Kestrel Management Services, LLC

Jordan Barab, OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary, delivered the keynote speech at the recent NPRA Safety conference in San Antonio, Texas.  In what was at times a blunt presentation, Barab called for changes in the petroleum refining industry to improve worker and process safety.  The Deputy Assistant Secretary made the following recommendations:

• Develop and track leading indicators to measure performance and continuously improve process safety management systems.
• Learn from mistakes – companies must use the information obtained from an accident to reduce the likelihood and severity of future events
• Develop and track new metrics that give a truer picture of your problems and progress – “unfortunately, having good numbers on your OSHA 300 logs doesn’t correlate with having an effective process safety program.”

Barab also noted that to accurately assess the safety of the refining industry, OSHA must make changes to the way that companies are targeted for inspections.  Historically, OSHA has relied on DART rates of the employers but not contractors.  Recognizing that contractors routinely make up a large part of the workforce in a refinery and do some of the most dangerous work, Barab suggested that OSHA will begin to look for safety indicators that include both regular and contract employees.   A transcript of Deputy Assistant Secretary Barab’s speech is available on the OSHA website.

For more information about improving your safety programs, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at Kestrel Management Services.