Bad Chemistry: Mixing Cleaning Products

“Ignorance is not too dangerous. If you combine it with power, then this is a toxic mix.”  — Yuvai Noah Harari Not surprisingly, eighteen of the thirty incidents in Volume 3 of the Chemical Safety Board’s series on incident reports addressed incidents at refineries and large chemical complexes. One incident in Volume 3, though, was [...]

By |2025-11-06T11:13:32-06:00August 14th, 2025|Chemicals, Craft Distillery Safety, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Bad Chemistry: Mixing Cleaning Products

CSB Incident Reports: Volume 3

“We must be part of the general staff at the inception, rather than the ambulance drivers at the bitter end.”  — Lane Kirkland Despite being established under the authority of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which has not been repealed, the Trump administration intends to discontinue funding the Chemical Safety Board as of [...]

By |2025-08-07T11:01:32-05:00August 7th, 2025|Current Events, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on CSB Incident Reports: Volume 3

Process and Product Safety: Contaminants

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”  — Leo Tolstoy, in Anna Karenina I once worked with a facility that discharged process equipment cleaning water to the city sewer. They had a tough time staying below the discharge limits for copper. In turned out that the city water [...]

By |2025-11-06T11:14:13-06:00July 31st, 2025|Chemicals, Craft Distillery Safety, PHA, Process Safety|Comments Off on Process and Product Safety: Contaminants

Hot Work: Explosion and Fire in Tequila, Mexico

“Tastes like heaven, burns like hell.” — Fireball slogan Tequila is a far cry from the cloying cinnamon-flavored spirit called Fireball. But they both have one thing in common: they burn like hell. Literally. As do all spirits. For reference, the flash point of 80 proof (40% ABV) spirits, is 26 C (79°F), meaning [...]

By |2025-07-24T09:20:38-05:00July 24th, 2025|Chemicals, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Hot Work: Explosion and Fire in Tequila, Mexico

Spilt Whiskey: What a Waste

“You have to be prepared to take a spill.”  — Shaun White Not long ago, a friend and I were watching a movie where one of the characters, despondent and bereft, stumbled down the street while clutching a bottle of spirits. As the character unlocked the door to his home, the bottle slipped from his [...]

By |2025-11-06T11:15:06-06:00July 17th, 2025|Chemicals, Craft Distillery Safety, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Spilt Whiskey: What a Waste

Recordkeeping for Process Safety: Permit Retention

“A memorandum is not to inform the reader but to protect the writer.”  — Dean Acheson A reader asked me “How long do I need to keep confined space entry permits for a covered process?” He knew my thoughts on retaining hot work permits and wondered if the same approach applied to other permits in [...]

By |2025-07-10T09:32:30-05:00July 10th, 2025|Procedures, Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on Recordkeeping for Process Safety: Permit Retention

Quantifying Consequences: RQs

“Quantity and persistence will get you the outcomes you need.”  — James Altucher One of the challenges of process hazard analysis is risk assessment. To determine whether additional risk reduction is required, the team must quantify the risk and compare it to risk tolerance criteria. For the risk tolerance criteria to be useful to the [...]

By |2025-07-03T14:53:11-05:00July 3rd, 2025|Chemicals, PHA, Process Safety|Comments Off on Quantifying Consequences: RQs

Incidents: Under Reporting

“Complaints are prayers to the wrong god.”  — Anne Lamott We live in a culture that actively discourages reporting problems. We’re told “Complain less, appreciate more,” “No one likes to listen to complaints,” and “Never complain and never explain.” And extreme cases, we’re reminded that “Snitches get stitches.” Yet there are dozens of requirements to [...]

By |2025-06-26T16:21:29-05:00June 26th, 2025|Procedures, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Incidents: Under Reporting

Tank Truck Relief Valves: Accept Them As Layers of Protection?

“The ancient Greeks and Romans also held the view that acceptance is the beginning of wisdom.”  — Simon Van Booy PHA teams often face the question of whether to address tank truck loading and unloading. On the one hand, trucks in transit are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), not the [...]

By |2025-07-03T14:57:02-05:00June 20th, 2025|PHA, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Tank Truck Relief Valves: Accept Them As Layers of Protection?

Run To Failure: That’s a Maintenance Strategy?

“What’s wrong with the car? What do you think’s wrong with the car? Damn thing’s broke.”  — Richard Pryor When I was a poor college student, I wasn’t too poor to have an old beater of a car. It was paid for, but I could barely afford gas, much less proper maintenance. So, I tended [...]

By |2025-06-12T13:21:45-05:00June 12th, 2025|Procedures, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Run To Failure: That’s a Maintenance Strategy?
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