PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT

PREPARED BY: ENGR. JON JON S. ESCALO, MOE-CE,CE,SE

 PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT

Also known as PSM was introduced by OSHA to help

companies improve employee safety in the presence
of especially toxic, flammable, explosive, and reactive
chemicals. This management program focuses on all
processes involved in handling, utilizing, storing,
transport, and the manufacture of chemicals classified
as highly hazardous.

Process safety management was designed as

analytical tool to monitor how these chemicals are
interacted with.
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When is a Process Safety Management Program

required?
OSHA requires that process safety management be
used when highly hazardous chemicals are necessary
for production or are a by product of a process.

There are 130 chemicals classified as highly hazardous.

Once possession threshold limit are exceeded or if the
site is storing 10,000 pounds or more of a Category 1
flammable gas or liquid with a flashpoint below 100°F,
then a process safety management system is absolutely
necessary to prevent accidents.
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PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT + OSHA COMPLIANCE

Complying with OSHA’s 29 CFR 1910.119 standard helps

with reducing overall risk in potentially hazardous
environments. When a facility properly implements the
process safety management standards, as required by
OSHA, they are working to prevent disasters involving
these dangerous chemicals. The risk preventatives
simultaneously assist in helping educate employees
and others nearby to identify and take the necessary
steps to avoid injury as well as property damage.
 PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT
PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT + OSHA COMPLIANCE

29 CFR 1910.119
Purpose. This section contains requirements for
preventing or minimizing the consequences of
catastrophic releases of toxic, reactive, flammable, or
explosive chemicals. These releases may result in toxic,
fire or explosion hazards
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14 ELEMENTS OF PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT

Once an organization has determined that it must

implement a PSM program to keep its workers safe,
they will find that there are 14 elements specified within
OSHA’s process safety management standard to
establish an effective PSM program. While this is not an
exhaustive list of information on the standard required
by OSHA, it does include the basics of those 14
elements:
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14 ELEMENTS OF PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT
 PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT
14 ELEMENTS OF PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT

1. Employee Participation: All employees involved with

facility operations should be informed of the PSM program
and all its elements. Employees must also be represented in
meetings where PSM is addressed. Each of the following
aspects of PSM should have an experienced team to work
with as well.

2. Process Safety Information: All highly hazardous chemical

information needs to be compiled by the employer into a
written document for reference. This must be done before
any process hazard analysis is completed. The document
must include information on the chemicals, technology used,
and equipment used in the process.
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14 ELEMENTS OF PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT
3. Process Hazard Analysis: This type of analysis must be
conducted once every five years with the help of
several analysis methods and will attempt to rank the
greatest risks while resolving the high priority ones first.

4. Operating Procedures: For each operating phase the

facility will need to address the initial process setup and
startup instructions, normal and temporary operating
conditions, and normal and emergency shut down
situations. All operators need to be aware of these
conditions to be able to identify when deviation from
normal conditions occur and how to prevent them from
happening.
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14 ELEMENTS OF PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT
3. Process Hazard Analysis: This type of analysis must be
conducted once every five years with the help of
several analysis methods and will attempt to rank the
greatest risks while resolving the high priority ones first.

4. Operating Procedures: For each operating phase the

facility will need to address the initial process setup and
startup instructions, normal and temporary operating
conditions, and normal and emergency shut down
situations. All operators need to be aware of these
conditions to be able to identify when deviation from
normal conditions occur and how to prevent them from
happening.
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14 ELEMENTS OF PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT

5. Training: Operator training will be provided by the

employer and will emphasize the process’s specific
safety and health hazards, safe work practices, and
what to do in emergency situations. Refresher training
will be provided every three years at the very least.
Once training has been completed, documentation
must be kept on the date as well as a means of
verifying that the employee understood the safety
training.
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6.Contractors: Those who are hired to come in to

perform maintenance, repair, renovation, turnaround, or
specialty work must be evaluated by the employer
regarding the contract employer’s safety performance
and programs. The employer must warn the contractors
of the potential danger of the highly hazardous
chemicals and provide them with the basics of an
emergency action plan as a precaution.
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7. Pre-startup Safety Review: The employer is required to

perform a pre-startup safety review for new and
modified facilities when the change is large enough to
alter the process safety information.

8. Mechanical Integrity: Pressure values, storage tanks,

piping systems, relief and vent systems and their
devices, emergency shutdown systems, controls, and
pumps must be inspected routinely and documented.
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9. Hot Work: The employer must issue a hot work permit for
when the activity will be conducted on or near a covered
process. The permit must be kept on file until the task is
completed.

10. Management of Change: There must be a standard

procedure for managing changes in chemical processing,
technology, equipment, and other necessary procedures.
The employer must take into account the technical basis for
the change, the impact it has on safety and health of
employees, the modifications required for operation, the
necessary time period for the changes, and the
authorizations needed for the changes to take place.
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14 ELEMENTS OF PROCESS SAFETY MANAGEMENT
11. Incident Investigation: An investigation must take
place within 48 hours of an incident or a near miss
involving the release of highly hazardous chemicals.
The report must contain the date of the incident, a
description, the contributing factors, and resulting
recommendations. These reports must be kept for at
least five years following the event.
12. Emergency Planning and Response: Employers must
establish an emergency action plan in accordance
with 29 CFR 1910.38 and may be subjected to also
follow the hazardous waste emergency response
provisions within 29 CFR 910.120.
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13. Compliance Audits: Every three years the employer

must verify that all practices and procedures under
1910.119 are being followed. The employer must keep
the two most recent audits on file.

14. Trade Secrets: 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.
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SAFE MANAGEMENT TOOLS FOR CHEMICAL PROCESSES IN A
FACILITY
Safe management of chemicals within industrial sites require the help of
safety systems because they have the potential to prevent accidents,
detect risks, and even respond to incidents. The following are some
examples of safety systems that can be seen in facilities:

1. PSM charts: Within the process safety information section of PSM the
use of a block flow diagram or simplified process diagram/PSM
chart will assist with identifying important parts of a process that are
within a higher risk category.
2. Interlocks- Having a physical lock or using a lockout/tagout strategy
can protect employees from entering high-hazard areas. This can also
be a system that prevents the engagement of a machine until specific
safety checks have passed.
3. Detection Systems - Many advanced detection systems can identify
small leaks or spills before they become a serious hazard.
4. Suppression Systems - In the event of a fire or other hazard, a
suppression system can help keep the risk contained to a small area.
5. Filters - Filters can help remove dangerous particles, vapors, or gases
from an area quickly and prevent them from coming into contact with
people or the environment.
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VISUAL COMMUNICATION WITHIN PSM PROGRAMS

Visual communication is extremely important in a

process safety management program. Without labeling
or signs placed around the facility, there will be no
guarantee that employees will remember, or be
experienced enough, to avoid emergency situations in
the event one occurs. To avoid confusion and promote
clear complete mutual understanding there are a few
tools that come in handy, and those are GHS labeling,
pipe labeling, and signage placed throughout the
industrial site.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF GHS LABELING, PIPE MARKING,
AND SIGNAGE
The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of
Chemicals, or GHS labeling, is an indispensable tool when it comes
to identifying highly hazardous chemicals. These labels have the
ability to quickly alert employees of the immediate danger that a
chemical possesses. This is done with the help of GHS’s six main
label requirements, of which include:

1. A signal word
2. GHS pictograms
3. A hazard statement
4. The manufacturer’s information
5. A precautionary statement
6. Product identification, meaning the definition of the chemical’s
properties