ISC contributes to global safety resource

THE IChemE Safety Centre (ISC) and the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA) will publish two new chapters in the Occupational Health and Safety Body of Knowledge next week.

The work aims to close the knowledge gap between occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals and process safety engineers, and follows 18 months of collaborative working. The Occupational Health and Safety Body of Knowledge is an online resource used all over the world, defining for professionals what they need to know about safety.

Completed by a cross-discipline team of ISC and SIA members, the chapters, entitled Process Hazards (Chemical) and Managing Process Safety, focus on process hazards in the chemical industries, and process safety management respectively. They will be launched via an online webinar* on Wednesday 26 April at 14:30 AEST and will remain available online.

The collaboration, which began in January 2016, hopes to encourage better understanding, sharing of best practice, and improve general workplace safety.

According to SafeWork Australia, 178 workplace safety incidents were reported last year in the country. Of these, 17 occurred in the process industries, including chemicals, oil and gas, pharmaceutical production and food production.

IChemE Safety Centre director, Trish Kerin, will host the launch with a webinar entitled An Introduction to Process Safety. This follows introductions from Andrew Hopkins, emeritus professor at the Australian National University, IChemE past president and former chair of the HSE, Dame Judith Hackitt, and OHS Body of Knowledge process safety technical panel member, John Temby.

Kerin said: “The collaboration between ISC and SIA has been a positive step in closing the gap between process safety and more generalist health and safety roles. When this project was announced in January last year we set out to publish one chapter, and I’m delighted to announce that we will publish two next week.

“A basic knowledge of process safety is essential to improving your safety competencies more generally, whether you work in the process industries or not.”

Pam Pryor, registrar of the Australian OHS Education Accreditation Board, custodian of the OHS Body of Knowledge said: “These new chapters are a fantastic addition to the Body of Knowledge. The evidence is clear; all health and safety generalists should have a basic knowledge of process safety, particularly when they are operating in high-risk environments.

“I am confident that this development will be essential to closing the current gap of knowledge, and in turn reduce the number of incidents, not only in Australia, but on a global scale.”

Visit: https://safetyinstituteofaustralia.eventsmart.com/events/introduction-to-process-safety to register for the launch webinar. IChemE and SIA members are entitled to a discounted rate.

*The webinar is restricted to those living in Australia, Canada, and the US.

More information about the Occupational Health and Safety Body of Knowledge can be found at: http://www.ohsbok.org.au