Security, process safety management

Process security and process safety have many parallels and use many common programs and systems for achieving their ends. Process security management requires a systems approach to develop a comprehensive security program, which shares many common elements with process safety management. 

In 1990-1991, American industries involved in hazardous chemicals/materials production, shipping, storing, and usage were scrutinized from both a safety and security viewpoint, to the point where OSHA s Process Safety Management Standard (PSM) 29 CFR 1910.119 was generated to address these concerns. PSM was promulgated in 1992, to be fully complied with by May of 1997. 

Actually, before the Oklahoma City bombing, the anthrax attacks, and 9/11, OSHA and USEPA had already taken the initial steps to ensure safety and security in chemical production facilities and in other facilities that use, produce, or store listed chemicals. These steps were listed in OSHA s Process Safety Management (PSM) Standard and USEPA s Risk Management Program (RMP). Based on personal experience, having conducted VAs and modified VAs (wastewater) on both water and wastewater systems and having implemented RMP in a major U.S. wastewater system, we have to concur that these initial safety/security steps were quite effective. 

There is a definite tie between process safety management and security, and in a world more sensitive to the international terrorist threat, that tie is even closer, as it should be. 

Introduction Priorto September 11, 2001, known as 9/11, chemical process safety activities primarily focused on accidental release risks and excluded most considerations of intentional releases. Security was provided mostly for lesser threats than such extreme acts of violence, and terrorism was generally not provided for except in high-security areas of the world. Exceptions to this included general concerns for sabotage. This was due to a perception that these risks were managed adequately, and that the threat of a terrorist attack, particularly on U.S. chemical manufacturing facilities or transportation system, was remote. 

A chemical engineer may have a choice of inherent safety variables, such as quantity stored or process temperatures and pressures, or process safety measures such as emergency isolation valves or containment systems, all of which may greatly reduce the vulnerabilities or the consequences of intentional loss. These are in addition to traditional security measures, which may include physical security, background checks, administrative controls, access controls, or other protective measures. For a more complete discussion of the options, refer to the AIChE Center for Chemical Process Safety Guidelines for Analyzing and Managing the Security Vulnerabilities of Fixed Chemical Sites and other references.f... 

American Institute of Chemical Engineers Center for Chemical Process Safety Guidelines for Analyzing and Managing the Security Vulnerabilities of Fixed Chemical Sites, 2002. 

Today Responsible Care exists in 52 countries worldwide and has become the industry s initiative to address environmental, health, and safety (EHS), security, outreach, process safety and cradle to grave product management. 

As discnssed in Chapter 3, the results of the initial company-level prioritization were based solely on the chemical hazards and identified facihties whose transportation operations would require a facihty/operational level review. The focus of this example is on the security of the hazardous materials in and out of a single XYZ Chemical facihty, and is the same Asian plant that was evaluated for safety issues in Chapters 4 and 5. In addition to the corporate directive to evaluate transportation safety risk at this facihty, the site security manager was informed of the need to complete a security risk analysis of the hazardous materials in transit. To inihate the security review, the security manager and health and safety manager met to review the findings of the safety analysis. In addition to focusing on chemicals and hazards from the initial safety prioritizahon, the security prioritization process also considers ... 

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