About Mike Schmidt

With a career in the CPI that began in 1977 with Union Carbide, Mike was profoundly impacted by the 1984 tragedy in Bhopal and has been working on process safety ever since.

Operator Errors: Are They Really Design Errors?

“To err is human, to forgive, divine.”  — Alexander Pope I was in a PHA once where the lone operator on the PHA team finally grew weary of the discussion of operator error.  “Why is it that when you engineers make a mistake, you call it design error, but when I make a mistake, you [...]

Simple Asphyxiation: The Tragedy in Gainesville

“It is these properties that make materials so useful that also pose hazards to health and property.”  — Peter Lodal Liquid nitrogen has some wonderful properties. It is really, really cold, so it is great for flash freezing delicate items. When vaporized, it helps maintain non-flammable mixtures, even when flammable vapors are present. Because it [...]

By |2025-01-16T15:47:35-06:00February 4th, 2021|Chemicals, Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Simple Asphyxiation: The Tragedy in Gainesville

Politicizing Workplace Safety

“Politicized public health policy strays too far from sober assessment of scientific facts and runs the risk of constituting naked political advocacy.”  — Daniel Goldberg In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and what many would argue has been an abysmal response to that catastrophe, there has been much said about the politicization of public [...]

By |2021-01-28T22:50:45-06:00January 28th, 2021|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Politicizing Workplace Safety

PSSRs: Commissioning on Steroids?

“Ideas are commodity. Execution of them is not.”  — Michael Dell I’ve always believed that a poor plant design, brilliantly operated and maintained, is far safer than a brilliant plant design, poorly operated and maintained. A pre-startup safety review (PSSR) is OSHA’s way of starting a facility down the path toward brilliant operation and maintenance. [...]

By |2025-01-16T15:51:06-06:00January 14th, 2021|Procedures, Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on PSSRs: Commissioning on Steroids?

Pool Fires

“Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.”  — Terry Pratchett The most common fire in a process plant is a pool fire. A pool of flammable liquid, something that exists normally or, more likely, something [...]

By |2025-01-16T15:51:47-06:00January 8th, 2021|Chemicals, Process Safety|Comments Off on Pool Fires

Squeezing the Balloon

“Squeezing a balloon in one place makes it expand in another.”  — Bernd Debusmann Finally. 2020, the worst year in living memory for most of us, is over. 2021 promises to be much, much better. Let’s make it a year when workplace safety gets better as well. To do that, though, we can’t just keep [...]

By |2025-01-16T15:52:12-06:00December 31st, 2020|Gas, Training, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Squeezing the Balloon

BLS Fatality Statistics for 2019: Like a Shark

“A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies.  And I think what we got on our hands is dead shark.”  — Woody Allen, in Annie Hall The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases their workplace fatality statistics in December for the previous year. So, here [...]

By |2025-01-16T15:53:07-06:00December 24th, 2020|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on BLS Fatality Statistics for 2019: Like a Shark

“Expanded” PSM Coverage: What Has Changed?

“I don’t believe in life after death. But I do believe in some grinding destiny that watches over us on earth. If I didn’t, the safety valve would fail and the boiler would explode.”  ‑ Hedy Lamarr, inventor and actor We’ve been blowing up boilers since the dawn of the industrial revolution. By now, you’d think [...]

By |2025-01-16T15:53:47-06:00December 17th, 2020|Chemicals, Current Events, Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on “Expanded” PSM Coverage: What Has Changed?

Accident Prone?

“If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.”  — Walter Mosley Have you ever known someone who seemed to have more than their share of incidents? Ever worked with such a person? Supervised such a person? The idea of an “accident-prone” worker poses some special challenges, especially in a workplace where [...]

By |2025-01-17T09:26:14-06:00December 10th, 2020|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Accident Prone?

Dear Austin: Is It Going to Get Better?

“The future depends on what you do today.”  — Mahatma Gandhi “How intensive is the view on safety in the engineering, manufacturing, and industrial world?” As this semester closes, one of my students asked me what I thought personally about safety. He graduates in a couple of weeks, and went on to ask, “What is [...]

By |2025-01-17T09:27:18-06:00December 3rd, 2020|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Dear Austin: Is It Going to Get Better?
Go to Top