Process Safety Management and Hazard and Operability Assessment

This chapter discusses process safety management (PSM), process hazard analysis, and hazard and operability analysis (HAZOP). Process hazard analysis is abbreviated as PHZA to distinguish between this analysis method and preliminary hazard analysis. This chapter is adapted from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Process Safety Management Guidelines (1) and other sources. OSHA believes the discussion of PSM should help small employers to comply more easily with the new requirements the standard imposes. The end result can only be safer more healthful workplace for all employees - a goal we all share. As Gordon McKay discusses, HAZOP is a technique that does work if it is conducted correctly. It is very methodical and systematic. It identifies the chain of cause to consequence of a hazard. This facilitates risk assessment and the design of preventative and mitigating measures.