Control of Major-accident Hazards Involving Dangerous Substances

Following several devastating accidents in Europe in the past 30 years, the European Commission has codified guidelines for the safety of facilities that work with dangerous substances.  The Seveso II Directive aims to prevent major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances, and should an accident occur, aims to limit the consequences of such accidents.  Seveso II protects not only safety and health aspects of employees, contractors and neighboring citizens, but also the environment and community surrounding regulated facilities.

The Seveso II Directive outlines six key elements that aid facilities in their efforts to prevent or mitigate chemical releases that could lead to a catastrophe in the workplace and to the surrounding community.

Impact

To control chemical hazards, employers need to develop the necessary expertise, experiences, judgment and proactive initiative within their workforce to properly implement and maintain an effective process safety management program as envisioned in the standard. Employers who merge all six elements into one plan will better assure full compliance as well as enhance their safety culture.

Challenge

An effective process safety management program requires a systematic approach to evaluating  the whole process. Process safety management is the proactive identification, evaluation and prevention of chemical releases that could occur as a result of failures in process, procedures or equipment. It is easy to become overwhelmed with information while completing all the stages of Seveso II and to find more problems than solutions.  Without a mechanism to link information from each requirement it becomes extremely difficult to manage all the information and ensure that each elements is followed as required.

The Dyadem Solution

Consider that each PSM element is the spoke of a wheel, and that the purpose of the wheel is to prevent catastrophic events. Each spoke must remain healthy and must be connected to the wheel in order for the wheel to accomplish its purpose effectively.  Limited communication can limit success.

Dyadem provides the foundation for that wheel and the integration framework to link information from one step to the next.  Dyadem’s Operational Risk Management platform not only simplifies your PSM practices with configurable workflows but also organizes all of your data – whether a dynamic PHA, Management of Change request, static document, multimedia file or photo.  Sharing information between the various groups that are responsible for PSM allows you to work on multiple parts of compliance simultaneously, and efficiently mitigates risks and addresses Seveso II more efficiently. As both resources and regulatory pressures continue to grow tighter, you simply can't afford to waste time or money as you work to keep your overall risks tolerable.