Topic 1

Introduction to Safety

BNL 40403 PROCESS SAFETY ENGINEERING

PREPARED BY: ASSOC. PROF. DR. ABDUL MUTALIB BIN LEMAN
 1.0) Introduction to Safety
 Safety often described as an attitude that includes
careful planning, following safety rules at workplace and
also the use of personal protective equipment.
 Process safety can be described as application of
engineering, and human factors to the design and
operation of chemical process and systems.
(Charles E. Thomas, 2007)
1.1) Sources of Hazard and Safety Programs

Explosive

Flammable Flammable
Gas Liquid

Physical
Hazard

Oxidizer Unstable

Water
Reactive
 System
Program
Personal Permit
Protective System
Equipment

Medical
Training PROGRAMS AND
Surveillanc
TECHNIQUE
e

Administrativ
Isolation e Control
1.2) Engineering Ethics, Accident and
Loss Statistics
 Engineering ethics is the field of applied ethics and system
of moral principles that apply to the practice of
engineering. The field examines and sets the obligations by
engineers to society, to their clients and to the profession.
As a scholarly discipline, it is closely related to subjects such
as the philosophy of science, the philosophy of engineering
and the ethics of technology.
The Three E’s off Safety
ENGINEERING
 Engineering controls such
as safety interlocks, alarm
and area monitor.

EDUCATION
 Mandatory annual training
safety meetings, training on
new equipment and
process

ENFORCEMENT
 Disciplines, penalties and
ultimately termination.
 Enforcement may be by
federal state or
management.
 Hierarchy of Controls
Most Effective

Physically remove
Elimination the hazard

Substitution Replace the

hazard

Engineering Controls Isolate people

from the hazard

Administrative Change the way

Controls people work

Protect the worker with

PPE
Personal Protective
Equipment
Least Effective
 1.3) Purpose of Engineering Ethics
 Consists of a set of procedure or
concrete values that are applied
mechanically in problematic
situations nor the inculcation into a
certain set of beliefs.
 The purpose of engineering ethics is
to increase the skill of moral
judgement and to develop the
moral autonomy of engineering.
 To improve the skills necessary to
think critically about the aspects
and consequences of engineering
design and work.
 1.4) Government Agencies
Involvement in Workplace Safety
 Department of Occupational Safety and Health
 National Council of Occupational Safety & Health
(NCOSH)
 National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health
 Department of Environment
 SOCSO
 1.5) Accident and Loss Statistics
 Accident and loss statistics are important measures of the effectiveness
of safety programs. These statistics are valuable for determining
whether a process is safe or whether a safety procedure is working
effectively.
 Many statistical methods are available to characterize accident and
loss performance. It must be use carefully.
 Like most statistics, they are only average and do not reflect the
potential for single episodes involving substantial losses.
 Three statistical systems that are considered:
1. OSHA incidence rate
2. Fatal Accident Rate (FAR)
3. Fatality rate or deaths per person per year
 1.5.1) OSHA Incident Rate
 OSHA stands for the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration of the United States government.
 OSHA is responsible for ensuring that workers are
provided with safe working environment.
 Accident and Loss Statistics according to OSHA:
Definition
Any one-time treatment and any
follow-up visits for the purpose of
FIRST AID observation of minor scratches, cuts,
burns, splinters and so forth that do
not ordinarily require medical care.
Any injury such as a cut, sprain or
burn that results from a work
OCCUPATIONAL INJURY accident or from a single
instantaneous exposure in the work
environment.
 Definition
Number of occupational injuries and/or illnesses or
Incident Rate lost workdays per 100 full-time employees.

Number of days (consecutive or not) after but not

including the day of injury or illness during which the
employee would have worked but could not do so,
that is, during which the employee could not perform
Lost Workdays
all or any part of his or her normal assignment during
all or any part of the workday or shift because of the
occupational injury or illness.
 1.6) Accident & Incident
 ACCIDENT
 Accident can be defined as an unplanned event that
interrupts the completion of an activity, and that may (or
may not) include injury or property damage.

 INCIDENT
 Usually refers to an unexpected event that did not cause
injury or damage, but had the potential to do so.

How does your workplace define these terms??

1.7) Percent of Work Death by Cause
Type of Accident Percentage (%)
Motor Vehicle Related 37.2
Falls 12.5
Electric Current 3.7
Drowning 3.2
Fire Related 3.1
Air Transport Related 3.0
Poison (solid,liquid) 2.7
Water Transport Related 1.6
Poison (gas or vapor) 1.4
Other 31.6

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (Micheal, 2013)

Note: fatalities/ 1000 employees and commuting, Industrial and total accident /10000 Estimation
based on 80% of the total number reported occupational accident provided bySOCSO
Source: Department of Occupational Safety and Health(DOSH) Malaysia
1.7) Public Perceptions and The Nature
of the Accident Process
 The construction industry is one of the most hazardous
trades as far as work safety is concerned and effort have
been made to improve safety in the workplace.
 These efforts have focused on legislation, engineering
failure, safety awareness campaign, safety training and
unsafe behavior.
 After years of developing safety technologies, many
organization recognize that the safety culture within the
industries has to be address.
Reasons in Investigating Workplace
Accident:
1. To fulfill any legal requirements
2. To determine the cost of the accident
3. To determine compliance with applicable safety
regulations.
4. To process workers compensation claims
 1.7.1) Accident Causation Models
 Many models of accident causation have been
proposed, ranging from Heinrich’s domino theory to the
sophisticated Management Oversight and Risk Tree
(MORT).
 There are five types of causes that accidents which are
TASK, MATERIAL, ENVIRONMENT, PERSONNEL and
MANAGEMENT.
1.7.2) Keys to Improve Worker Safety
Attitude
 Take safety seriously
 Positive safety attitude makes the most of company
safety tools and training.
 Carelessness is the most common cause of workplace
accidents.
 Take a positive attitude toward safety.
 Look for opportunities to improve workplace safety.
 1.8) Inherent Safety
 Inherent safety is based on green chemistry approach
towards safety. Non-hazardous or low hazardous
processes and materials are substituted in place of
hazardous processes and process materials.
 Inherent concept particularly used in the chemical and
process industries which has a low level of a danger even
if things go wrong.
 It is used in contrast to safe systems where a high degree
of hazard is controlled by protective systems.
 1.8.1) Inherent Safety and Design
 Inherent for designing inherently safer processes can be
divided into four groups:
1. Minimize – Use small hazardous material, reduce size of
equipment operating under hazardous condition such as
high temperature or pressure.
2. Substitute- Use less hazardous material, chemistry and
processes. Use another alternative reaction routes or process
condition to reduce risk.
3. Moderate- Reduce hazard by dilution, refrigeration, process
alternatives that operate at less hazardous condition.
4. Simplify- Eliminate unnecessary complexity, design user
friendly plants.
 1.8.2) Examples of the Major Disaster
1. Smoke and fire after an explosion in Lanzhou (January 7,
2010)
- 69 deaths, 120 injuries
2. Tsunami Disaster Japan (March 11, 2011)
- 15,894 deaths, 6,152 injured, 2,562 people missing
3. Chinese Port City Huge Explosion at Tianjin (August 18, 2015)
- 114 deaths and 70 missing