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.

If It Weren’t For Bad Luck, We’d Have No Luck at All

Only bad golfers are lucky. They’re the ones bouncing balls off trees, curbs, turtles and cars. Good golfers have bad luck. When you hit the ball straight, a funny bounce is bound to be unlucky.”  –Lee Trevino At the recent Global Congress on Process Safety, a slogan showed up several times. In presentations, on displays, [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:45:11-06:00June 14th, 2018|Process Safety|Comments Off on If It Weren’t For Bad Luck, We’d Have No Luck at All

How Rare is Rare?

“The unlikely combination of potatoes and pasta does appear in some Italian recipes.”  Yotam Ottolenghi People sometimes have a hard time appreciating the difference between risk and consequences. To help, we ask them to imagine the worst thing possible that could actually happen at their plant, but not to say what it is. Then we [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:45:44-06:00June 7th, 2018|Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment|Comments Off on How Rare is Rare?

Top 12 Issues for Facility Siting Studies: What Does OSHA Expect?

“I just let emotion dictate what the arrangement is.”  Jeff Buckley, singer-songwriter Emotion is a great way to approach the arrangement of music. As an approach to the arrangement of hazards in a facility that processes highly hazardous chemicals, however, it leaves a lot to be desired. So, OSHA’s Process Safety Management standard demands that [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:47:00-06:00May 31st, 2018|Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Top 12 Issues for Facility Siting Studies: What Does OSHA Expect?

10 Years

“An organization, no matter how well designed, is only as good as the people who live and work in it.”  -Dee Hock May 22 marks our tenth anniversary. We began with one purpose: to make the world a safer place. Started in 2008 at the request of its first customer, Bluefield Process Safety has grown [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:48:25-06:00May 17th, 2018|Current Events|Comments Off on 10 Years

Just to be Safe: Can You be Too Conservative?

“I’m a conservative, but I’m not a nut about it.”  George H.W.Bush We’ve all heard it.  “You need to be conservative, just to be on the safe side.”  It’s an article of faith in the safety community.  Like all articles of faith and other religious beliefs, any deviation is heresy with the potential for excommunication.  [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:49:16-06:00May 3rd, 2018|Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Just to be Safe: Can You be Too Conservative?

In the Line of Duty: Workers’ Memorial Day

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."  —John F. Kennedy In 2016, the most recent year for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has released data, 5190 Americans died in the line of duty.  They were loggers and librarians, [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:50:01-06:00April 26th, 2018|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on In the Line of Duty: Workers’ Memorial Day

What Does an OSHA Fine Mean?

“There is no worse place … to be than on Page 1, above the fold in your daily newspaper.”  Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency When high profile disasters happen, incidents with a lot of media coverage, I’ve noticed that news organizations make a point of reporting how many OSHA citations [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:51:44-06:00April 5th, 2018|Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on What Does an OSHA Fine Mean?

Changing Safety Culture

“How many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb? Just one, but the lightbulb really has to want to change.”  Anonymous A former student, now working in industry, recently called me. He said he had a safety question. “How do you change safety culture? I can’t find that in my notes from your class.” [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:52:09-06:00March 29th, 2018|Process Safety, Workplace Safety|1 Comment

Slow Down: The FIU Bridge Collapse

“Have you ever noticed when something bad happens, people automatically look for someone to blame?”  Amy Roberts I’m not a structural engineer, which means that I’m not qualified to comment on what went wrong when the pedestrian bridge at Florida International University collapsed on Thursday, March 15, 2018. I didn’t work on the design or [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:53:34-06:00March 19th, 2018|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Slow Down: The FIU Bridge Collapse

Spark Detection

“A mighty flame follows a little spark.”  Dante Alighieri Sparks can cause fires. Good news if you want fire. Bad news if fires, or worse, explosions, are something you want to avoid. So, it should come as no surprise that the National Fire Protection Association takes a dim view of sparks. The Dust Hazard Analysis [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:54:09-06:00March 15th, 2018|Chemicals, Combustible Dust, Procedures, Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on Spark Detection
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