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 |2025-07-17T10:30:09-05:00July 17th, 2025|Chemicals, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|0 Comments

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?

A Poor Safety Culture: What to Do?

“Few things happen in spite of the boss.”  — unattributed An unsafe workplace isn’t necessarily the result of a poor safety culture. There are times when the organization wants to be safe but doesn’t know how. And by “organization,” I mean the people in the organization. Those are the situations where a safety professional can [...]

By |2025-05-29T09:39:10-05:00May 29th, 2025|Process Safety, Training, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on A Poor Safety Culture: What to Do?

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 [...]

By |2025-05-22T14:06:14-05:00May 22nd, 2025|Chemicals, Current Events, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Trendspotting: Five Years of Incident Report Data from the CSB

Beyond the Limits: Extreme Oxygen

“Oxygen is the vital ingredient for the survival of every cell in our bodies. Too little—or too much—can spell disaster.”  — Venki Ramakrishnan A reader recently complained about OSHA’s insistence on defining the safe limits of oxygen in terms of volume percent: 19.5% by volume to 23.5% by volume. “The fact that OSHA does not [...]

By |2025-05-01T09:33:23-05:00May 1st, 2025|Procedures, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Beyond the Limits: Extreme Oxygen

Pressure Relief: Low Pressure Vessels

“Pressure comes from within and so must be mastered from within.”  — Ed Jacoby Ten years ago, on Friday morning, April 24, 2015, a catastrophic still failure at the Silver Trail Distillery in Hardin, Kentucky seriously injured two workers, one who died 17 days later from his injuries. They were about four gallons into a [...]

By |2025-04-24T09:34:49-05:00April 24th, 2025|Chemicals, Gas, Process Safety, Process Safety Management, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Pressure Relief: Low Pressure Vessels

Process Hazards: Using Compressed Gas to Transfer Liquids

“Science explorers are like an ideal gas. They can expand to fill any volume, but they can only do work under pressure…and the pressure’s on.”  — Robert Ballard Every time that someone at a process facility tells me that they use compressed gas to transfer liquids from one tank to another, I wince. It’s not [...]

By |2025-04-17T10:00:59-05:00April 17th, 2025|Chemicals, Gas, Procedures, Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Process Hazards: Using Compressed Gas to Transfer Liquids

“OSHA Says”: Thermal Exposure

“If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”  — Harry S. Truman For decades, I’ve told people that OSHA requires thermal protection on surfaces over 140°F (60 C) up to a height of 7 feet. People just accepted that because a) I was the expert and b) it made sense. Recently, though, [...]

By |2025-05-23T13:13:02-05:00April 10th, 2025|PHA, Process Safety, Risk Assessment, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on “OSHA Says”: Thermal Exposure
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