Unless your organization is among the 70 companies with over 200 chemical manufacturing sites who are members of the Canadian Chemical Producers Association Responsible Care® initiative, there may be confusion over the costs and benefits of practicing PSM.
Canada’s safety approach to-date is mostly consultative and performance based. However, reputation aside, care must be taken to keep Canadian plants operating safely or face the prescriptive legislative approach experienced in the US and Europe.
On May 9th 1992, a massive explosion trapped and killed 26 workers at the Westray Mine. Despite the magnitude of the loss and the organization’s disregard for the safety, neither the corporation nor any individual was convicted of criminal negligence.
In a world where the word “globalization” now applies to the practice of international terror as well as the practice of international business, traditional approaches to mitigating risk may need to be bolstered by “thinking outside the box”.
Western Canada’s chemical and process industries have a good track record in safeguarding their workers, the public, the environment and their assets, having not experienced a truly horrific disaster. But is this luck that will eventually run out?
