(57cs) Approach to Compliance with Process Safety Regulations Can Minimize or Maximize Process Safety Results

Achieving compliance with process safety regulations has been contrasted with achieving genuine process safety. It has been asserted that: compliance can be achieved without achieving genuine process safety; if genuine process safety is realized, it is likely compliance will be achieved also; and if a choice has to be made between compliance and process safety, it is better to realize genuine process safety than to meet the letter of the law for compliance.

This presentation and paper not only maintains that compliance and achieving genuine process safety may be realized together, it argues the approach to compliance with process safety regulations can break or make process safety results. A checklist compliance effort minimizes process safety results; a program that is guided, invigorated, and motivated by insight into the intent and purposes of the process safety regulations maximizes process safety results for the invested effort: successful and more complete hazard identification, understanding, risk assessment, and elimination or sufficient reduction or mitigation. This is demonstrated with examples through the process safety lifecycle in the corporate suite, on the “front line” and or at “points of contact”, and on intervening levels.