Safety specialists

While a multidisciplinary team approach is ideally suited to PSM design and installation, it is not the only way. PSM goals can be achieved through the efforts of a single professional, or a small homogeneous task group (for example, facility managers or safety specialists) the process is essentially the same as described here, but on a smaller, more limited scale. 

The personnel responsible for the collection and analysis of incident data vary in different organizations. One common practice is to assign the responsibility to an investigation team which includes the first line supervisor, a safety specialist and a plant worker or staff representative. Depending on the severity of an incident, other management or corporate level investigation teams may become involved. 

Train all personnel in the functioning and value of blowdown during an emergency. This may be achieved by safety specialists explaining the various hazards and relative risks of blowing down and failing to depressurize. 

Residues and Food Safety Specialist European Regulatory Affairs Aventis CropScience GmbH Industriepark Hochst Frankfurt, Germany... 

Health and safety considerations are addressed jointly by an industrial hygienist and a safety specialist. These are the individuals that are "the authority having jurisdiction" as referenced by the National Fire Protection Association. Because of the unique nature of many research laboratories, it is not always possible to adhere strictly to the NFPA Codes and these individual must use their professional judgement in applying the intent of the Codes. 

At the outset of involvement in laboratory design it is incumbent for the health and safety specialists to designate those codes, regulations, and special requirements they consider essential to produce a safe and healthful work environment. All to often the A/E will choose a standard building code to follow. These codes, while appropriate for office buildings, do not address the necessary life safety requirements necessary for laboratories. 

Sometimes in the design of a BSL-4 facility, the full letter of health and safety codes/requirements for the protection of workers can not be met. This is where health and safety specialists must compromise and use their ingenuity to meet the intent of the requirements. For example, it is not always possible to provide a secondary means of egress from each area. Two change facilities are not cost effective or practical. A viable alternative is the use of airlocks with built-in liquid disinfection systems which are not hazardous to humans, but destroy the biohazard. These airlocks must be clearly identified as others are often used for transportation of equipment and other materials and contain hazardous disinfection systems. 

Dennis Hendershot, M.S.Ch.E. Principal Process Safety Specialist, Chilworth Technology,... 

Richard W. Prugh, M.S.P.E., C.S.P. Senior Process Safety Specialist, Chilworth Technology, Inc. Fellow, American Institute of Chemical Engineers Member, National Fire Protection Association (Toxicity)... 

Appropriate skills must be made available during the development of process documentation. For example, for a large facility, process engineers, chemists, and health and safety specialists should be involved. These staff members should have access to appropriate information sources, including ... 

A site specific study is the most comprehensive approach. Site specific studies to identify and quantify explosion hazards are usually conducted by the owner s process safety specialist or by specialty consultants. There are several steps which need to be taken, each of which may be done in a variety of ways. The steps are outlined below with some of the available methods. More detailed information is available in CCPS Building Guidelines and API RJ -752. 

Causal tree methods rely on group discussion among experts from different fields, including workers, witnesses, supervisors, and process safety specialists. Starting at the end event, and working one level of the tree at a time, the group asks three questions ... 

Check with your state science supervisor, local college or university environmental health and safety specialists and the Laboratory Safety Workshop for advice in the disposal of chemical waste. The American Chemical Society publishes an excellent guidebook, Laboratory Waste Management, A Guidebook (1994). 

Process Safety Specialists—those at the corporate and facility levels responsible for the process safety system including tailoring the system to specific facilities and using metrics to monitor and maintain or improve process safety performance. 

Senior process safety specialists with knowledge of facilities can review results and identify implausible results. 

A maintenance crew discovered a small vial labeled "picric acid" in a crawl space while they were performing a pre-job walk-down for maintenance on some steam lines. Picric acid is normally used as an aqueous solution and an explosive mixture results when the solution crystallizes. Eight similar occurrences involving picric acid were found dating back to 1990. In these events, explosive safety specialists removed the acid and either chemically neutralized it or detonated it in a safe area. (OE Weekly Summary 98-05)... 

Princiotto, Laurie A, , Hydrogen Fluoride Cylinder Ruptures , Laboratory Safety Specialist, Indiana University, Dept, of Environmental Health and Safety, Creative Arts Building, Bloomington, IN., 47408-2602, http //www.ehs.indiana.edu... 

Jiefan, Wang Wenjun, Li 2001. China s coal mine accidents and comments of safety specialists. Coal Industry Press. Beijing Chaoyang... 

---