Personnel Safety
In the petroleum industry, prior to 1960, the tone of most safety programs was self preservation. Peer pressure was the driver with "don't hurt me" as the prime directive. There was a period of "Safety Awakening" as the modern era dawned in the 60's. Of course, we all remember the 70's as the age of "Management Awakening" in the face of OSHA regulations. The 80's saw the emergence of Management Systems in personnel safety as well as realizing the behavior modification was actually a science. John Rivard believes that the future challenge is to manage personnel safety issues as organizations change and downsize.

Contractor Safety
Mr. Rivard expressed that prior to 1980, contractor safety can best be expressed as "Darkness Covering the Abyss" Since the 1980's, however, a genesis happened with such activities as the API standard for improving owner / contractor performance and the John Gray Study after the Phillips 66 disaster in 1989. More recently, contractor safety programs are maturing in the age of partnerships, leveraging and the OSHA PSM standard. But, we need to ensure that all industry follows some of the innovators and treat the safety of contractors as if they were your own employees.

Process Safety
In process safety, prior to 1980 there was a simple rule to just "build it right". In the 1980's there was actually some discussion that "perhaps we have a problem" as accidents in Bhopal, Mexico City, and Phillips 66 Deer Park drove home that point. The 1990's ushered in the era of Regulatory reform with OSHA PSM and the Chemical Safety Board. Our challenge for the future is to establish meaningful and effective measurement activities for process safety. Just counting fires and explosions is not going to be the measurement of choice.

Regulators and Regulations
For industry, the 1970's involved frustration over OSHA minutia and worker health issues. There was little involvement or participation as these regulations developed. The petroleum industry learned how to participate in a constructive way with success in the regulations on OSHA fire brigades as well as failure in Lock-out/Tag-out.. OSHA's PSM and EPA's RMP regulations can be considered a triumph of respectful cooperation as the EPA realized through industry perspective that OSHA's wording was actually good enough to use in their regulation.

Personal Background
John Rivard had more than 35 years experience in plant operations plant management and occupational safety and health programs when he retired from Shell Oil Company in 1996. John chaired the API Safety Regulations Task Force for over 15 years, establishing API as an important player in the development of OSHA safety regulations. During this time he was at the forefront of safety regulation, working to make regulations as effective and efficient as possible. He helped develop recommendations to OSHA for a process safety regulation, and then helped lead the industry effort to develop API Recommended Practice RP 750, "Management of Process Hazards." He also contributed to the development of the EPA Risk Management Program (RMP) rule, working through API and CMA in the rulemaking process.