Piping Leaks: The Most Common Process Hazard

“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”  — Benjamin Franklin The most common hazard we encounter during a HazOp is a leaking pipe. Not the most severe and not the highest risk. Just the most common. But we always encounter it. Why? Because pipes leak. All pipes, whether or not [...]

By |2023-08-14T17:49:00-05:00June 8th, 2023|PHA, Process Safety, Risk Assessment|Comments Off on Piping Leaks: The Most Common Process Hazard

Process Safety: Addressing Risk or Dread?

“The risks that scare people and the risks that kill people are very different.”  — Peter Sandman I often wonder if work in process safety is a misallocation of resources. The leading cause of work-related fatalities is transportation, at about 40%. The next three (of seven causes identified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics), all [...]

By |2022-01-06T19:10:09-06:00January 6th, 2022|Chemicals, PHA, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment|Comments Off on Process Safety: Addressing Risk or Dread?

Risk Reduction: Any Credit for Mechanical Integrity?

“People give us credit only for what we ourselves believe.”  — Karl Gutzkow Several years ago, in a paper and presentation to the Global Congress on Process Safety (GCPS), PSM experts from OSHA observed that while it is common to see a mechanical integrity (MI) program listed as a safeguard in a PHA, this is [...]

By |2021-12-09T16:27:42-06:00December 9th, 2021|PHA, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Risk Reduction: Any Credit for Mechanical Integrity?

Combustible Dust Tests: Now What?

“We have first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see.”  — George Berkeley You don’t need to be convinced that combustible dusts are hazardous. You’ve seen the photographs of demolished grain elevators, of the Imperial Sugar plant in Port Wentworth, Georgia looking like the Dresden firebombing in World War II. You’ve heard about [...]

By |2021-03-11T15:42:42-06:00March 11th, 2021|Combustible Dust, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Combustible Dust Tests: Now What?

How Likely? Your Guess is As Good As…

“For what it's worth, a good streak doesn't jinx you, and a bad one, unfortunately, does not mean better luck is in store.”  — Leonard Mlodinow When someone tells you that they took a calculated risk, they almost certainly are not speaking the truth, to you or to themselves. That’s because there were almost certainly [...]

By |2020-11-05T14:30:31-06:00November 5th, 2020|Process Safety, Risk Assessment|1 Comment

3 Criteria for Picking LOPA Scenarios

“The easiest way to solve a problem is to pick an easy one.”  — Franklin P. Jones We love having choices. We hate making choices. What if we pick wrong? There is no shortage of people ready to tell us. It is always helpful to have criteria for choosing, or to be honest, to justify [...]

By |2020-01-16T14:45:24-06:00January 16th, 2020|PHA, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment, Safety Lifecycle|Comments Off on 3 Criteria for Picking LOPA Scenarios

Inconceivable: Unrecognized Hazards

“You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.”  - Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya, in The Princess Bride I find the phrase “While we never anticipate a loss of cabin pressure…” incredibly annoying.  To anticipate means to think of something that will or might happen in the [...]

By |2019-12-05T14:08:07-06:00December 5th, 2019|Process Safety, Risk Assessment, Safety Lifecycle|1 Comment

We’re Not Wizards

“But how they can be charged with negligence because they were not wizards, appellant’s brief does not make clear.”  — Osmond K. Fraenkel, successfully arguing before the New York Supreme Court, 1935 In a world where companies tout “Zero Incidents,” not as an aspirational definition of perfect safety, but as a measurable and achievable target, [...]

By |2019-10-17T18:14:52-05:00October 17th, 2019|PHA, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment, Safety Lifecycle|Comments Off on We’re Not Wizards

Lab Safety: A Three Phase System

“A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.”  George S. Patton, Jr. I intended to begin with “A good plan, well executed, is better than a perfect plan, poorly executed,” but when I checked, that’s not what General Patton said.  What he said was “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than [...]

By |2019-05-09T14:05:13-05:00May 9th, 2019|Chemicals, PHA, Procedures, Process Safety, Risk Assessment, Safety Lifecycle|Comments Off on Lab Safety: A Three Phase System

Double Jeopardy: Impossible?

“Everything is impossible until it is done.”  — Robert H. Goddard In 1921, annoyed with ignorant criticism, Robert Goddard published a piece in Scientific American in defense of the potential for travel to the moon. It’s always easier to say something is impossible than to address the potential of it happening. Double Jeopardy When someone [...]

By |2019-04-25T13:26:41-05:00April 25th, 2019|PHA, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment|Comments Off on Double Jeopardy: Impossible?
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