Personnel accountability

This should provide direction as to how operations staff, emergency responders, and the public should respond to a potential toxic release (e.g., chemical plumes released), including facility evacuation, personnel accountability, proper personal protective equipment (PPE) as dictated by the Risk Management Program and Process Safety Management Plan, and whether the nearby public should be in-place sheltered or evacuated. 

According to the passage, which of the following items is most vital for personnel accountability ... 

Site evacuation routes and other alternative routes should be made available for reaching any site of emergency from inside and outside. Personnel accounting, procedure, assembly areas, safety zones, and exits should be known to everyone. 

Certain metrics will identify weaknesses in performance and even alert personnel to issues that need immediate attention. Managers and supervisors can only take action to correct problems if they are aware of the situation. Management has a major role in reinforcing expectations and holding themselves and other personnel accountable for meeting their assigned tasks and responsibilities. 

As described in Chapter 4, in an ideal process safety system, the organization s goals, objectives, and metrics should be reflected across the organization and, as appropriate, in the performance expectations and contracts of individuals with responsibilities under the system. A key factor in ensuring that systems perform as intended is to hold responsible personnel accountable for desired results—objective metrics are one way to measure and document... 

Watson, J. The Double Helix, A Personnel Account of the Discovery of the DNA Touchstone Publishers, 2001. 

At the sharp end, marketing and sales personnel (account managers) relate with the client and help interpret the brief. This is fed into the wider team system for response within an agreed time-scale. A core team for brief response normally consists of people from Marketing, Perfumery (creative and technical) and Evaluation, whilst Research and Development may also be involved and technical advice given by the Product Applications Laboratory. As in all large companies, team working is the key. 

NFPA 471, Chapter 6 requires site safety considerations including a personnel accountability system, provisions for rest and rehabilitation for responders, the elimination of all ignition sources, and the application of control zones. 

While most chemical facilities have an emergency plan, it may not be as detailed as required for the PSM rule and it may not have addressal of the response and recovery stages of an emergency. The plan is required to include types of accidents considered, emergency procedures and responsibilities, escape routes, locations for safe zones (assembly points), types of alarms, actions before evacuation, personnel accounting, rescue and medical responsibilities, reporting, local coordination, and the procedures for handling small releases of hazardous material. 

Preventive maintenance (PM) of a hydraulic system is very basic and simple and if followed properly can eliminate most hydraulic component failure. Preventive maintenance is a discipline and must be followed as such in order to obtain results. We must view PM programs as performance oriented and not activity oriented. Many organizations have good PM procedures but do not require maintenance personnel to follow them or hold personnel accountable for the proper execution of these procedures. In order to develop a preventive maintenance program for your system you must follow these steps ... 

Evacuation procedures should identify both primary and secondary evacuation routes for all hazardous locations, personnel accounting procedures, assembly areas, internal member responsibilities, requirements recommended by local policy, MSDSs, code directives, and manufacturer standards. In addition to the area overview, a specific plan should be outlined for each hazardous location. This will ensure that response is not hindered by irrelevant information. Not only should there be emergency evacuation routes for the facility, but evacuation routes from the facility to other locations in the community are a must, should the need arise to vacate the area in an orderly and efficient manner. 

Emergencies—inadequate personnel accounting and emergency access... 

The staff reviewed the RAEP and its implementing procedures, which address sheltering, evacuation, assembly, and Protected Area accountability. The staff noted that Protected Area personnel accountability, in the event that crash gates are used and/or the key card reader system fails, is not addressed even though the use of crash gates is specifically addressed in the RAEP. 

The staff notes that on May 31, 1990, WSRC instituted a General Employee Training (GET) Program for the reactor area. The 8-hour course provides information on personnel evacuation, assembly, and accountability for the reactor areas. All reactor area employees are required to attend GET and obtain proof of successful completion of the training (i.e., sign-off by the instructor). If they fail the course, reactor area employees are not permitted unescorted access to the protected area. The staff noted that the GET course lesson module, while satisfactory, lacks information on how personnel accountability will be handled. 

The staff reviewed EPIP 6Q7-202, "Accountability and Evacuations," and noted that while protected area accountability using the key-card reader system appears adequate to obtain 30-minute accountability, the procedure does not address protected area personnel accountability in the event that the crash gates are used or the key-card reader fails. This is an open item. Non-essential personnel, including visitor and temporary personnel, are normally evacuated from the Protected Area at the first declaration of an emergency condition. 

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