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Evaluation of Safety and Environmental Metrics for Potential Application at Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities (2009)

Chapter: Appendix B: Safety and Environmental Metrics Employed by Private Companies Surveyed for This Report

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Safety and Environmental Metrics Employed by Private Companies Surveyed for This Report." National Research Council. 2009. Evaluation of Safety and Environmental Metrics for Potential Application at Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12580.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Safety and Environmental Metrics Employed by Private Companies Surveyed for This Report." National Research Council. 2009. Evaluation of Safety and Environmental Metrics for Potential Application at Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12580.
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Page 30
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Safety and Environmental Metrics Employed by Private Companies Surveyed for This Report." National Research Council. 2009. Evaluation of Safety and Environmental Metrics for Potential Application at Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12580.
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Page 31
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Safety and Environmental Metrics Employed by Private Companies Surveyed for This Report." National Research Council. 2009. Evaluation of Safety and Environmental Metrics for Potential Application at Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12580.
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Page 32

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Appendix B Safety and Environmental Metrics Employed by Private Companies Surveyed for This Report Table B-1 compiles the safety and environmental metrics used by the private companies surveyed for this report. These metrics and those of some other government organizations are discussed in Chapter 4. TABLE B-1 Safety and Environmental Metrics Employed by Private Companies Surveyed for This Report Measure Area Definition Type Comments Number of recordable Personal safety Lagging Per OSHA requirements injuries (RIs) or illnesses Number of lost workday Personal safety Lagging Per OSHA requirements cases (LWCs) Contractor injury or Personal safety Number of RIs per number Lagging RMTC, RWC, and DAWC (all OSHA illness rate of work hours × 200,000 definitions) Company injury or Personal safety Number of RIs per number Lagging RMTC, RWC, and DAWC (all OSHA illness rate of work hours × 200,000 definitions) Near miss Personal/environmental/ Number of unsafe Leading Can identify unsafe conditions, safety transportation/process conditions or events that incidents that could have been more serious safety almost injured someone in different circumstances, etc. but didn’t or almost spilled something but didn’t Corrective and preventive Personal/environmental/ Proportion of corrective Leading Percent of action items related to employee actions transportation/process and preventive actions health and safety (EH&S) incidents that safety closed on time to total have been closed by the due date number of action items Behavior-based process Personal/environmental/ Number of observations Leading Total number of observations made of a (BBP) observation transportation/process of behavior as part of a work group in a given time safety behavior-based safety program Percent safe BBP Personal/environmental/ Number of safe behaviors/ Leading The percentage of safe behaviors should be observations transportation/ process total behaviors less than 100 percent since your program safety should be looking at behaviors that you want to change and at behaviors that you are getting much better at Continued 29

30 Evaluation of Safety and Environmental Metrics TABLE B-1 Continued Measure Area Definition Type Comments BBP observation— Personal safety Number of analyses Leading Should analyze the antecedents and analysis to drive behavior performed consequences of an unwanted behavior at change least quarterly. Behavior might be improved by adjusting an antecedent BBP observation— Personal safety Number of critical Leading Try to drive at least one behavior to driving behavior change behaviors that reached habit strength per year by adjusting the habit strength antecedents and consequences of that behavior Procedure use Personal/process safety Number of critical Leading Can be daily, weekly, or monthly depending procedures used/number on the size of the organization. Tasks that of critical procedure require a critical procedure are defined by required tasks performed the facility Quality of root cause Personal/environmental/ Number of minimum Leading RCI minimum criteria are defined by the investigation (RCI) transportation/process quality criteria met for the company safety RCIs in a given period Pretask hazard Personal safety Number of pretask hazard Leading Assessment can be conducted per person or assessment participation assessments performed per work group, weekly or monthly Performance tracking on Personal safety Number of defects found Leading Permit documentation is audited and any permits per permit mistake or omission is a defect (safe work permit/isolation of energy/confined space entry) Training timeliness Personal/environmental/ Required training Leading Overdue EH&S training is a sign of a transportation/process completed on time—not slipping safety culture and priority. safety overdue. Compliance task tool Personal/environmental/ Number of required Leading Overdue safety compliance tasks are a sign transportation/process compliance tasks overdue/ of slipping safety culture and priority. An safety total number of required example of these tasks is fire extinguisher compliance tasks inspections. Severity rate Personal safety Number of (RMTC × 1) Lagging Gives a weighted rate. + (RWC × 3) + (DAWC × 9) + (fatalities × 27) per 200,000 work hours DAWC count Personal safety Number of DAWCs Lagging DAWC rate Personal safety Number of DAWC per Lagging 200,000 work hours Loss of primary Personal safety Number of LOPCs Lagging For example, leaks, breaks, and spills containment (LOPC) count Severe LOPC Personal/environmental/ Number of Category 1, 1A, Lagging Category 1 is any loss of primary (Categories 1,1A, and process safety and 2A LOPCs containment resulting in the release of 2A) >5,000 lb flammable chemical. Category 1A is a release causing a DAWC. Category 2A is a spill resulting in a RI. Category 4 LOPC count Personal/environmental/ Number of Category 4 Leading Category 4 is a minor spill of <100 lb that process safety LOPCs has no measurable impact on people or the environment. Ratio of Category 4 Personal safety Ratio of Category 4 Leading Try to achieve a 40:1 ratio in order to find LOPC to Categories 1, 2, LOPCs to all other the small spills and fix them before they and 3 LOPCs categories of LOPCs become larger spills. (Category 2 is a loss of primary containment with a release of >1,000 lb or an RMTC or a RWC (2A). Category 3 is any LOPC that loses >100 lb of chemical or 1,000 lb of dry inert solids).

APPENDIX B 31 TABLE B-1 Continued Measure Area Definition Type Comments Number of process safety Process safety Number of events within a Both lagging For near misses, it’s a leading indicator. events specified time period. The and leading severity of events may be low, medium, or high. Number of fatality Personal/transportation/ Number of such events Lagging Measure progress in addressing high potential events process safety within a specified time potential events period Motor vehicle accident Transportation Number of MVAs Lagging An MVA is a motor vehicle accident (MVA) count resulting in personal injury or at least $500 in damage. MVA rate Transportation Number of MVAs per Lagging Includes all miles driven from company million miles driven owned, leased, or rented vehicles and miles driven on company business from personal vehicles Number of preventable Transportation Number of preventable Lagging accidents or number of product-carrying vehicle preventable accidents per accidents or a rate based unit time or distance on this number Number of high-severity Transportation Number of high-severity Lagging accidents or number of product-carrying vehicle high-severity accidents accidents or a rate based per unit time or distance on this number Number of rollovers/ Transportation Number of product Lagging rollover rate carrying vehicle rollovers or a rate based on this number Energy intensity Environmental British thermal units per Lagging   pound production Greenhouse gas (GHG) Environmental Quantity of carbon dioxide Lagging energy efficiency (CO2) generated per unit of production Wastewater intensity Environmental Pounds of wastewater per Lagging Water that is treated at a wastewater pound of production treatment facility Waste intensity Environmental Pounds of waste per pound Lagging Material that receives end-of-pipe treatment; of production report as the bulk amount prior to treatment. Total waste weight Environmental Weight by type and Lagging disposal method Chemical emissions Environmental Chemical emissions (tons) Lagging Material that is released to the environment that does not receive end-of-pipe treatment (not including water). Chemical emissions exclude conventional emissions such as combustion products (nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, CO2, and particulates), methane, and hydrogen. Also excluded are the “normally excluded as an emission” compounds from GEI such as nitrogen, oxygen, water, aluminum, and salts (chlorides, sulfates, hydroxides, oxides, hypochlorite, and carbonates). Continued

32 Evaluation of Safety and Environmental Metrics TABLE B-1 Continued Measure Area Definition Type Comments Priority compound Environmental Priority compounds (tons) Lagging A list of priority chemicals that include emissions persistent bioaccumulative and toxic compounds; selected known human carcinogens; selected ozone depletors; and high-volume toxic compounds   Volatile organic Environmental Volatile organic Lagging   compound emissions compounds (tons) Total water use Environmental Pounds or gallons water Lagging   used/time period Direct GHG emissions Environmental CO2-equivalent metric tons Lagging Direct GHG emissions are those that are emitted from a company location. Direct emissions include all GHGs emitted from any on-site fugitive or air point source. Kyoto GHGs as CO2- Environmental Pounds of CO2-equivalent Lagging   equivalent intensity per pound production Assessment compliance Personal/environmental/ Assigned grade to Leading Commonly understood measure for performance transportation/process each area reviewed in assessing improvement in performance safety assessment Percent of safety alerts Personal/environmental/ Percent completion by Leading Drives implementation of lessons learned completed transportation/process facilities covered by alerts from safety incidents safety Number of potential Environmental Internally reported Leading Proactive measure of effectiveness of environmental potential environmental environmental program noncompliances noncompliances per month Number of significant Environmental Spills per unit time Lagging environmental spills Toxic release inventory Environmental Number of releases per Lagging on site releases unit time NOTE: RCI, root cause investigation; OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration; RMTC, reportable medical treatment case; RWC, restricted work case; DAWC, days away from work case; LOPC, loss of primary containment; BBP, behavior-based process; RCI, root cause investigation; ES&H, employee safety and health; RI, recordable injury; GHG, greenhouse gas; GEI, greenhouse gas emissions. Source: Data provided by Corning, Dow Chemical, Motorola, and Praxair.

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By the end of 2009, more than 60 percent of the global chemical weapons stockpile declared by signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention will have been destroyed, and of the 184 signatories, only three countries will possess chemical weapons-the United States, Russia, and Libya.

In the United States, destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile began in 1990, when Congress mandated that the Army and its contractors destroy the stockpile while ensuring maximum safety for workers, the public, and the environment. The destruction program has proceeded without serious exposure of any worker or member of the public to chemical agents, and risk to the public from a storage incident involving the aging stockpile has been reduced by more than 90 percent from what it was at the time destruction began on Johnston Island and in the continental United States.

At this time, safety at chemical agent disposal facilities is far better than the national average for all industries. Even so, the Army and its contractors are desirous of further improvement. To this end, the Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) asked the NRC to assist by reviewing CMA's existing safety and environmental metrics and making recommendations on which additional metrics might be developed to further improve its safety and environmental programs.

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