This module provides information about safety and its critical importance in the natural gas industry for workers, communities, and the environment.

You will learn about two kinds of safety—personal and process—as well as about how safety is a shared responsibility between you as a worker, your employer, and everyone who steps on a job site in the natural gas industry.

When you complete this module, you will be able to:

1. Understand and explain the importance of personal safety in the natural gas industry.
2. Identify and describe employer responsibilities for occupational health and safety in British Columbia.
3. Understand the purpose of safety meetings and complete a safety meeting checklist.
4. Describe what a Job Hazard Assessment is and complete one.
5. Identify and describe government legislation and standards for occupational health and safety in British Columbia.
6. Explain the difference between personal safety and process safety.
7. Describe the role of health and wellness in safety processes.

Introduction

Safety is and always should be, without exception, the number one priority for everyone—employers, employees, contractors, suppliers, and others—who work in the natural gas industry. Why? It’s simple; as you now know from completing previous modules, natural gas is a highly flammable and in certain conditions, an explosive fossil fuel. In addition, natural gas is compressed when it is shipped – whether in pipeline, trucks, or ships, and therefore under tremendous pressure. Working with, in, and around anything with those properties is inherently dangerous, as is driving to and from the worksite.

In addition to the safety issues, the processing and transportation of natural gas is often carried out in a range of challenging environments including:

• Outdoors—in remote locations with extreme climates and terrain
• Indoors—in plants, refineries and warehouses filled with workers, contractors, suppliers, and others
• In and near communities populated with adults and children in homes, schools, shopping centres, and the like.
• In situations where there is opposition or conflict surrounding the industry or the work.

No question, working in the natural gas industry can present serious and sometimes fatal risks to personal safety and the environment. However, the purpose of this module is not to scare you; it’s to make you aware of these risks and how they can be managed or mitigated, so you and other workers can safely complete their job. Note that completing this module is in no way intended as a substitute for specific safety training and certification required to work in this industry.