Critical Comparison on Safety Management Systems, Identifying Opportunities for Companies Manufacturing and using Hazardous Substances

Abstract

In the life of companies operating with hazardous substances, the daily task is to maintain the safety on a high level and to introduce actions to increase safety performance. The companies covered by the Disaster Prevention Act have a special task, to operate a safety management system that also satisfies industrial safety aspects. To make this as efficient as possible, good practices from other safety management systems can be built into the currently used management system at the company. Perhaps the most frequently operated safety management systems for organizations producing and processing hazardous substances are the Occupational Health and Safety Management according to the ISO 45001 standard and the Process Safety Management systems. A comparison of the latter with what is required by law points to several points that may designate areas for improvement in the certified safety management system. In this way, they provide a basis for the development of a new system, that complying with the prescribed requirements, helps to maintain a high level of safety, to prevent the occurrence of accidents, and to work with safety-conscious employees and suppliers.