Integrating job safety analysis into process hazard analysis

Abstract In this article, the author will present and explain in some detail how the job safety analysis (JSA) technique can be integrated into and used in conjunction with any of the six process hazard analysis (PHA) techniques required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration process safety management Standard for highly hazardous chemicals. The goal of this effort is to produce a rigorous and unified approach to performing a PHA for either a batch chemical process or a continuous chemical process with significant batch elements (i.e., startup and shutdown). This approach combines the typical approach to performing a PHA with representative operating, emergency, and maintenance procedures to allow PHA teams to evaluate process risks within the environment of specific modes of operation for the process equipment and PHA nodes. When this approach is used, the PHA team is less likely to miss something important. As a result, the PHA produces a set of preventive actions that, when implemented, will produce the best and safest way to operate the system reviewed. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog, 2010