Occupational, Process, and Technical Safety

The word safety has many different interpretations and is used in many different contexts. For those managing risk in the process industries, it is useful to distinguish between three types of safety technical safety, process safety, and occupational safety. There is considerable overlap between them, but the broad characteristics of each are as follows  

Process safety incorporates elements of technical safety, but its focus tends to be on operations and the role of people on facilities that are already in operation. Process safety is also concerned with process-oriented issues such as runaway chemical reactions, corrosion, and the inadvertent mixing of hazardous chemicals. The impact of such events can lead to major incidents such as explosions, large fires, and the release of toxic gases. 

Occupational safety, sometimes referred to as hard-hat safety, covers topics such as vessel entry, vehicle movement, protective clothing, and tripping hazards. 

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