Editorial comment
There is nothing more important to the fuel and petrochemical industries than the safety of our employees, communities and the environment around us. Our commitment to safety goes beyond upholding the regulations, codes and standards that guide each of our company’s operations, it is embedded in the culture of our industries and instilled in every employee from the day they set foot on the job.
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In fact, the petrochemical and refining industries rank first and second in safety out of the nearly 500 manufacturing sectors that the US government monitors. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022 data, our injury and illness rates have declined over the last 30 years and are currently significantly lower than the total recordable rates for other manufacturers. Process safety events have also declined significantly, 55% for refiners and 42% for petrochemical companies, over the last decade.
These achievements are a testament to working together, across industry, to improve the culture of safety and collaboration and striving for zero incidents. This is why safety is not considered proprietary in our industries.
Through our best-in-class safety programmes, AFPM proudly plays a role in helping our industries work together to reach that common goal of zero incidents. We do this by providing a vast array of safety programmes and resources to improve our occupational and process safety performance, including our Advancing Process Safety and Occupational Safety programmes where we facilitate data collection, learning from incidents, information sharing, regional working groups, collaborative data assessments to identify potential areas of improvement, and trainings to put key learnings into action. It’s our aim to stop incidents and injuries from ever occurring. We also share safety bulletins, training resources, and hazard identification and practice share documents that are used to enhance in-person, virtual training classes and knowledge-sharing programmes.
Not surprisingly, other industries and government partners are taking note of the success of AFPM’s safety programmes and are seeking to apply good practices more broadly across the manufacturing sector. In recent years, we have worked with organisations and government partners such as the American Petroleum Institute (API), the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to share good practices derived from these programmes.
This industry collaboration will be on display at our upcoming 2024 AFPM Summit, being held 15 - 17 October in New Orleans, Louisiana, US. The Summit will offer various learning opportunities for seasoned professionals and entry-level employees. The programme will cover reliability and maintenance, mechanical integrity, artificial intelligence (AI), sustainability, human centric leadership, and much more. Sessions and networking opportunities will also be held to support emerging leaders and women in our industries.
The AFPM Summit will be an event for everyone to come and learn and continue to work together to enhance safety, reliability and sustainability. We hope to see you there and together we can continue to build the platform for improvement and success.