What is process Safety?

Process Safety is different from Personal Safety. While definitions vary, one simple way to think of the difference is:

  • Personal safety is focused on keeping people safe in the workplace
  • Process safety is focused on the integrity of the industrial processes.

Alternatively, a more complete definition is:

  • Process safety is a blend of engineering and operations management skills focused on preventing catastrophic accidents and near misses, particularly structural collapse, explosions, fires, and toxic releases associated with loss of containment of energy or dangerous substances such as chemicals and petroleum products. These engineering and operations management skills exceed those required for managing workplace safety.

Process safety and personal safety are equally important

Figure 5: Personal and Process Safety, Energy Safety Canada (formerly ENFORM)

PowerPoint Presentation 1: Process Safety vs Personal Safety

This PowerPoint slide show was developed by Energy Safety Canada (formerly ENFORM), the Safety Association for Canada’s Upstream Oil & Gas Industry. It presents the differences between personal safety and process safety.

 

Video 7: Committed to Safety: Learning together as leaders in the oil and gas industry (04 minutes, 12 seconds)

Video 8: Stupidity at The Workplace – (Bad & funny habits on the job – death and injury factors at work)
(03 minutes, 30 seconds)

 

Video 9: CSB Safety Video: Anatomy of a Disaster (55 mins, 33 secs)


This video highlights the importance of process safety by telling the story of one of the worst industrial accidents in recent U.S. history-the March 23, 2005 explosion at the BP Refinery in Texas City, Texas which killed 15 workers and injured 180 others.

 

Video 10: Animation of Fire at Chevron’s Richmond Refinery, August 6, 2012 (08 minutes, 14 seconds)

 

Video 11: Blowout in Oklahoma, January 22, 2018 (21 minutes, 19 seconds)

Learning Activity 6: Process and Personal Safety News Report

This learning activity will help you become more familiar with different aspects of process and personal safety. It involves working in a group to prepare a news report that you will give to the class about a topic relevant to process safety or personal safety.

Instructions

  1. Divide into groups.
  2. Select a safety topic from those discussed in PowerPoint Presentation 1 or videos 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, or another safety topic that the group thinks is important.
  3. Prepare a 7-10-minute news report about the most important things your group thinks British Columbians should know about the chosen safety topic.
  4. Select a “reporter” from the group to present the news story to the class.
  5. Present the news report to the class.