Process safety, serious injury prevention

These process safety management systems help ensure that facilities are designed, constructed, operated, and maintained with appropriate controls in place to prevent serious accidents. However, despite these precautions, buildings close to hazardous process plants have presented serious risks to the people who work in them. This observation is prompted by the fact that some buildings, because of their design and construction, have collapsed when subjected to comparatively moderate accidental explosions, with serious injury or fatality to the occupants. Conversely, experience indicates that personnel located outdoors and away from such buildings, if subjected to the same blast, may have a lower likelihood of serious injury or fatality. 

Deciding which behaviors are critical is the first step of a DO IT process. A great deal can be discovered by examining the workplace and discussing witii people how they have been performing their jobs. People already know a lot about the hazards of tireir work and the safe behaviors needed to avoid injury. They even know which safety policies are sometimes ignored to get the job done on time. They often know when a near hit had occurred because an at-risk behavior or environmental hazard had been overlooked. They also know which at-risk behaviors could lead to a serious injury (or fatality) and which safe behaviors could prevent a serious injury (or fatality). 

The criteria which are used to identity mitigation which provides a major contributor to defense in depth or which prevents serious worker Injury or death are described in DOE-STD-3009-94 (DOE, 1994b). Safety SSCs that provide miti gafive or preventive functions are divided into two categories (1) safety-class and (2) safety-significant. Safety-class SSCs (SCSSCs) are those SSCs, including environmental monitors and portions of process systems, whose failure could... 

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