OSHA’s National Emphasis Program: NEP

Jeremy Williams and staff of Garden City Ammonia Program discuss the outline of the chemical and refinery NEP and the results as of March 2011 for both NEP inspections from OSHA.

A NEP course has been developed through GCAP for the need of understanding OSHA’s regulations regarding 1910.119.  It was developed for the petroleum industry after numerous accidents in recent past including the BP explosion in Texas .  Programmed inspections for ammonia and other HHC’s have taken place in Region I, VII and X for the year 2009, 2010, and 2011.  It will expand to all regions permanently.

Purpose:  To understand and describe the policies and procedures that will take place with a NEP inspection.  The NEP is designed to reduce or eliminate the workplace hazards associated with the catastrophic release of highly hazardous chemicals.

Emphasis on Implementation over Documentation:  “Based on past OSHA inspection history at refineries and large chemical plants, OSHA has typically found that these employers have extensive written documentation related to process safety management, but the implementation of the written documentation has been inadequate.   Therefore, CSHO’s should focus on the implementation of the various PSM elements and ensure that employers do what they have committed to do in their PSM documentation.” Osha.gov

Visit this url for more information on GCAP’s NEP 40 hour course:  http://www.ammoniatraining.com/nep

Please give us a call for any questions.  620.271.0037

email ammonia@pld.com

For more information on the Petroleum Refinery NEP

For more information on the Chemical NEP

For more information on CCPS

OSHA explaining the NEP expanding permanently

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Garden City Ammonia Program

www.AmmoniaTraining.com