Overview of Federal and California Process Safety Regulations (Part 2 of 3)

This is a continuation of our blog series titled Overview of Federal and California Process Safety Regulations. Part 1 can be accessed here.

Fed/OSHA PSM vs. Cal/OSHA PSM

Fed/OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) and Cal/OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) regulations are very similar in scope and intent. Two (2) important differences are summarized below:

• Compliance Audit – Fed/OSHA explicitly requires a facility to perform a compliance audit every three (3) years, while Cal/OSHA’s PSM regulation does not even mention the word “audit“. The explanation of this can be found in §5189(o) which addresses the topic of Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP). Since California requires all businesses to prepare IIPPs which include provision for “scheduled and periodic inspections of facilities“, no additional requirement was included within the Cal/OSHA PSM regulation.
• Oil Refineries – Cal/OSHA is in the final stages of publishing Title 8 CCR §5189.1 which includes new PSM requirements for oil refineries. This introduces substantial changes to the PSM regulations for facilities subject to the proposed new rules.

The table below provides a summary of the elements required by Cal/OSHA and Fed/OSHA PSM programs:

Fed/OSHA Title 29 CFR §1910.119	Cal/OSHA Title 8 CCR §5189
Employee Participation	Employee Participation
Process Safety Information	Process Safety Information
Process Hazard Analysis	Process Hazard Analysis
Operating Procedures	Operating Procedures
Training	Training
Contractors	Contractors
Pre-Startup Safety Review	Pre-Startup Safety Review
Mechanical Integrity	Mechanical Integrity
Hot Work Permit	Hot Work Permit
Management of Change	Management of Change
Incident Investigation	Incident Investigation
Emergency Planning and Response	Emergency Planning and Response
Compliance Audits	Injury and Illness Prevention Program
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