Many sites have done emergency preplans either as a part of good business practice or for regulatory compliance. These cover, in detail, HAZMAT procedures and Incident Command. OSHA has done their preplan as well and will arrive at your site and will follow CPL 2.94. (Click on the previous link for quick access on Acusafe.) Are you ready? Does your plan have resources in place to effectively deal with a comprehensive inspection, perhaps by several agencies?

Just like you have an emergency response plan that is developed outside of crisis conditions and testing via realistic drills, you should have a plan developed to deal with the OSHA inspection. Mark Dreux points out that you will be in crisis and you should recognize the elements - shock, surprise, pockets of panic, insufficient information and even loss of command and control. That is not the time to be figuring how to deal with an OSHA inspection.

What should be some of the key elements to your Catastrophic inspection plan? According to Dreux, designated resources that include trained walk around teams are critical to managing the OSHA inspection. They should be familiar with the CPL and be politely responsive to what OSHA will request. Their advanced training should include the basics of interview rights, interview preparation, and the plain-view doctrine. They should keep notes on the reactions and comments that the OSHA inspector may make.

Be sure your preplan has a plan for the required opening conference with OSHA inspectors and management. Site safety training should also be a part of the initial activities. Mark Dreux points out that not only is this required by the regulations, it may give the site time to bring in additional resources in to help in managing the inspection. If your training for the walk around teams is behind schedule, it can be done quickly.

This advanced activity with OSHA also allows the site investigation team to get some of the early phases of the inspection done before OSHA is on site. Interviewing people involved with the incident also allows the owner to apprise those people of their obligations and responsibilities when talking with OSHA inspectors. The attorney support can establish the dos and don’ts ahead of time.

The preplan for the detailed inspection, which typically starts right after the opening conference and training, should call for agreements with OSHA as to photography and documentation requests. You should have a predefined checklist for ensuring duplicate copies of all pictures taken by OSHA inspectors. The company representatives should also make duplicate photos with their own camera. Document requests should be written and funneled through a designated individual, according to Dreux. Be sure to number and copy all documents given to OSHA.

The impacts of an unexpected OSHA inspection on short notice can be mitigated with good preplanning - just like an unexpected release. And of course, like a release, the best plan is to prevent it in the first place.

If you wish to obtain an electronic copy of Mr. Dreux’s slides from the AIChE conference, write the editor at AcuSafe  and we’ll mail you a copy.