How do we keep communities and workers safe?
We think about that all the time
Our top priority is making sure everyone goes home safely at the end of the day and that our community and environment are protected. We do this by building strong cultures of safety when it comes to both personal (occupational) and facility (process) safety supported by data, technology, protocols, and training. At the forefront is the notion that people who work in these facilities are not just employees – they are friends, family, and fellow community members.
Our industries work together to share practices, develop new technologies, and engage in ongoing dialog unmatched by any other manufacturing sector. Through AFPM’s Advancing Process Safety programs we work together to collect industry process and occupational safety data, analyze that data to find opportunities for improvement, and then develop tools to help facilities improve their performance and assess their progress.
We are never done when it comes to thinking about and improving safety, but we are proud of the progress we have made. AFPM data show that since 2011, process safety events have decreased by 60 percent at refineries and by 51 percent at petrochemical facilities.1
1AFPM Data
U.S. refineries and petrochemical facilities are embracing advances in virtual and augmented reality technologies to continue to improve safety by using these technologies to train employees with how to deal with very low frequency yet high consequence events. For example, AFPM developed a Virtual Reality simulation that will help ensure that employees are thoroughly trained in starting a fired heater, a key facility operation for which hands-on, in-the-field training is difficult due to the potential consequences of inaccurate execution.