OSHA has officially notified ISA that a three-part ISA series of standards may be used in achieving compliance with OSHA regulations pertaining to the prevention and mitigation of accidents involving hazardous chemicals.

The three-part series is ANSI/ISA-84.00.01-2004 Parts 1-3 (IEC 61511 Modified), “Functional Safety: Safety Instrumented Systems for the Process Industry Sector.” The standards resulted from the adoption and modification of the three-part international standard IEC 61511 by ISA’s SP84 standards development committee. Leaders of ISA-SP84 played key roles in the development of IEC 61511.

The OSHA regulation for which the standards may be applied is 29 CFR 1910.119, “Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals.” OSHA’s endorsement of ANSI/ISA-84.00.01-2004 Parts 1-3 is vital in enabling companies to use the standards to help meet OSHA requirements for employee safety.

“OSHA considers ANSI/ISA-84.00.01-2004 Parts 1-3 (IEC 61511 Mod) to be recognized and generally accepted good engineering practice for SIS (safety instrumented systems),” said Richard E. Fairfax, director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, in a letter to ISA. “Therefore, if an employer chooses to use ISA-84.00.01-2004 Parts 1-3 as a basis (‘code or standard employed’) for SIS, and meets all ISA-84.00.01-2004 Parts 1-3 requirements and other OHSA PSM requirements related to SIS, the employer will then be considered in compliance with OSHA PSM requirements for SIS.”

To help meet that challenge, ISA will publish in January 2006 two major technical reports developed by ISA-SP84 for use in conjunction with the standards:

ISA-TR84.00.04-2005 Part 1: Guideline on the Implementation of ANSI/ISA-84.00.01-2004 Parts 1-3 (IEC 61511 Mod)

ISA-TR84.00.04-2005 Part 2: Example Implementation of ANSI/ISA-84.00.01-2004 Parts 1-3 (IEC 61511 Mod)

For information on the reports, go to www.isa.org

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