CFATS, or The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program, looks to identify and regulate facilities with high-risk chemicals to ensure proper safety measures are in place to reduce the risk associated with the chemicals.
Part of reducing risk is to keep access restricted in certain areas. The security standards are evaluated through an assessment process, and facilities are expected to maintain proper procedures to reduce risk. Let’s take a look at the history of CFATS.
Expedited Approval Program
The President signed into law the Protecting and Securing Chemical Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of 2014 on December 18th, 20014. This recodifies the CFATs program for four years. The new legislation preserved most of the existing rules and regulations, but it wanted to create an expedited approval process to help improve security.
Violations
In order to boost anti-terrorism efforts, the DHS created an email address and tip line to report violations and security issues. This helps increase the security of facilities, as the DHS will be able to react and investigate security issues in a timely manner. There is also a provision that employees or contractors cannot be retaliated against by a facility when an employee or contractor reports violations to the DHS.
Interim Final Rule
To really help improve the security and anti-terrorism efforts of CFATS, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released an interim final rule to impose federal regulations for facilities with high-risk chemicals. Vulnerability Assessments, site security plans and measures to satisfy risk-based performance standards encompass the interim final rule to improve safety and security of high-risk chemicals. All of these measures in place help to improve the safety, security and anti-terrorism efforts of every individual involved with high-risk chemical facilities.
Even if your company does not work with high-risk chemicals, it’s still important to establish security around your property.
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