Dilemma of integrating prevention, how useful are safety indicators?

Mr. Paul Swuste will perform a lecture in the conference ORP2015 - XV International Conference on Occupational Risk Prevention (23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th of November, 2015)

Objectives: Can process safety indicators provide insight and knowledge on both current and future safety levels of a process or company? And if so, which process indicators are eligible?

Method: The study is limited to original English and Dutch documents and articles in the scientific and professional literature.

Results and discussion: Indicators for process safety can provide insight into safety levels of a process or company, but it is clear the 'silver bullet' has not yet been found. In secondary literature a difference is made between leading and lagging safety indicators. Primary literature questions this distinction, as well as the quantification of safety indicators. Safety Indicators for management and organization have an ambiguous relationship with latent errors and conditions, which are once and again mentioned in retrospective safety analyses of major accidents. Indicators for occupational safety do not necessarily have a relationship with process safety. In addition, it can be expected that regulators of major hazard companies will enforce to identify and implement both lagging and leading indicators, and anchor these indicators in a safety management system. Therefore, the subject ‘safety indicators’ will remain in the spotlight.