THE USE OF A RANKING MATRIX AND RECOMMENDATION PRIORITIZATION SYSTEM FOR PROCESS HAZARD ANALYSIS STUDIES

OSHA regulations for Process Safety Management (PSM) [1] and EPA regul ations addressing risk management programs (RMP) for chemical accident al release prevention [2] require industry to identify and analyze pot ential process hazards. This effort, known as the Process Hazard Analy sis (PHA) element of the PSM and RMP standards, involves the use of qu alitative hazard identification or analysis techniques acceptable to O SHA or EPA. While making these assessments, two issue arise; how to ju dge acceptable risk and how to decide on appropriate risk reduction me asures where necessary. Neither regulation defines a model for making risk management decisions. In the absence of formal, sanctioned risk m anagement criteria, it is recommended that companies adopt a standard, defensible ranking scheme to provide a common basis for decision-maki ng This should be based on the company's defined safety goals. This ar ticle discusses an approach, common to many companies, that qualitativ ely ranks the risk of identified scenarios. In addition this article e xamines the possible problems of using various ranking schemes and ris k criteria.