In the wake of the Chevron Refinery Explosion, the Chemical Safety Board has proposed a safety case regulatory approach as an alternative to the current more prescriptive approach used in the US today. Process safety management (PSM) arose in 1990 in the form of OSHA 1910.119 following the Piper Alpha & Bhopal catastrophic incidents. Process safety management has provided a safety structure within the United States with its 14 elements that have been the epicenter of safety for all applicable facilities. Prescriptive safety regulation involves providing specific quantitative requirements addressing safety considerations in design and operations. A safety case, on the other hand, requires a detailed analysis of hazards and steps taken to address those hazards, and thus minimize or mitigate the risk. These safety cases are then reviewed in detail by a well-trained regulator. Such an approach is used in the United Kingdom, Australia and Norway.
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