ChatGPT: Defining Occupational, Technical and Process Safety
This post continues our series to do with the use of ChatGPT in the Process Safety Management discipline.
Traditionally, those working in the process industries divide the topic of safety into three broad areas.
Occupational Safety,
Technical Safety, and
Process Safety.
(There is, of course, considerable overlap between these areas, but the distinctions are helpful when designing and running an overall safety program.)
Types of Safety
The order in the above list provides a rough hierarchy of increased levels of complexity and systems thinking.
Occupational Safety
Occupational safety, sometimes referred to as hard-hat safety, covers topics such as vessel entry, vehicle movement, protective clothing and tripping hazards.
Occupational safety tends to be rules oriented. For example, the rules at most facilities require that anyone working outside must wear a hard hat. No discussion or analysis is required or needed. Just wear the hat.
It is fairly easy to audit occupational safety ― in the case of the hard hat rule, a person is either wearing the hat, or he is not. That’s all.
Technical Safety
Technical safety is concerned primarily with quantitative analysis, and often involves high consequence events. The calculation of blast overpressures, the dispersion of gas clouds and the design of a fire ring mains all fall into this category.
This type of safety often requires an expert knowledge of regulations, codes and standards. But a person using those standards also needs to understand the context in which they are used. He or she may then be able to apply judgment. For example, someone designing a pressure vessel may use the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. But then she may validate that design using finite element analysis. Formal Safety Assessments, as applied to offshore work, are mostly to do with Technical Safety.
Auditing technical safety is more difficult than for occupational safety. First, it is valid to use engineering judgment when it comes to technical decisions. It is difficult for the auditor to come up with a simple pass-fail answer in such situations. Second, the auditor needs to skilled in the technical topic being audited.
Process Safety
Process safety incorporates elements of technical safety, but it also includes management principles, and the ability to understand the interface between equipment and humans. Process safety is also concerned with process-oriented issues such as runaway chemical reactions, corrosion and the inadvertent mixing of hazardous chemicals. The impact of such events can lead to incidents such as explosions, large fires and the release of toxic gases.
Auditing process safety is even more difficult than technical safety. It is one thing to show that a company has management systems in place. It is a much larger challenge to evaluate the effectiveness of those systems.
ChatGPT
It is increasingly evident that ChatGPT and its cousins will play an increasing role in the process safety discipline, particularly when abstract concepts are being discussed, and when there is no clear right/wrong answer. Therefore, we posed the following question to ChatGPT,
What is the difference between operational, technical and process safety?
It responded as follows,
Operational, technical, and process safety are three distinct aspects of ensuring safety in various industries. Here's a brief overview of each:
Operational Safety:
Focus: Operational safety primarily deals with the day-to-day activities and routines within an organization.
Concerns: It involves the management and control of hazards and risks associated with routine operations, including activities such as maintenance, equipment handling, and general work processes.
Example: Implementing safety protocols for regular tasks, conducting safety training for employees, and ensuring compliance with safety regulations fall under operational safety.
Technical Safety:
Focus: Technical safety is centered around the design, engineering, and technological aspects of systems, equipment, and processes to prevent accidents and minimize risks.
Concerns: It involves the use of technology, engineering principles, and standards to create safe designs and implement safety features in equipment and processes.
Example: Ensuring that machinery is designed with safety features, implementing fail-safe mechanisms, and conducting thorough risk assessments during the design phase are part of technical safety.
Process Safety:
Focus: Process safety is specifically related to the prevention and control of incidents involving hazardous materials or processes, particularly in industries such as chemical, petrochemical, and manufacturing.
Concerns: It addresses the potential for major accidents, such as explosions or toxic releases, by implementing measures to control and mitigate the risks associated with the handling of hazardous materials.
Example: Installing safety systems like emergency shutdown systems, conducting process hazard analyses, and ensuring proper handling of flammable or toxic substances are elements of process safety.
In summary, operational safety deals with day-to-day activities, technical safety focuses on designing safe systems, and process safety addresses the prevention of major incidents in industries involving hazardous processes or materials. These three components work together to create a comprehensive safety framework within an organization.
<my emphasis>
Conclusion
Once more, ChatGPT has proven itself. First, it understood the distinction between the three types of safety. Second, the highlighted sentence in the above summary defines the three types of safety in a manner that few humans could duplicate. Third, by stating that three safety types work together, the program is suggesting that there may be a way combining them, possibly into something on the lines of a Safety Case.
It will be interesting to see if the program can develop the necessary judgments skills to audit technical or process safety.
