Trendspotting: Five Years of Incident Report Data from the CSB

“It doesn’t take many observations to think you’ve spotted a trend, and it’s probably not a trend at all.”  — Daniel Kahneman In a December 2022 press release, CSB Chairperson Steve Owens alerted us all to a worrisome spike in CSB-reportable incidents at chemical facilities and the need to focus on winterization to prevent major [...]

Breaking Safe: Delta Flight 4819

“No Watson, this was not done by accident, but by design.”  — Sherlock Holmes On Monday, February 17, 2025, after being cleared for landing at the Toronto Pearson International Airport, Delta Flight 4819, a Bombardier CRJ-900, crashed. Buffeted by wind gusts up to 37 mph, the plane hit the runway hard, lost its right wing, [...]

By |2025-03-13T13:30:57-05:00March 13th, 2025|Current Events, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Breaking Safe: Delta Flight 4819

Bad Ideas: Abolishing OSHA

“The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is repealed. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is abolished.”  — the complete text of Section 2 of H.R. 86, introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) I’m not really sure what Andy Biggs hoped to accomplish by introducing his “Nullify Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act” (NOSHA [...]

By |2025-02-14T08:37:59-06:00February 13th, 2025|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Bad Ideas: Abolishing OSHA

Process Safety Concerns: Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

“Recycling lithium-ion batteries is a complex and inherently risky process.”  — Brian O’Connor, NFPA Recently, a lithium-ion battery-powered Cybertruck exploded outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. It wasn't the Li-ion batteries that exploded, though. It was a cargo of fuel and fireworks. In the case of the Li-ion battery recycling plant in [...]

By |2025-01-08T09:15:00-06:00January 2nd, 2025|Chemicals, Current Events, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Process Safety Concerns: Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

2023 BLS Fatality Statistics: Not Getting Worse!

“Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…”  — David Byrne, Talking Heads I had such fears. I feared that after seeing the work-related fatality rate climb for two years in a row, we were going to see it climb once again, [...]

By |2024-12-19T12:50:00-06:00December 19th, 2024|Current Events, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on 2023 BLS Fatality Statistics: Not Getting Worse!

Bhopal: 40 Years Later

“You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.”  — Barack Obama Forty years ago, on December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India released 45 tons of methyl isocyanate. The official toll of immediate deaths is 2,259 people. Estimates of the final death toll ranges but [...]

By |2024-12-03T11:58:08-06:00December 3rd, 2024|Current Events, Process Safety|1 Comment

Risk Management: Are Hurricanes Really Getting More Frequent?

“The head of the hurricane research division, Hugh Willoughby, told me that hurricanologists can predict the behavior of storms if those storms behave predictably.”  — Erik Larson Hurricane season is officially from June 1 to November 30, so it’s not officially over yet. A look at the Atlantic, however, shows no tropical depressions developing and [...]

By |2024-11-22T13:05:43-06:00November 22nd, 2024|Current Events, PHA, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment|Comments Off on Risk Management: Are Hurricanes Really Getting More Frequent?

Odor Complaints: Can You Smell That Smell?

“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.”  — Rudyard Kipling A few weeks ago, a lot of folks in this area found themselves obsessively scraping the bottoms of their boots. Based on the smell that seemed to be following them around, they were sure that they had stepped in something [...]

By |2025-01-14T13:47:22-06:00November 14th, 2024|Chemicals, Current Events, Gas, Process Safety|Comments Off on Odor Complaints: Can You Smell That Smell?

Dia de los Muertos: When the CSB Reports Fatalities

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.”  — Thomas Campbell Remembering the dead. For those U.S. military personnel who died while serving, we have Memorial Day, the last Monday in May. For those who died doing their job, we now have the International Worker’s Memorial Day, on April 28. At my [...]

By |2025-01-14T13:50:26-06:00October 31st, 2024|Current Events, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Dia de los Muertos: When the CSB Reports Fatalities

STAA: Just a Little Bit Longer

“Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.”  — Bertolt Brecht Of all the recent revisions to the EPA’s Risk Management Planning (RMP) rule, 40 CFR 68, the requirements around Safer Technology and Alternatives Analysis (STAA) have probably gotten the most attention. For those facilities covered by Program [...]

By |2025-01-14T13:52:03-06:00October 18th, 2024|Chemicals, Current Events, PHA, Safety Lifecycle|Comments Off on STAA: Just a Little Bit Longer
Go to Top