The Safety Professional's Role

The Safety Professional's Role: In Support of Industrial Facilities Operations and Maintenance (O&M) discusses how the safety professional, in direct support of a manager (or management group) of an industrial facility, can provide the advice and support needed to control hazards, minimize risk and maximize workplace safety at these inherently dangerous locations and during potentially dangerous operations.
Chemical processing, in one form or another, serves as the engine of a global economy. Raw materials, whether extracted by drilling and mining, grown and cultivated in crops, or recovered from reusable materials, must be refined and processed into useful bulk materials and chemicals. These processes usually involve work around or with chemicals that possess hazardous qualities such as flammability, explosiveness, toxicity, or reactivity. These refined materials and bulk chemicals are then delivered to in the next stage of manufacture where they are used responsibly to produce the goods and products that make modern day living more comfortable and enjoyable. It is this process of chemical refinement and safe use and handling of these chemicals in manufacturing that is explored in this text, particularly the practice of assessing and controlling the risk associated with the industrial use of these highly hazardous chemicals (HHCs). You may know this policy and practice as "Process Safety Management".

Work with HHCs clearly increases the risks and hazards at the job site where they are being stored, used and processed. Facility managers responsible for managing the complexities of Maintenance and Operations (O&M) associated with industrial facilities, turn to trained, educated, and experienced safety professionals for reliable safety advice, training and management support. Industrial Safety professionals, be they General Safety Practitioner, or specialists such as Industrial Hygienist, Environmental Affairs Manager, Hazardous Waste Coordinator, Chemical Hygiene Officer, Project Safety Manager, or Occupational Health Nurse can benefit from the findings and suggestions presented in this text. The Safety Professional's Role: In Support of Industrial Facilities Operations and Maintenance (O&M) essentially serves as a roadmap of recommendations that a Safety Professional, engaged in O&M support, can use to be more responsive to the many needs of his or her process plant.