Process Safety exam 1

Accident

unplanned event or sequence of events that results in an undesirable consequence

safety metrics

used to measure the effectiveness of a safety program

regulation

-developed by a government and has legal authority -may be based on a code or standard

Societal Risk

-group of people exposed to one or more hazards -hazard and group must be carefully defined

standard

-more elaborate -explaining in more detail how to meet the code

Individual Risk

-one person exposed to one or more hazards -usually location dependent

code

-set of rules developed by a team of knowledgeable people -do not have legal authority, but gov may adopt it into law

hierarchy of safety programs

5: adapting - safety is a core value of the organization and a primary driver for successful enterprise 4: performance monitoring - using statistics to drive continuous improvement 3: management systems - based such as job safety assessment (JSA), lock-out/tag-out 2: complying - to rules and regulations 1: reacting - to accidents as they occur 0: no safety program - maybe even disdain for safety need to work from bottom up, can't jump

voluntary risk

risk that is consciously tolerated by someone seeking to obtain the benefits of the activity that poses the risk

conditional modifiers

conditions that occur after initiation and impact a step in the sequence either before or after the incident has occurred

involuntary risk

risk that is imposed on someone who does not directly benefit from the activity that poses the risk

consequence

a measure of the expected effects of a specific incident outcome

hazard

an inherent chemical or physical characteristic that has the potential for causing damage to people, property, or the environment hazards are typically always present

toxicity

an intrinsic property of an agent that causes a particular effect on a person

Incident

basic description of an event or series of events, resulting in one or more consequences, such as harm to people, damage to the environment, or asset/business losses. -for chem plants: includes fires/explosions and releases of toxic or harmful substances

toxicant

chemical or physical agent with nature to cause harm to a biological system -chemicals, dusts, fibers, noise, radiation

safety culture

common set of values, behaviors, and norms at all levels in a facility or in the wider organization that affect process safety

lagging metrics

data collected after an incident has occurred -easier to define and tabulate -based on accidents that occurred

leading metrics

data collected before an incident has occurred

process safety

disciplined framework for managing the integrity of operating systems and processes handling hazardous substances by applying good design principles, engineering, and operating practices -deals with prevention and control of incidents that have the potential to release hazardous materials or energy

enabling conditions

do not independently cause the incident, but must be present or active for it to proceed

toxic hazard

likelihood of a damaging effect from exposure to agent

risk

measure of human injury, environmental damage, or economic loss in terms of both the incident likelihood and the magnitude of the loss or injury -function of 2 important things: probability and consequence

likelihood

measure of the expected probability or frequency of occurrence of an event -for chem plants, frequency is most commonly used

impact

measure of the ultimate loss and harm of an incident

chronic toxicity

multiple exposures during long exposure period

preventative safeguard

prevents an initiating event from proceeding to a defined, undesirable incident -also called a protection later -stops the incident from proceeding

mitigative safeguard

reduces the consequences after an incident has occurred -may already have consequences as a result of the incident

acute toxicity

short period exposure, <24 hours

Safety

strategy for accident prevention -not very well defined

industrial hygiene

study methods to prevent or reduce exposure and intrusion of toxicants into biological systems

toxicology

study of interaction of humans with chemical or physical agents