On December 14, 2023, OSHA published its revised Compliance Directive for Process Safety Management standard 1910.119, effective January 26, 2024. This new version is in Q7A format and was done nicely, although there are a number of things in the answers that I am sure will be challenged. I have highlighted some of the interesting…...
HOP is NOT an Element of a Safety Management System (SMS) HOP principles are HOW we manage our SMS We see a lot of discussions on social media regarding the role of HOP and Psychological Safety, two methods I fully embrace should be used in OSH and PSM. However, I view these two methods…...
Let’s talk about DE-incentivising businesses to properly manage Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), even at the most basic level. OSHA now requires businesses to report their injury and illness logs, which they will use to identify workplaces needing a compliance inspection. They are doing this due to their lack of adequate resources, and they want…...
Sweating the “small stuff” matters in process safety management. Meeting the details of our chosen RAGAGEPs matters! Although I am often told, “That is a picky audit finding,” it is what it is. Far too many facilities believe that designing their process piping to be bolted flange assembly vs. welded joints is somehow easier; in…...
We have discussed the critical role of “torque” in constructing our chemical processes. I catch a lot of flack for my insistence on this critical function, for which I am genuinely surprised. But our piping design and construction RAGAGEP (ASME B31.3) is pretty clear on the matter, and now OSHA and EPA have “caught on”…...
The refrigerant in this accident is R-32 (Difluoromethane), described as ” a colorless, odorless, mildly flammable gas. “Its ASHRAE rating is A2L, making it a CAT1B flammable gas if OSHA adopts Rev. 7 of the GHS this year. These A2L “mildly flammable gases” are exempt from many of the requirements other flammable gases must meet…...
Another pressuring test “gone bad”. I want to remind anyone who wonders how to DEFINE and QUANTIFY a “safe distance” when piping is being pressure tested, especially when that test is a “pneumatic” test. ASME PCC-2–2022, Repair of Pressure Equipment and Piping, Mandatory Appendix, 501-III, Safe Distance Calculations for Pneumatic Pressure Test is an EXCELLENT resource to…...
One of the most critical fundamentals of Occupational Safety and Health and Process Safety, yet it is wildly unknown and rarely used in most workplaces we visit. Still, in the 21st century, we find employers handing out PPE like candy on Halloween without understanding the limitations of that PPE and even if the PPE protection…...
I may be biased, but you would be hard-pressed to find a bigger fan and believer in TapRoot®. I love TapRoot®, but I reserve it for significant incidents. 5-Why’s is an excellent tool for less mature safety management systems (SMS). As I like to say, don’t blame the tool – look to the user for…...
On August 27, 2016, at about 8:26 a.m., a railroad tank car sustained a 42-inch long crack in its tank shell shortly after being loaded with 178,400 pounds of liquefied compressed chlorine at the Axiall Corporation Natrium plant in New Martinsville, West Virginia. Over the next 2.5 hours, the entire 178,400-pound chlorine load was released,…...
As I prepare to implement a Behavior-Based Observation Process (BBOP) for a client, I am dusting off some of my old training content and postings. I had used this material since 1994 when I implemented Actively Caring as my first BBOP, and it is still my favorite model today. Although we have blended some other…...
Some years ago, a colleague asked me to help coach a management team at one of her locations that was trying hard in safety, but she feared they were going down a path that we had experienced decades earlier when we worked together; her as a Chem Ops unit manager and me as the site…...
