Process Safety Management (PSM): Pre-Startup Safety Review

On August 28, 2008, an explosion at the Bayer CropScience plant in Charleston, West Virginia killed two workers and injured eight others. The ignition of a five-thousand pound chemical vat occurred during the restart of the methomyl unit after upgrades were performed on the system. Incident investigation revealed several causes, including inadequate pre-startup safety review, and inadequate operator training on the new system. This is an example of the importance of Process Safety Management (PSM). PSM is aimed at preventing highly hazardous chemicals from being released, and startup and shutdown are potentially the two most dangerous times for a PSM process. In this interactive online video course, safety expert Jon Wallace discusses the components of the PSM Pre-Startup Safety Review. The purpose of this review is to ensure safe operation of a PSM covered process by identifying and correcting unsafe conditions prior to process operation.