Process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals is designed to control which hazards?

• A. Explosions
• B. Fire, explosions and toxic releases
• C. Electrical hazards
• D. Slips and trips

Answer: (B)

Process safety management focuses on preventing major incidents from highly hazardous chemicals by controlling the kinds of releases that can cause fires, explosions, or toxic exposures. It targets the energy release and release pathways that could lead to catastrophic events in chemical processes, and it uses systematic safeguards like process hazard analysis, mechanical integrity, operating procedures, training, management of change, and emergency planning to keep those three hazard types from occurring.

Electrical hazards are generally addressed by electrical safety programs and broader industrial hygiene controls, not specifically by process safety management. Slips and trips are routine workplace safety concerns not unique to chemical processing hazards, so they fall outside the primary focus of PSM.