Exam1

Question 1

OSHA incidence rate

Answer 1

number of lost work days * 200,000hr / total hrs worked by all employees during period covered

Question 2

Management of Change

Answer 2

requires review and authorization of proposed changes prior to implementation to ensure no unforeseen hazards are introduced. Also, all pertinent documentation including worker training must be kept up to date with regard to any changes implemented.

Question 3

IDLH

Answer 3

Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health; “poses a threat of exposure to airborne contaminants when that exposure is likely to cause death or immediate or delayed permanent adverse health effects or prevent escape from an environment”

Question 4

Teratogen

Answer 4

an agent or factor which causes birth defects

Question 5

Hepatotoxic

Answer 5

damaging or destructive to liver cells

Question 6

Nephrotoxic

Answer 6

damaging or destructive to the kidneys

Question 7

FAR

Answer 7

No.Fatalities*10^8 hr / total hrs worked by all employees during period covered

Question 8

FVC

Answer 8

forced vital capacity; total volume exhaled into a spirometer

Question 9

Dermatoxic

Answer 9

damaging or destructive to skin cells

Question 10

Neurotoxic

Answer 10

damaging or destructive to nervous system

Question 11

Mutagen

Answer 11

causes chromosome damage

Question 12

BI

Answer 12

business interruption = (lost profit) + (fixed cost)

Question 13

Latency

Answer 13

time interval between the stimulation and response

Question 14

Mutagen

Answer 14

causes chromosome damage

Question 15

Hemotoxic

Answer 15

damaging or destructive to blood cells

Question 16

Pulmonotoxic

Answer 16

damaging or destructive to lungs

Question 17

Give an example of how culture affects the behavior of an individual or organization. Explain.

Answer 17

McAllen vs El Paso; The hospitals in McAllen thought treated patients as profit centers (by ordering excessive and unnecessary tests), while El Paso had a focus on the patient as people.

Question 18

conformity bias

Answer 18

caused by group peer pressure

Question 19

Beauty bias

Answer 19

think the most physically attractive person will be the most successful

Question 20

similarity bias

Answer 20

tendency to like people who are similar to us

Question 21

halo effect

Answer 21

tendency to see one great thing about a person, which affects our opinion of everything else about them

Question 22

horns effect

Answer 22

tendency to see one ‘bad’ thing about a person and it affects our opinion of everything else about them.

Question 23

Explain the difference between FAR and fatality rate.

Answer 23

While FAR is based on employee working hours, fatality rate is independent of hours worked. Fatality rate does not account for time on task

Question 24

Give an example of a design change which had unintended consequences

Answer 24

Flixborough, England: Removal and bypass of reactor 5. No safety review was performed and the change was of substandard design, resulting in an explosion

Question 25

What is a spirometer? What does it measure?

Answer 25

Device that measure lung capacity of lungs: total volume exhaled (FVC, L); forced expired volume measured at 1 second (FEV1, L/s); forced expiratory flow in the middle range of the vital capacity (FEV 25-75%, L/s); the ratio of the observed FEV1 to FVC*100 (FEV1/FVC%)

Question 26

What dust size particle range is typically considered as most potentially harmful to the lungs?

Answer 26

0.2 – 5 microns.

Question 27

What does PPE stand for? Give two examples of PPE

Answer 27

Personal protective equipment; hard hat, fire-rated shirt

Question 28

Be able to fill in the NFPA diamond (which rating goes in which area, ranges of rankings, etc.)

Answer 28

LEFT: Health; TOP: Fire; RIGHT: Stability; Bottom: Specific Hazard

Question 29

What are the four categories of inherently safer design techniques? Give brief descriptions of each.

Answer 29

MINIMIZATION: reducing the hazards by using smaller quantities of hazardous substances SUBSTITUTION: safer materials should be used in place of hazardous ones. MODERATION: using hazardous materials under less hazardous conditions (lowering temp to lower Psat) SIMPLIFICATION: error tolerance – simpler plants provide fewer opportunities for error

Question 30

Flixborough, England

Answer 30

installing the bypass line without a safety review or adequate supervision by experienced engineering personnel; holding excessive amounts of flammable material in close proximity

Question 31

Bhopal, India

Answer 31

best ways to prevent a hazardous release is to engineer around it. Instead of using the reaction pathway that included the dangerous MIC intermediate

Question 32

Seveso, Italy

Answer 32

TCDD released; civilians were not notified until several days later; proper procedure not followed

Question 33

What do the categories ED, TD, and LD represent? What does LD50 mean?

Answer 33

ED: effective dose; response to chemical or agent is minor and reversible TD: response to agent is toxic (not lethal, but irreversible, e.g. liver damage) LD50 – dose that results in the death of 50% of the population

Question 34

What are the four pathways by which toxicants typically enter biological organisms? Which pathways are typically the fastest? Which pathways are considered most important in an industrial setting?

Answer 34

Inhalation^*, injection*, absorption^, ingestion | Fastest*; Industrial importance^

Question 35

Pasadena, Texas

Answer 35

It is important to perform PHAs on a regular basis. This can reveal sub-standard valving arrangements such as the one in the Pasadena plant

Question 36

Texas City, Texas

Answer 36

overfilled tower caused hydrocarbons release; should performed a root cause analysis to prevent the last three near-misses, the contractor trailers would have never been allowed into the unsafe areas, and the ISOM unit would not have been started up before the existing problems were resolved

Question 37

port wentworth, georgia

Answer 37

poor houscleaning; company failed to correct ongoing and known hazardous conditions; sugar dust explosion

Question 38

jacksonville, Fl

Answer 38

Cooling line failed; importance of design redundancy in a cooling system cannot be understated, especially if explosions can occur within 10 minutes of failure; single- point failures should be eliminated when designing processes.

Question 39

What does TLV mean? What are the different categories of TLV? Explain what each category

Answer 39

threshold limit value; TLV-TWA: time-weighted average; 8hr/day; conc employees can be exposed to w/ no adverse effects TLV-STEL: short-term exposure limit; 15min; conc employees can be exposed to w/o irritation, tissue damage, etc TLC-C: ceiling: conc. that should never be exceeded; no duration

Question 40

What does PEL stand for? What organization uses the PEL standard? PEL values are closely related to one of the TLV categories; which one?

Answer 40

permissible exposure level; defined by OSHA; closely relates to TLV-TWA

Question 41

What are three common leading indicators of “best practices” related to process safety? When were these first published?

Answer 41

Regular, documented inspections of safety critical items (with follow up action items); Documentation of keeping up with PHA/safety audit action items; Number of demands on safety systems; “near misses” SEPT 2014

Question 42

What does IDLH mean? What exposure time period is associated with IDLH? What exposure responses are used to determine the IDLH concentrations?

Answer 42

immediately dangerous to life or health; 30min; without acute toxicity reactions (severe eye irritation);

Question 43

What does ERPG stand for? What are the three levels of ERPG and how are they defined (time and exposure response)?

Answer 43

Emergency response planning guidelines; max concentration one can be exposed to... 1 - w/ almost all only mild, transient effects 2 - w/o irreversible effects 3 - w/o life threatening effects

Question 44

Explain what is meant by a causative variable. Explain how a probit is typically related to the response of some causative variable.

Answer 44

Causative factor represents dose of damaging agent; probit related to the causative variable by transforming the sigmoid shape of the normal response curve (for population for specified effect) into a straight line.

Question 45

what are the five fundamental cannons of the AIChE Code of Professional Ethics relevant to process safety?

Answer 45

1) safety is paramount 2) one must only speak in objective truth 3) only perform in areas of competence 4) avoid conflicts of interests 5) follow ethical and professional responsibilities

Question 46

what are the four pillars of Risk Based Process Safety? Briefly explain each.

Answer 46

1) COMMITMENT TO PROCESS RISK safety culture is paramount 2) UNDERSTANDING PROCESS RISK involves understanding chemistries and investigating potential hazards in plant design 3) MANAGING RISK continuous performance of process hazard analysis and improvement of processes via MOC 4) LEARNING FROM PAST EXPERIENCE includes learning from mistakes of other plants as well as the investigation and documentation of near-misses and performing of root-cause investigations