{"id":383,"date":"2020-08-04T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/?p=383"},"modified":"2024-08-22T03:46:16","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T03:46:16","slug":"evaluating-process-safety-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/evaluating-process-safety-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluating Process Safety during Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As lockdown restrictions ease throughout the world, many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/industries.htm\">industries<\/a> are finally seeing the light\u2026 relieved after months of staying in limbo to gradually opening their doors to resuming on-site operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During this frantic reopening, 2 industrial accidents in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thewire.in\/government\/vizag-styrene-gas-leak-lg-polymers-environmental-clearance\">Vizag<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thewire.in\/labour\/tamil-nadu-6-killed-17-hurt-in-boiler-explosion-at-neyveli-thermal-plant\">Tamilnadu<\/a>\u2026 claiming several lives and injuring several others, emphasizes the need to upgrade process safety to acclimatize newer ways of working and new risks that goes far beyond the containment of Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"adbanner\">\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/request-trial.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\r\n  <div class=\"row\"> \r\n    <div class=\"col-md-7 col-xs-12 clm1\">\r\n      <h3>Digitize your safety management with Safetymint.<\/h3>\r\n      <p>Switch from manual safety processes. Enhance efficiency and compliance.<\/p>\r\n      <i>Take a free trial<\/i>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n<div class=\"col-md-5 col-xs-12 clm2\">\r\n    <figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/free-safety-templates\/wp-content\/themes\/safteymint-permit\/images\/ad-banner-safety-template.png\" alt=\"\"><\/figure><\/div>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <\/a>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The Covid pandemic has shifted the barometer in measuring hazardous processes in facilities and operations. Ascertaining risks now takes into consideration new changes in lifestyle, mental health, behavioral shifts, and technical factors caused due to the lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Risks to consider when reopening industries:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Wearing face masks can cause twitchiness and discomfort that can hamper alertness.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reduced support personnel and social distancing norms can leave us stranded when in an emergency.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Employees returning to work after months of furlough or bring laid off might exhibit signs of low morale or insecurity \u2013 impairing their presence of mind to risks on the job.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Adapting to change in temperatures especially when working\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/neglecting-the-heat-factor-can-be-a-risk-factor\/\" title=\"outdoors\">outdoors<\/a>\u00a0after months of being indoors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lack of onsite audits and risk assessments can compromise process and machinery efficiency.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Safety <a href=\"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/hira-software.htm\" title=\"hazards\">hazards<\/a> posed due to lack of maintenance of electrical, mechanical, or chemical equipment before full-fledged production is initiated with human resources.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Leaks, damage, or wear and tear of storage facilities that stockpile harmful substances.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Unavailability of Management of Change (MOC) process to review, propose or instruct workers of changes in your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/facilities-management.htm\">facility<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Steps to reduce the impact of process safety incidents<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Involve and communicate to workers about newly discovered threats \u2013 Improving detection and reporting of incidents and near-misses.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Analyze and conduct a Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR) to define safety limits before initiating full-fledged operations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enable preventive measures are in place to contain Covid-19.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Frame procedures to maintain critical safety controls during emergencies even with the lack of personnel<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Re-evaluate your safety systems for adequacy under evolving circumstances.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Put into effect a cyclic\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/audit-management.htm\" title=\"audit\">audit<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/risk-assessment-software.htm\" title=\"risk assessment\">risk assessment<\/a>\u00a0program that measures the alignment of processes and equipment to safety protocols \u2013 consistently during the reopening phase.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In the face of evolving threats, revising your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/process-safety-management.htm\">process safety<\/a> to include new risks arising from technical factors, human factors, and organizational factors enables your organization to navigate through the new normal with caution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This post first appeared on the <a href=\"https:\/\/safetymint.substack.com\/p\/evaluating-process-safety-during\">Safetymint Newsletter<\/a>. To get the newsletter articles delivered to your email, sign-up below:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"background: white;\" src=\"https:\/\/safetymint.substack.com\/embed\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As lockdown restrictions ease throughout the world, many industries are finally seeing the light\u2026 relieved after months of staying in limbo to gradually opening their doors to resuming on-site operations. During this frantic reopening, 2 industrial accidents in\u00a0Vizag\u00a0and\u00a0Tamilnadu\u2026 claiming several lives and injuring several others, emphasizes the need to upgrade process safety to acclimatize newer [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ehs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2095,"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions\/2095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.safetymint.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}