Managing Health, Safety, Environmental And Socio-Political Risks In Gas Storage Tank Development Project

Management system used to manage health and safety, environmental and socio-political risks associated with the development of gas storage tank

The report is based on managing the health and safety, environmental and socio-political risks that are associated with the gas storage tank development project. The organization of this project is a gas terminal, situated within the North east of Scotland. The gas terminal is located in the coastal region, close to the small village, nearest town is at a distance of 3 miles and nearest city at a distance of 40 miles. Therefore, the gas terminal has good transport links. The CEO of the gas organization proposed to build a large gas storage tank on the site. The aim of this report is to ensure the gas organization that an effective risk management process should be used to support better decision making throughout understanding is risks and its impacts. The objectives are to raise awareness of risk management, minimize of loss, damage, and implementation of policies and standards to minimize the risks.

Following are the management systems, which are used to manage the hazards into a gas terminal:

1. HSG65: This management system manages the health and safety risks using PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) model. It is a four-step method that is used in the gas terminal for controlling and provides a continuous improvement into the business process. The PDCA cycle is described as follows:

Plan: During this phase of cycle, the risk management consultant is appointed and the gas industry requires formulating the health and safety policies in form of written statement. It contains the intent as well as direction of thee policies. The policies are required to communicate with the workers of the industry (Bonometti 2012). The health and safety team should drive continuous improvement cycle connects between management team and workers.

Do: There is implementation of organizational objectives as well as processes. The top management ensures that the resources are available as well as determination of responsibilities of the workers to prevent the risks. Both workers and participants should be aware to carry out health and safety management responsibilities. The realization of the management system will begin.

Check: An internal audit is required as it helps to investigate if the management system is functioning accurately or not and if it is generating required results. The processes are being monitored based on customer needs and internal policies (Cornall, Vernon and Walker 2014). The outcomes are documented as well as reported to the top management team.

Act: The top management team has prepared a written assessment dependent on internal audit. This particular document is termed as management review (Boyle 2012). The outcomes are evaluated based on the level of performance. If required, preventive actions are taken.

ISO 31000: It provides frameworks as well as processes to manage the risk. It helps the organization to perform well in the environment, which is full of uncertainty. It deals with larger volume of toxic chemicals where there is risk of explosions (Ford and Clarke 2013). Using ISO 31000, it helps the gas industry to increase likelihood of attaining objectives, improve into identification of the opportunities as well as threats. It also allocates and uses of resources for the risk treatment. It is most significant risk management standard, which is used.

Integrated risk management strategy to manage risks

EMAS: It is an EU EC—Management and Audit Scheme, which permits the organization to improve environmental performance as well as achieve of recognition. This management system reviews the environmental aspects of the organization. The gas industry established a performance benchmarks around the energy and material efficiency (Rechenthin 2004). It manages better use of the environmental resources, cut down the waste and loss of products. It runs a cost effective operation in the organization. Based on the review outcomes and environmental policy of the organization, the top management conducts an environmental programme to assess the management system into place. The key elements of EMAS are:

Performance: There should be an evaluation of harmonized scheme and reduction of environmental impact.

Transparency: The public should be aware of the environmental impacts on the organization due to hazards and it is achieved through employee involvement (Eves and Gummer 2007).

Credibility: There is an independent nature of the EMAS registration as well as verification process makes sure about the public credibility.

Rechenthin (2004) stated that control of risk in the organization is achieved by managing the risks by implementing an integrated risk management system. The two pure risks are occupational health and safety, environment. One speculative risk is financial. Bergh et al. (2014) argued that risk management is a significant control for health, safety, environment and financial integrity of the organization. Risk assessment is a significant part of the strategic development. The risk management strategy of the organization should be such that the risks face identification, assessment, monitored and managed phases so that it can maintain properly (Health and Safety Executive 2001). HSG65 management system consists of the following steps to manage the risks:

Manage leadership and their commitment: CEO of the organization establishes the health and safety policy, sets the organizational goals and provides possible resources to support the implementation of the management system (Ridley and Channing 2008).

Safe work procedures and written instructions: It ensures that the management team and workers should know their own responsibilities to perform their duties. Everyone should follow safe work procedures such as conduct risk assessment (Reese 2015).

Health and safety training: The senior management and workers should understand their duties to implement and maintain a healthy workplace. The management should appreciate their role to establish policies and drive HSE management system (Health and Safety Executive 2013). The organization should ensure that the workers are trained and qualified to handle hazardous equipments. The supervisor should give instruction to the workers such that they perform safety into the organization.

Inspection of the construction site: Workplace inspections are helping in identification of the hazards and prevention of an unsafe working situation from development of the gas storage tank. The construction site is inspected to prevent occurrence of any hazards in the organization such as explosion, fire hazards, fall of the workers and others.

Investigation of the incidents: The risk management consultant should conduct an incident investigation, which helps to identify the root causes of the hazards. It also identifies methods and procedures to prevent from the incidents (Tisserand and Young 2013). Health and safety regulations consists of particular requirements for the incident investigation documentation that the workers are needed to meet.

System audit: The key aspects of the management system are reviewed to make sure that both quality as well as efficiency should meet with the expectations of the management program standards (Abdulai 2016). It helps to maintain credibility and value of the certifications.

HAZOP is the most suitable hazard identification system for the construction of the gas storage tank. HAZOP is one of the structured as well as systematic examinations of complex planned operation in order to identify as well as elaborate the problems that helps in representing the risks related with construction (Crawley and Tyler 2015). The main intention of HAZOP helps in reviewing the design that picks up design as well as issues related with the development of gas construction tank. The technique is generally dependent on breaking the entire design of the procedure into number of smaller sections in order to review the problems appropriately. The task that is associated with analyzing hazards within a workplace can be daunting. It is analyzed that HAZOP is one of the complex system that helps in identifying problems during the early stages of project development as well as also helps in identifying various types of potential hazards within the existing systems (Bridges and Dowell 2016). The health and safety hazards that are associated with the development of gas tank include the following:

Slips, Trips and fall: It is identified that when the project managers considers number of diverse range of activities for the construction of gas tank then it is quite difficult to avoid slips, trips as well as falls as they generally happens on an almost daily basis. Construction of the gas tank generally occur mish-mash of various holes on the ground scaffolding, stored material as well as equipments.

Noise: Noise is considered as one of the significant hazard within the construction industry. It is identified that repetitive as well as excessive noise generally helps in creating hearing problems within the workers and this can be quite dangerous as it can cause countless accidents (Sousa, Almeida and Dias 2014). The workers that generally work for developing the gas tank are generally provided with earplugs but it does not necessarily helps inn providing entire protection against the hearing damage. It is quite important to carry out appropriate as well as comprehensive noise risk assessment for lowering the hazard of noise on the employees.

Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome: Hand arm vibration is one of the painful industrial disease of the joints, nerves can occurs in employees due to prolonged utilization of various powerful tools as well as various ground equipment that is needed for the construction of gas tank (Zhang et al. 2013). It is identified that the industrial diseases mainly occurs when the workers of the project work for long time without appropriate protection.

Material and Manual handling: It is identified that number of materials as well as equipments that are associated with the construction of gas tank is constantly being lifted and moved around the entire site of construction. This is done either manually or by utilizing some of the lifting equipments. Various trades mainly involve with high demand but they are generally involved with higher degree of risk (Aminbakhsh,  Gunduz and Sonmez 2013). It is quite important to provide appropriate training to the workers if their duties are mainly related with manual handling of materials as well as equipments. The competency of the employee must be tested properly before allowing them to use the equipment as if it is not done appropriately, creates number of risk.

Airborne fiber as well as materials: The construction of gas tank at the gas terminal engages in several activities that creates lot of dust, invisible hazardous materials, fibers that damage the lung and causes number of diseases like asthma, silicosis and obstructive pulmonary. It is quite important to utilize appropriate equipment as well as materials while construction so that it does not harm the health as well as safety of the employees.

Hazard ID	Hazard	Consequences	Likelihood	Risk rating
Hs_ 1	Slips, Trips and fall	It causes problems associated with holes on the ground, scaffolding and many more.	High	3
Hs _2	Noise	Creates hearing problems within the workers	Very High	2
Hs_ 3	Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome	It causes painful industrial disease of the joints, nerves can occurs in employees	High	4
Hs_4	Material and Manual handling	It creates number of safety risk for the employees	Medium	5
Hs_5	Airborne fiber as well as materials	It causes number of diseases like asthma, silicosis and obstructive pulmonary	Very High	1

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974:  This is considered as an act of the parliament of UK that generally helps in defining the fundamental structure as well as authority for encouraging regulation as well as enforcement of workplace health, safety as well as welfare within United Kingdom (Holt and Allen 2015). The act generally helps in defining duties of employers, employees as well as contractors.

The control of substances hazardous to health regulation 2002: The occupational utilization of nonmaterial is regulated under the law of COSHH. It generally requires several employers for controlling substances that are quite hazardous to health and includes various types of nonmaterial. The workers exposure can be reduced by finding out the health hazards, providing control measures, providing information as well as planning for emergencies.

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992: This act generally helps in covering wide range of basic health, safety as well as welfare issues (Tombs and Whyte 2013). It generally helps employers in understanding the various regulatory requirements on various types of issues that are associated with construction.

The provision and use of work equipment Regulations 1998: This act helps in placing duties on people as well as companies in order to control over appropriate work equipment. It helps in placing proper responsibilities on various business and organizations. It helps in indentifying that whether the act is suitable as well as safe for work. It is generally accompanied by both healths as well as safety measures.

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007: This act is defined as one of the legal duties that are mainly considered for the safe operation of various UK construction sites (Wang, Li and Tam 2014). This regulation generally helps in placing specific duties on various clients, designers as well as contractors who generally plan their approach for providing proper health as well as safety measures to employees.

Proper measures to minimize noise hazards: It is identified that noisy machinery must be fitted appropriately with the silencers. When the machinery is utilized with a workshop then a noise survey is generally undertaken in order to reduce the noise (Zhao et al. 2015). If the level of noise exceed the second action level, then it is quite important to utilize the ear defenders.

Safe place of work:  Proper safety must be provided to the employees of the organizations so that they do not face problems related with health hazards. Appropriate facility must be if proper facility must be provided to the employees during the progress of the project.

Reducing vibration: It is identified that utilization of proper equipment helps in making the changes within the workplace by reducing the chances of vibration considerably and assists in safeguarding the health of the workers (Lipscomb et al. 2014). This E-fact generally includes proper details of the legislation that generally helps in covering vibration within the workplace.

Confined spaces as well as emergencies: It is identified that number of emergency hazards can occur in construction site. The hazards generally include explosion, fire, gas leaks as well as explosion (Blaikie et al. 2014). Proper details about the various emergency procedures must be outlined appropriately within the construction safety plan of the contractors during site-specific inductions.

Keim-Malpass et al. (2015) stated that business continuity is defined as the ability of an organization that helps in maintaining essential functions during as well as after the occurrence of the hazard within the business. It is identified that business continuity plan helps in establishing risk management procedure as well as processes properly that generally aims to prevent as well as reduce various types of interruptions to various mission-critical services (McCaffrey 2013). The most basic business continuity generally needs various types of essential functions in order to run during a disaster for recovering the problems. The risk assessment must be established appropriately in order to resolve or mitigate the challenges related with the project (Sadgrove 2016). It is considered as one of the holistic management practices that help in identifying various potential threats to an organization. It generally helps in outlining significant steps that are necessary for managing sudden as well as severe changes within the market conditions. Continuity plans generally helps in focusing on disaster recovery in order to mitigate the challenges that are associated with the organization.

Bergh et al. (2014) demonstrated that business continuity plan could reduce the impact of the incidents in the day-to-day operations. The pure risk taken is fire. The report summarizes the business continuity plan of the gas industry based on fire safety.

Business Continuity Plan for fire safety
Aim of the plan	The aim of the plan is to provide a business plan to mitigate the fire risk in the gas industry.
Objectives of the plan	To identify the fire safety measures
Critical function analysis and recovery process
Key contacts	Risk Manager, Risk management consultant
Escalation process	1. Within 2 business days, sends information to the servicer about the escalation 2. After escalation received, resolution is provided within 15 days 3. Review and resolve the case 4. Notifies the management about final resolution stage
Potential impact on the organization	Damage to human resources and properties
Likelihood	Vey likely
Recovery timeframe	1 month
BCP checklist	Completed
Start of the log actions	By 2 days
Liaise the fire emergency services	By 15 days
Identification of the damage to organization	By 10 days
Inform the staffs	By 3 days
Recovery of fire equipments	By 5 days
Fire protection measures
Fire extinguishers, sprinkler system,  exit signage, training

 Conclusion

It is concluded that risk assessment tool addresses the uncertainties by identifying the main health and safety hazards in the construction of the gas storage tank. After identification of the tool, prioritization and development of the responses are generated. Those risk management activities are critical to perform without use of risk management system. The report summarizes three systems such as HSG65, ISO 31000 and EMAS. These systems assist the health and safety policies, exposures to the information and provide tracking as well as management of the reporting. The advantage of the system is that it enables the oil and gas industry to perform identification of hazard and risk assessment. It also improves the regulatory compliance of the industry. It reduces the associated cost with the accidents and provides a competitive edge. It also enables the users to monitor as well as control of the risks. Risk management legislation are identified to provide health and safety regulations at the workplace. HSE plays a key role in producing advices on the issues and direction on applicable legislation.

Involvement of the works into safety planning: The workers are involved into the safety planning by understanding them about the issues and takes ownership of the safety plans.

Focus on safety efforts: The top management and workers should focus on the causes of the hazards. They should eliminate the safety violations, which can contribute to the regular injuries.

Maintenance of the machinery: The machines and equipments should require maintaining properly so that it can prevent from the health and safety issues to occur. The management ensures that the machines are in good working order and routine maintenance program are conducted on weekly basis.

Revise the organizational safety guidelines each year: Every year the organization should change and revise their health and safety regulations to implement new safety policies.

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