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.

In the Midst of a Pandemic: Fourth of July Safety

“Fourth of July is not cancelled this year…it will just look a little different.”  — Megan Willgoos I love fireworks displays. Especially those with big finales. As a safety professional, a homeowner, and a dog lover, though, I hate recreational fireworks. People suffer life-altering injuries, homes and other buildings are set afire, and man’s best [...]

By |2020-07-02T13:11:51-05:00July 2nd, 2020|Current Events|Comments Off on In the Midst of a Pandemic: Fourth of July Safety

Breaking the Law: Conservation of Recklessness

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”  — Geena Davis as Veronica Quaife in The Fly, directed by David Cronenburg Try as we might, we safety professionals cannot make people want to be safe. The challenge then, is to make them safer than they want to be. The Law of Conservation of Recklessness There is not officially [...]

By |2020-06-25T14:52:18-05:00June 25th, 2020|Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Breaking the Law: Conservation of Recklessness

Why We Wear Masks

“The amount of misinformation on the Internet – especially on Facebook and especially during times of crisis – is staggering.”  — Benjamin Franklin We’ve returned to work here, although anyone who wishes to continue to work from home may. People stay separated, maintaining social distancing. The chairs in the break room are up on the [...]

By |2020-06-18T21:05:43-05:00June 18th, 2020|Current Events, Workplace Safety|1 Comment

PPE: It’s Not Personal

“The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.”  — John B. Finch I have mixed feelings about motorcycle helmets and mandatory helmet laws. As a safety professional, I know that they reduce the likelihood of head injuries and want to see motorcyclists wearing them. As a student of psychology and [...]

By |2020-06-11T18:58:31-05:00June 11th, 2020|Current Events, Procedures, Workplace Safety|1 Comment

When Opportunity Knocks: Hand Sanitizer and Process Safety

“Be adventurists in the sense of being bold and daring. Be opportunists and seize this opportunity, this moment in history, to go out and save our country. It’s your turn now.”  — Abbie Hoffman Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, we’ve been contacted several times by firms that are planning to jump into the business of [...]

By |2020-06-05T21:02:29-05:00May 28th, 2020|Chemicals, Current Events, Process Safety|Comments Off on When Opportunity Knocks: Hand Sanitizer and Process Safety

Whose Fault? What to Do with Crazy

“Minimizing your exposure to pathology goes a long, long way.”  — Dr. Susan Biali Haas When a sensor faults, it doesn’t stop providing information. It’s just unreliable information. It may be correct, it may not, but it is not to be believed.  Like a clock that has stopped but is still correct twice a day, [...]

By |2020-05-14T13:25:05-05:00May 14th, 2020|Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on Whose Fault? What to Do with Crazy

Eight Ideas for Sharing Process Safety with Your Kids

“I was looking for a way to do meaningful work and seeing how much satisfaction my father derived from his job made me see it was a profession I should be considering.”  — Elizabeth Auld With stay-at-home orders still in place in many jurisdictions, and good sense dictating them even as the orders are lifted, [...]

By |2020-05-07T14:22:40-05:00May 7th, 2020|Chemicals, Current Events, Process Safety|Comments Off on Eight Ideas for Sharing Process Safety with Your Kids

Managing Process Safety: Lessons from the Pandemic

“When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”  — Samuel Johnson COVID-19, with its 14-day – fortnight – incubation period has had the effect of concentrating some of the best minds in the world. I have read several articles recently where the authors suggest how the [...]

By |2020-04-23T15:29:27-05:00April 23rd, 2020|Current Events, Process Safety|Comments Off on Managing Process Safety: Lessons from the Pandemic

The Safety Swamp: COVID-19 and Other Alligators

“When one is up to his ass in alligators, it is easy to forget that his original objective was to drain the swamp.”  — William Moore Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, just about every person in the world now knows that PPE stands for personal protective equipment. But instead of thinking about hardhats and steel-toed [...]

By |2020-04-09T15:45:21-05:00April 9th, 2020|Current Events, Procedures, Workplace Safety|1 Comment

What If There Was No PSM Standard?

“What’s the use you learning to do right when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?”  — Mark Twain, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn We love to hate regulations. The harder it is to comply with them, the more we hate them. [...]

By |2020-03-26T14:35:52-05:00March 26th, 2020|Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on What If There Was No PSM Standard?
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