Chemical Engineering August 2022 - 42

Environmental Manager
Steps to Improve Safety Challenges
in Hazardous Environments
Compliance with industry- and machinery-specific safety standards and
classifications is essential to make the safest possible environment for plant
personnel, especially those working in potentially hazardous conditions
Carolyn Reifsteck, Paul Hensy and
Chris Liston
SICK, Inc.
N
avigating the world of industrial
safety standards
can feel like being in uncharted
waters. In the sea
of standards that need to be applied
to machinery, systems, processes
and facilities, companies can find
a beacon of hope by cultivating
machine safeguarding solutions to
comply with standards (Figure 1).
These standards may come from a
wide range of global organizations,
including the following:
* The International Organization
for Standards (ISO; Geneva, Switzerland;
www.iso.org)
* The American National Standards
Institute (ANSI; New York,
N.Y.; www.ansi.org)
* The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA; Washington,
D.C.; www.osha.gov)
* The American Society of Safety
Professionals (ASSP; Park Ridge, Ill.;
www.assp.org)
* The National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA; Quincy, Mass.;
www.nfpa.org)
This article describes the experiences
of a large global chemical
manufacturer with locations around
the world that recently navigated
the implementation of safety standards
and processes. Compliance
with several industry- and machinery-specific
safety standards was
applied to make the safest possible
environment for its employees.
Some of these standards are listed
in Table 1.
This article outlines a step-bystep
overview of how this chemical
manufacturer applied these
standards to make machinery safer
for employees.
FIGURE 1. The vast array of equipment types and
materials handled mean that chemical manufacturing
facilities must comply with a wide range of
industrial standards to ensure the safety of employees,
equipment and the environment
42
1. Conduct a risk assessment
When designing or installing a machine,
any potential risks must be
assessed, evaluated and mitigated.
Where necessary, additional protective
measures must be implemented
to protect operators and other individuals
from any remaining hazards.
Sometimes this process begins
with an activity called machine
safety prioritization, which provides
manufacturers with a list that describes
which machinery in the facility
should be prioritized first for a
safety upgrade and which ones can
be completed later (Figure 2). Other
projects start immediately with a
more comprehensive risk assessment,
which is a sequence of logical
steps based on the systematic
analysis and evaluation of risks.
The main goal of a risk assessment
is to identify and document
hazards for machinery, current
manufacturing processes and other
elements of the chemical production
process. Risk assessments
evaluate the tasks performed and
help to identify potential hazards,
the potential severity of hazards, the
frequency of exposure to hazards
and the specific strategies that can
be implemented to mitigate those
hazards and avoid harm to employees
and the machinery.
This methodology will identify the
potential hazards associated with a
machine or group of machines and
quantify the associated risk via the
following measures:
* Identifying hazards during setup,
operation, maintenance and cleaning
* Establishing
minimum performance
requirements for the safetyrelated
parts of the control system
* Evaluating existing risk-reduction
measures and providing recommendations
for improvement
Although the many prerequisites
for building safe machines and systems
are diverse, all risks must be
identified. Then, appropriate measures
for minimizing risk need to be
identified and their potential effectiveness
at reducing risk defined.
A risk assessment enables manufacturers
to identify gaps in safety
compliance to begin the work to
put together a plan to improve upon
these gaps. After this large chemical
manufacturer completed the
risk-assessment process, discussions
were commenced to develop
a risk-mitigation strategy to bring
the equipment into compliance
with the applicable standards for
the industry.
2. Craft a safety concept plan
Within this global chemical manufacturer's
numerous facilities around
the world, people are constantly
interacting with machines. The inherent
hazards within the chemical
process industries (CPI) make it essential
that the employer properly
address those concerns to provide
a safe work environment for its employees,
so it was an essential priority
to raise the level of safety and
awareness within its facilities.
The ultimate risk-mitigation strategy
is designed according to the results
of the risk assessment. If necessary,
risk-reduction activities can
follow a risk assessment. Risk reduction
can include the completion
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AUGUST 2022
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Chemical Engineering August 2022

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