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 |2025-01-17T10:55:49-06:00May 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 |2025-01-17T10:57:47-06:00April 25th, 2019|PHA, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Risk Assessment|Comments Off on Double Jeopardy: Impossible?

An Incident? Don’t Recommend Training!

“It’s not how we make mistakes, but how we correct them that defines us.”  — Rachel Wolchin One of the most common recommendations made as a result of incident safety investigations is “improved training,” especially when the investigation concludes that the incident was the result of an error. It is not because training is so [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:00:20-06:00April 11th, 2019|Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Recommendations, Training|Comments Off on An Incident? Don’t Recommend Training!

“No Harm, No Foul”: Madness

“As they depend, not upon the agent, but upon fortune, they cannot be the proper foundation for any sentiment” — Adam Smith We all believe that people should follow safety rules all the time. Not because there is a harmful outcome every time someone violates a safety rule or commits an unsafe act. Because usually [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:00:53-06:00April 4th, 2019|Current Events, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on “No Harm, No Foul”: Madness

Setting Limits: Where Does Your PSM-Covered Process End?

“Human genius has limits, but stupidity does not.”  — Alexandre Dumas, fils Everyone we have ever worked with is accepting, if not downright enthusiastic, about managing process safety. Likewise, everyone we have ever worked with is no more enthusiastic about complying with Process Safety Management than they are about getting a root canal. In part, [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:01:30-06:00March 28th, 2019|Chemicals, Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on Setting Limits: Where Does Your PSM-Covered Process End?

Grounding the Max 8: Ignoring Near Misses

“The failure of a layer of protection to prevent an incident is not the initiating cause of the incident.”  The United States just joined much of the world in grounding the Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9. The tipping point was not the crash of Indonesian Lion Air Flight 610 into the Java Sea [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:02:42-06:00March 14th, 2019|Current Events, Process Safety|Comments Off on Grounding the Max 8: Ignoring Near Misses

Worst Case Scenario: What Does It Mean?

“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.”  — Randy Pausch The term “worst case” lacks rigor.  Let’s stop using it. “Worst case” doesn’t really mean what we think it means and it confuses people. More often than not, the term is an obstacle to good analysis, not an aid. What [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:03:40-06:00March 7th, 2019|PHA, Process Safety, Risk Assessment|Comments Off on Worst Case Scenario: What Does It Mean?

Sharing Knowledge: How to Do It and Why It’s Important

“Knowledge, like air, is vital to life. Like air, no one should be denied it.”  — Alan Moore It is human nature to seek knowledge - we have evolved as curious creatures. Being able to build an accurate picture of the world is one method we employ for survival.  When you’re looking for knowledge, what [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:04:10-06:00February 28th, 2019|Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Sharing Knowledge: How to Do It and Why It’s Important

Hear No Evil, See No Evil: False Alarms and Spurious Trips

“With a chemical alarm, you’re going to build one that is oversensitive because you would rather the alarm go off and give you a false alarm than to err on the other side.”  —General Norman Schwarzkopf False alarms and spurious trips are inconvenient and annoying. They shut down operations that are running well, imposing the [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:05:18-06:00February 21st, 2019|Process Safety|Comments Off on Hear No Evil, See No Evil: False Alarms and Spurious Trips

Your Next Blockbuster Adventure: The PHA

“Archeology is the search for fact, not truth. If it’s truth you’re looking for, Dr. Tyree’s philosophy class is right down the hall.” — Indiana Jones, from The Last Crusade A process hazard analysis (PHA) is not a trivial exercise.  The search for process hazards takes time and effort, and it pulls a team of [...]

By |2025-01-17T11:09:43-06:00January 31st, 2019|PHA, Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on Your Next Blockbuster Adventure: The PHA
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