. Many of the same organizations hold meetings that discuss lessons learned (see Section 9.2.2). An organization may want to engage the corporate communications and/or public affairs functions to look for opportunities to publicize the company s successes within and outside the firm as well as look for examples outside of process safety successes. 

Safety professionals shonld be aware that the company or organization wonld be reqnired to make reasonable accommodations for any/all known physical or mental limitations of the qnalihed individnal with a disability, unless the employer can demonstrate that the accommodations wonld impose an undue hardship on the business, or that the particnlar disability directly affects the safety and health of that individnal or others. Safety professionals should also be aware that included under this section is the prohibition against the use of qualihcation standards, employment tests, and other selection criteria that can be used to screen out individuals with disabilities, unless the employer can demonstrate that the procedure is directly related to the job funetion. In addition to the modifications to facilities, work schedules, equipment, and training programs, the company or organization is required to initiate an informal interactive (communication) process with the qualified individual to promote voluntary disclosure of his or her specific limitations and restrictions to enable the employer to make appropriate accommodations that will compensate for the limitation. ... 

To perform their professional functions, safety professionals must have education, training, and experience in a common body of knowledge. Safety professionals need to have a fundamental knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, statistics, mathematics, computer science, engineering mechanics, industrial processes, business, communications, and psychology. 

Safety professionals can draw upon voluntary standards and national consensus standards to develop safety performance programs, implement continuous improvement programs related to safety, and develop measures of safety performance. National consensus standards are developed through a process of obtaining input from industry representatives on the development of the standard. This representation can include manufacturers, trade associations, professional organizations, as well as other standards development bodies in the United States, in other countries, or from international coalitions such as the European Community. 

Since the chemical industry operates by handling potentially hazardous materials safely, safety has always been an important consideration for chemical engineers. Engineers have never been able to discharge their professional responsibility only by designing efficient equipment or developing efficient processes. Today society has expanded that traditional responsibility to include environmental and community protection. The chemical industry s operations and products should not have an unacceptable impact upon its neighbors, its customers, or the environment. 

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