“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.” — Calvin Coolidge
I love a good play on words. “At once” can mean either “simultaneously” or it can mean “immediately”, and Calvin Coolidge managed to pack both meanings into a single sentence. “We cannot do everything simultaneously, but we can do something immediately.”
This describes OSHA’s attitude about resolving recommendations that come from a Process Hazard Analysis (PHA). OSHA, however, doesn’t use the term, “at once”. Instead, OSHA uses the terms “promptly”, “timely”, and “as soon as possible.”
But what does OSHA mean by these terms?
Promptly, Timely, and As Soon As Possible
The Process Safety Management (PSM) standard, in the paragraph on addressing recommendations from a process hazard analysis, 29 CFR 1910.119(e)(5), states:
The employer shall establish a system to promptly address the team’s findings and recommendations; assure that the recommendations are resolved in a timely manner and that the resolution is documented; document what actions are to be taken; complete actions as soon as possible; develop a written schedule of when these actions are to be completed; communicate the actions to operating, maintenance and other employees whose work assignments are in the process and who may be affected by the recommendations or actions.
Nowhere in the standard does OSHA ever say what they mean by “promptly”, “timely”, or “as soon as possible”. It is not that OSHA cannot provide explicit requirements for timing. In 1910.119(e)(6), the standard requires that PHAs be updated “at least every (5) years.” In 1910.119(f)(3), the standard requires that operating procedures be certified annually. In 1910.119(g)(2), the standard requires that “refresher training shall be provided at least every three years.” So, OSHA can give concrete requirements for timing when it wants to.
A great example is when it comes to incident investigations, where OSHA requires in 1910.119(m)(2) that incident investigations begin “as promptly as possible” (melding both “promptly” and “as soon as possible” into a single phrase) and then goes on to define the term to mean “not later than 48 hours following the incident.”
But on the subject of addressing, resolving, and completing recommendations from PHAs, the PSM standard is silent.
Does that mean that it is open to interpretation?
OSHA Gets to Interpret Its Own Standards
When the meaning of a regulation is not obvious, the regulation must be interpreted. Who does that interpretation? The regulator, as long as the interpretation is consistent with the words in the regulation. Moreover, regulators are free to re-interpret their own standards as long as they give notice of their new interpretation.
So, it doesn’t matter what the regulated community believes “promptly”, “timely”, or “as soon as possible” means. What matters is what OSHA believes.
One place to discover OSHA’s interpretation is in their official Letters of Interpretation. Unfortunately, none of OSHA’s letters of interpretation address the meaning of “promptly”, “timely”, or “as soon as possible” as they are used in 29 CFR 1910.119(e)(5).
Compliance Directives
When OSHA’s letters of interpretation are of no help, another place to turn is a compliance directive, which OSHA calls a CPL. These are instructions for inspectors on what to look for and how to enforce OSHA regulations. The CPL for the PSM standard is CPL 02-01-065, effective January 26, 2024. It replaced CPL 02-02-045, which OSHA originally issued on September 13, 1994, but is now obsolete.
In CPL 02-01-065, OSHA reveals what it means by “promptly”, “timely”, or “as soon as possible”. The directive gives instructions in the form of questions with answers. The answer to QE-19, on pages 62-63, it tells us that “In most cases, OSHA believes that employers will be able to complete these actions within a one-to-two-year timeframe…” In other words, from the time the PHA team identifies a hazard and recommends a risk reduction measure, employers have one to two years to address the recommendation, decide how they are going to resolve issue, and to implement the final resolution or to issue a written analysis explaining why no actions need to be implemented.
The answer to QE-19 does include an exception to this expectation of one to two years. “In unusual circumstances longer completion periods may be necessary.” What are “unusual circumstances”? Those that need to be completed during a shutdown. OSHA expects that “employers will schedule and complete these ‘unusual circumstances’ PHA items during the first regularly scheduled shutdown or turnaround of the applicable PSM-covered process.”
Acknowledging a Hazard Is Not Enough
If you are in the midst of a 5-year PHA revalidation and discover that the PHA team is making the same recommendation that was made on the previous PHA, and there is no written justification for why the recommendation did not need to be implemented, then the process is out of compliance. The previous team’s recommendation has not been promptly addressed, the recommendation has not been resolved in a timely manner, or the actions to resolve that recommendation have not been implemented in what OSHA would consider as soon as possible.
It is not enough to simply acknowledge that the hazards exist. While the primary purpose of a PHA is to identify and analyze hazards in a covered process, it is also essential to control those hazards once identified.
At once. Simultaneously and immediately.
