OSHA Program To Inspect Chemical Plants

OSHA has started a new, one-year pilot program to increase inspections of facilities using certain hazardous chemicals. The strategy is to increase the number of quick inspections OSHA does to ensure that facilities are in compliance with the national Process Safety Management (PSM) standard. A part of the agency’s Chemical National Emphasis Program, the pilot effort will limit itself to plants that use ammonia, chlorine, or both for the programmed inspections, and it will be implemented in three regions across the country. “Several catastrophic incidents have been caused by failure to comply with the requirements of the PSM standard,” acting OSHA Chief Jordan Barab said in a statement. “This emphasis allows OSHA inspectors to verify that employers are complying with the standard.” OSHA says that regular, unprogrammed inspections of chemical facilities will continue in all regions on the basis of complaints, referrals, or accidents.