The Process Safety Planned Inspectional Initiative engages employers to ensure they are meeting their responsibilities to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, and respond to process-related incidents with potentially catastrophic outcomes such as, but not limited to, fires, explosions, or releases of hazardous substances or energy. These are often low-frequency, high-consequence events that have significant impact on the health and safety of workers, and other people at or near the workplace.

What is process safety?

Process safety is a framework for managing the integrity of operating systems and processes related to handling hazardous substances. It uses good design, engineering, and operating principles and practices to prevent, mitigate, and control incidents with the potential to release hazardous substances or energy.

Our approach

The approach of our Process Safety Planned Inspectional Initiative is to ensure that employers identify the hazards and control the risks associated with their potential catastrophic events. The approach focuses on both preventative and mitigative control efforts.

Our goals

The goals of the Process Safety Planned Inspectional Initiative are to:

• Ensure that workers and employers engaged in complex work processes address the risk associated with catastrophic events through identifying hazards and managing critical controls
• Promote a greater worker awareness and participation in process safety management

Our focus

2024 inspectional approach

For 2024 inspections, prevention officers will take a risk-based approach to ensure that the most significant risks are effectively managed. This approach involves workers and employers identifying hazards, evaluating risks, and implementing the appropriate controls specific to the on-site activities. In addition, it focuses on employers ensuring these efforts are effectively communicated to workers and monitored through foundational occupational health and safety systems such as new and young worker orientations, training, supervision, incident investigations, worksite inspections, and (where applicable) joint health and safety committees that are effective, robust, and well supported.

• The initiative will target workplaces engaged in complex work processes, including chemical processing, oil and gas, pellet mills, pulp mills and other wood processing and biomass energy production. In 2024, LNG processing and loading facilities will be added as focus areas.
• Site inspections will focus on the human and organizational factors to ensure critical risks are identified and the necessary critical controls are in place and effectively managed.