OSHA's interest in chemical plant safety

Abstract

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been required by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 to promulgate a process safety management (PSM) standard for the prevention of catastrophic incidents and to protect the safety and health of employees in the covered plants. The law requires the OSHA standard to cover at least 14 areas or issues and to cover highly hazardous chemicals which include toxic, flammable, highly reactive and explosive substances. The paper will describe in detail how OSHA has responded to this statute and what we have accomplished in the rulemaking effort. Also the interface with other relevant OSHA standards, including the Hazard Communication standard, the Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response standard, the Control of Hazardous Energy Sources (Lockout/Tagout) standard, and others will be discussed. In addition other recent laws that relate to and impact the OSHA PSM standard such as the Hazardous Materials Transportation Uniform Safety Act of 1990, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986, will be explained as to their relationship to PSM. The emergency preparedness efforts required of employers under PSM and the relationship to SARA Title III efforts by local community emergency response organization will be covered, as well as the interface with the EPA Risk Management Program initiative that EPA must do under the Clean Air Act Amendments.