Evolution of the American Petroleum Institute ANSI standard for fatigue risk management systems in the refining and petrochemical industry*
A. BakerCIRCADIAN® AUSTRALIA.
The APPEA Journal 51(2) 698-698 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ10078
Published: 2011
Abstract
During the past five years, a broad international consensus has emerged in many 24/7 industries regarding the optimal way to manage and reduce employee fatigue risk: via a process called a fatigue risk management system (FRMS). Government regulatory agencies, industry associations and many businesses with 24/7 operations have recently incorporated an FRMS into their regulations, industry standards and their corporate policies. The development of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) standard for FRMSs in the refining and petrochemical industries began after the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released its report on the 2005 Texas City Refinery explosion.
The CSB report highlighted concerns about some of the operators on duty being on their 30th consecutive 12-hour shift. API decided to take a proactive approach and develop an industry standard by forming a committee of industry managers from many of the oil companies, union representatives, industry associations and scientific experts in circadian sleep physiology and fatigue in shiftwork operations. During the course of extensive consultations during a two-year period, a clear consensus emerged that hours of service rules would be inadequate by themselves. A clear consensus emerged that a comprehensive scientifically-based, data driven FRMS was a superior and feasible tool for effectively managing fatigue risk. API developed a standards document published in April 2010 as API/ANSI RP-755 that makes FRMS the operating standard for managing employee fatigue risk in the refining and petrochemical industry.
The extended abstract reviews the considerations that went into developing the ANSI standard, issues that were resolved and progress and hurdles faced by the many petrochemical companies as they are now progressively implementing ANSI RP-755 as a continuously-improving FRMS process.
Dr Baker’s shiftwork experience covers the day-to-day work impacts of a nursing and midwifery career with its inherent roster demands for 14 years, followed by 11 years at the Centre for Sleep Research (CFSR), UniSA, where she studied the impact and consequences of shiftwork, fatigue and lack of sleep and undertook her PhD in the area of shiftwork and time preferences. Since 2005, Angela has worked as an independent consultant overseas and in Australia in the areas of fatigue risk management and safety and in 2010 joined Circadian® Australia as Director FRMS. She has extensive experience and knowledge in establishing, reviewing and implementing FRMS programs and strategies. Dr Baker co-authored the development of Work Design, Fatigue and Sleep: a resource document for the minerals industry, commissioned by the Minerals Council of Australia for the minerals industry addressing the science and research behind FRMS and the manner in which organisations could develop and implement their own FRMS. |
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