Challenges in applying Process Safety Management at a University Laboratories

Abstract

Risks associated with academic research are often perceived as being much lower than risks within large-scale process industry operations. While the inventories of hazardous materials are generally lower within an academic environment and the number of other hazards may be lower, factors such as materials of construction typically used in laboratories, and the proximity of researchers to their equipment push risks to the individual disproportionately higher. The number of reported lab accidents worldwide that have resulted in fatalities, severe personnel injury, and financial loss demonstrates that there is a need to better risk management practices within academic teaching and experimental research labs. This need was very strongly emphasized by the US Chemical Safety Board following their investigation of major fatal laboratory accidents in the previous years. Risk management within academic laboratories starts with developing a solid understanding of the concepts of Hazard and Risk. For people outside the safety and process safety industry, there is a lack of distinction between these two terms. While Hazard corresponds to the potential for harm (usually independent of scale), Risk is related to the combination of the likelihood of a hazard scenario occurring and the severity of the consequence, should the scenario occur and is typically expressed in terms of impacts to People, Assets, Environment, and Company Reputation. The more layers of protection (controls, prevention measures and mitigations methods) in place to prevent and manage the hazard scenario and the higher the reliability of each layer, the lower the likelihood, and / or severity and thus the lower the risk. A variety of different hazards exist within university academic and research laboratories, and the risks associated with the experiments being undertaken within these labs can be significant if not properly managed. Yet, the misperception that university labs are “low risks” and “inherently safer” still remains within and outside academia, in part due to a lack of hazard awareness. This work discusses a proven approach to applying the principles of process safety management, widely used in the process industry, to teaching and research laboratories within an academic environment through selected challenges and examples.