Process safety management is a regulation set up by Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) on 17 th

of July in 1990 and was finalized on 24 th of February in 1992.The objective of PSM is to prevent
unwanted releases of hazardous chemicals especially into locations that could expose employees
and others to serious hazards. An effective process safety management program requires a systematic
approach to evaluating the whole chemical process. Using this approach, the process design, process
technology, process changes, operational and maintenance activities and procedures, non-
routine activities and procedures, emergency preparedness plans and procedures, training
programs, and other elements that affect the process are all considered in the evaluation.Effective
PSM helps ensure the proper development of plant systems and procedures to prevent unwanted
releases which may ignite and cause toxic impacts, local fires, or explosions in plants and installations.
PSM can also improve the operating ability, productivity, stability, and quality of the outputs of
hazardous chemical processes. It also can improve the design and specification of safeguards
against undesirable events. PSM standard mainly applies to manufacturing industries
particularly, those pertaining to chemicals, transportation equipment, and fabricated metal
products. Other affected sectors include natural gas liquids; farm product warehousing; electric,
gas,sanitary services and wholesale trade. It also applies to pyrotechnics and explosives
manufacturers covered under other OSHA rules and has special provisions for contractors working in
covered facilities. Other affected sectors include those involved with natural gas liquids ,farm
product warehousing, food processing, electric, gas and sanitary services, wholesale trade and
pyrotechnics and explosives manufacturers. The PSM standard does not apply to retail facilities,
oil or gas well drilling or servicing operations, normally unoccupied remote facilities,
hydrocarbon fuels used solely for workplace consumption as a fuel (e.g. propane used for comfort
heating, gasoline for vehicle refueling), if such fuels are not a part of a process containing another
highly hazardous chemical covered by this standard and flammable liquid stored in atmospheric tanks
or transferred which are kept below their normal boiling point without benefit of chilling or
refrigerating and are not connected to a process. There are 14 key elements that a employer need to
incorporate.Employers must identify those processes that pose the greatest risks and begin evaluating
those first. Employee participation is one of the most important mandates, the employee participation
clause requires that employees,including production and maintenance staff will be involved in every
aspect of the PSM programs at their respective work sites. They must also be represented at the
meetings where PSM are related issues are discussed. OSHA requires employee participation to be
followed as written, so employers should create formal plans.
Process safety information says that all workers should be able to access and understand the
technical data regarding the HHC related risks they face on the job.
Process hazard analysis is a technical elements of PSM, Process Hazard Analysis requires that
engineers and maintenance leaders analyze the consequences of safety failures. These analyses must
be conducted in teams, and OSHA requires that each team must include one person who is
“knowledgeable in the specific process hazard methodology being used”. Operating procedures tells
about how company have plans to keep everyone safe as they start back up. Workers who carry out
processes involving highly hazardous chemicals need to be well-trained, and their training should
have been accomplished through a competent source, first-party or otherwise. OSHA requires that
their training be well-documented. Training management software makes it much easier to track this.
Regular employees and contractors alike must be well-informed of the hazards they face. Under the
PSM National Emphasis Program, “The employer shall inform contract employers of the known
potential fire, explosion or toxic release hazards related to the contractor’s work and the
process.”OSHA expects employers to perform pre-startup safety reviews for both new and modified
facilities. This rule applies even if the procedural changes only affect a single component or
process.Mechanical integrity talks about the periodic, documented inspections which is required for
several systems including pressure vessel, storage tank, piping system and ventilation system.The
employers or contractors conducting these inspections must not only be officially trained, their testing
procedures must follow “recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices,” according to
OSHA. In other words, your company must be able to explain WHY your inspectors made their
decisions.Hot work permit is a permit needed by employees who weld or perform at high
temperature work.Companies need standard procedures for managing changes to process chemicals,
technology, equipment and procedures. Each change also requires the following considerations which
are the impact of the change on worker safety and health, necessary modifications to operating
procedures, the necessary time period for the change and authorization requirements for the proposed
change. Incident investigation is all about standard calls for investigations for all incidents that result
in or could have resulted in a catastrophic highly hazardous chemical release. Because of that
ambiguous wording, cautious companies must keep every potential HHC related scenario in mind.
Even minor chemical releases can lead to major incidents. Thus emergency plan and response
required by employers to create emergency plans for handling smaller HHC releases. Compliance
audits says that Employers shall certify that they have evaluated compliance with the provisions of
this section at least every three years to verify that the procedures and practices developed under the
standard are adequate and are being followed.” This element also requires employers to retain at least
their two most recent audit reports. Until recently, some companies attempted to protect proprietary
information by keeping process details from their employees. To prevent this scenario and enhance
worker safety, the “trade secrets” element gives employees the right to know processes that may
affect their health and safety.
The PSM divided into 14 elements which are;

1. Employee participation
2. Process safety information
3. Process safety analysis
4. Operating procedures
5. Training
6. Contractors
7. Pre-startup review
8. Mechanical integrity
9. Hot work permit
10. Management of change
11. Incident investigation
12. Emergency planning and response
13. Compliance audits
14. Trade secrets

The information about the chemicals, including process intermediates, needs to be comprehensive and
accurate. Information on the hazards of the highly hazardous chemicals in the process shall consist of
at least the following;
 toxicity 
 permissible exposure limits 
 physical data 
 reactivity data 
 corrosivity data
 thermal and chemical
 stability data 
 the hazardous effects of inadvertent mixing of different material
Risk Management Plan (RMP) is a document that is prepared by a project manager to addresses
risks, their potential impact to a program and consists of way to reduce these risks. The RMP
tells the government and contractor team how they plan on reducing risks to a certain level by a certain
time. A RMP should be structured to identify, assess, and mitigate risks that have an impact on overall
program life-cycle cost, schedule, and/or performance. It should also define the overall program
approach to capture and manage root causes. In order to prepare the document, sources of risk need to
identify at initial stage. Some examples of categories includes technical, cost, schedule, client,
contractual, weather, financial, political, environmental and people. After the potential risks have
been identified, the project team then evaluates each risk based on the probability that a risk event will
occur( risk evaluation) and the potential loss associated with it. Not all risks are equal. Some risk
events are more likely to happen than others, and the cost of a risk can vary greatly. Evaluating the
risk for probability of occurrence and the severity or the potential loss to the project is the next step in
the risk management process. After the risk has been identified and evaluated, the project team
develops a risk mitigation plan, which is a plan to reduce the impact of an unexpected event. The
project team mitigates risks in various ways such as risk avoidance, risk sharing, risk reduction, risk
transfer.Each of these mitigation techniques can be an effective tool in reducing individual risks and
the risk profile of the project. The risk mitigation plan captures the risk mitigation approach for each
identified risk event and the actions the project management team will take to reduce or eliminate the
risk. Risk avoidance usually involves developing an alternative strategy that has a higher probability
of success but usually at a higher cost associated with accomplishing a project task.Risk sharing
involves partnering with others to share responsibility for the risky activities. Many organizations that
work on international projects will reduce political, legal, labour, and others risk types associated with
international projects by developing a joint venture with a company located in that country.Risk
reduction is an investment of funds to reduce the risk on a project. On international projects,
companies will often purchase the guarantee of a currency rate to reduce the risk associated with
fluctuations in the currency exchange rate.Risk transfer is a risk reduction method that shifts the risk
from the project to another party. The purchase of insurance on certain items is a risk-transfer method.
The risk is transferred from the project to the insurance company.
There are four basic ways to handle a risk.

1. Avoid: The best thing you can do with a risk is avoid it. If you can prevent it from happening,
it definitely won’t hurt your project. The easiest way to avoid this risk is to walk away from the
cliff, but that may not be an option on this project.
2. Mitigate: If you can’t avoid the risk, you can mitigate it. This means taking some sort of action
that will cause it to do as little damage to your project as possible.
3. Transfer: One effective way to deal with a risk is to pay someone else to accept it for you. The
most common way to do this is to buy insurance.
4. Accept: When you can’t avoid, mitigate, or transfer a risk, then you have to accept it. But even
when you accept a risk, at least you’ve looked at the alternatives and you know what will
happen if it occurs. If you can’t avoid the risk, and there’s nothing you can do to reduce its
impact, then accepting it is your only choice.

Notional steps involved in developing a RMP;

1. Establish the basic approach and working structure

2. Develop and document an overall risk management strategy
3. Establish the purpose and objective
4. Assign responsibilities for specific areas
5. Describe the assessment/analysis process
6. Document sources of information
7. List potential risk and their impacts
8. Develop mitigation strategies
9. Establish reporting/tracking procedures
10. Write Plan
An example of RMP format includes;

 Introduction
 Program Summary
 Risk Management Strategy and Process
 Responsible/Executing Organization
 Risk Management Process and Procedures
 Risk Identification
 Risk Assessment Matrix
 Risk Analysis
 Risk Mitigation Planning
 Risk Mitigation Implementation
 Risk Tracking

Comparisons between PSM and RMP

Plant Safety Management Risk Management Plan

Process safety information

Process hazard analysis Hazard evaluation
Operating procedures Standard operating procedures
Employee participation No equivalence
Training
Contractors No equivalence
Pre start up Review
Mechanical integrity Maintenance
Hot work permit No equivalence
Management of change
Incident investigations Accident investigations
Emergency planning and response Emergency response
Compliance audit Safety audit
Trade secrets No equivalence
No equivalence Risk assessment