IChemE Safety Centre to publish new chapters in Health and Safety Body of Knowledge

The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Safety Centre and the Safety Institute of Australia will publish two new chapters in the Occupational Health and Safety Body of Knowledge next week. The launch comes after 18 months of collaborative work, aimed at closing the knowledge gap between health and safety professionals and process safety engineers.

Completed by a cross-discipline team of both IChemE Safety Centre (ISC) members and Safety Institute Australia (SIA) members, the chapters will be launched via an online webinar on Wednesday, 26 April at 14:30 AEST. They focus on process hazards in the chemical industries and process safety management respectively.

The ISC and the SIA announced plans to work together in January 2016. They intended to close the knowledge gap between OHS professionals and engineers in the process industries to encourage better understanding and the sharing of best practice, and improve general safety at work.

There were 178 workplace safety incidents reported in Australia last year according to SafeWork Australia. Seventeen of these occurred in the process industries, including chemicals, oil and gas, pharmaceutical production and food production.

The chapters — Process Hazards (Chemical) and Managing Process Safety — will be launched online on 26 April.

IChemE Safety Centre Director Trish Kerin will host the launch with a webinar entitled ‘An Introduction to Process Safety’. This follows introductions from Australian National University Emeritus Professor Andrew Hopkins, IChemE Past President and Former Chair of the UK Health and Safety Executive Dame Judith Hackitt and OHS Body of Knowledge Process Safety Technical Panel Member John Temby.

“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,” said Kerrin. “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.”

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. The addition of process safety content will help to advance process safety knowledge and understanding worldwide.

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