Life Saving Rules: Explanation Guide – Oil & Gas

Introduction:

This Life Saving Rule Explanation Guide was developed by Energy Safety Canada and the Safety Standards Council member companies. It is to be reviewed in conjunction with Energy Safety Canada’s Industry Accepted Standard on Life Saving Rules. This Industry Accepted Standard is a means of protecting the health and safety of the individual by significantly reducing the risk of injury associated with “rule confusion” between different companies by focusing on critical hazards and work activities.

Companies that use these rules agree to implement the rules in accordance with the guiding principles and terms and conditions outlined in the Industry Accepted Standard (and as may be amended from time to time by Energy Safety Canada).

The life saving rules are based on the following Guiding Principles:

  • Standardization: companies agree to adopt and not alter the rule’s logos or descriptions
  • Support: companies will support workers and supervisors in adoption, use and on-going management of the rules
  • Accountability: companies acknowledge that any breach of the rules is unacceptable and will investigate infractions and take appropriate action when rules are violated
  • Continuous Improvement: companies will monitor, report and evaluate their programs for improvement in safety performance
  • Shared Learning: companies will report, share lessons learned and best practices through Energy Safety Canada

It is important for companies implementing Life Saving Rules to integrate them into their Health and Safety Management System. Companies should ensure the following:

  • Personnel on their worksites are authorized and required to intervene if they are in doubt about the safety of an activity
  • Systems and processes are in place to collect data related to Life Saving Rule non-compliances and other safety related data (e.g. incident near misses) to monitor the effectiveness of the implementation of these Life Saving Rules

This explanation guide provides the following in relation to each of the Life Saving Rules:

  • General guidance on the scope of the rule, where appropriate
  • Roles and responsibilities in relation to various worksite parties
  • Examples of violations
  • List of related life saving rules