OSHA Tells Oil Refineries to Comply with Hazardous Chemical Process Safety Management Standard
July 13, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
Letters were sent in June to the management of more than 100 oil refineries providing them with data on compliance issues found under OSHA's Refinery National Emphasis Program (NEP).
The OSHA letters urged refiners to comply with their obligations under the process safety management (PSM) standard.
The standard requires employers to develop and incorporate comprehensive, site-specific safety management systems to reduce the risks of fatal or catastrophic incidents, according to OSHA.
To assist in compliance efforts, OSHA recommends that employers review the standard information or contact their local OSHA offices.
In 2005 at the BP Texas City, Texas refinery, 15 workers died and 170 workers were injured in an explosion and fire. Another incident at a refinery in New Mexico caused injury to six workers when a release of HHCs occurred during pump maintenance.
During the first year of the NEP, OSHA inspectors issued nearly 350 PSM citations to 14 refineries. Experts said some of the citations issued involved employers who failed to address their own process safety findings and recommendations and failed to establish maintenance procedures for equipment, such as pressure vessels and emergency shutdown systems.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).