News:PRESS RELEASE Roundtable Discussion of National Chemical Safety Goals The Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center at Texas A&M University recently embarked on the "Chemical Safety Program Assessment" project. This ambitious project involves the establishment of National Chemical Safety Goals, identification of activities necessary to accomplish the goals, and development of a measurement system to measure progress towards achieving the goals. To initiate the project, the Center hosted a two-day Roundtable meeting on June 2-3, 1999 at the George Bush Presidential Conference Center in College Station, Texas with the express intent of identifying the goals and establishing the mechanism for other phases of the project. The Center assembled more than 50 stakeholders from industry, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), state agencies, industry associations, local emergency planning committees, citizens’ groups, environmental groups, chemical plant insurance representatives, and Center researchers. Five briefing papers were presented to foster discussion. The meeting established a vision and three preliminary goals. The vision is to:
The goals are to:
A second session is being planned for the fall in conjunction with the Center’s annual symposium. An organizational structure is being established based on breakout group recommendations. Committees will soon begin to further define the goals and develop plans to implement them. Transcripts, summaries, and the white papers are available at the Center web site http://www.process-safety.tamu.edu. Dr. Sam Mannan, Director of the Center, stated at the conclusion of the meeting, "I think the meeting was very successful. We were able to reach overwhelming consensus regarding the vision and goals for chemical safety in the United States. This was very gratifying given the broad viewpoints and diversity of the participants." The Center was founded in 1995 to conduct research, education, and service to improve chemical process safety. The Center is part of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. The Center provides a uniquely neutral forum for the discussion of difficult issues related to chemical process safety. For further information, contact: (409) 845-3489 Fax: (409) 458-1493
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