“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 [...]
“Whisky making is an act of cooperation between the blessings of nature and the wisdom of man.” — Masataka Taketsura While on a tour of a craft distillery, the distiller (and owner) and I got to talking about the safety aspects of distilling whiskey. The question of whether whiskey needed an SDS came up. It [...]
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” — Vince Lombardi I don’t believe that I have ever facilitated a perfect PHA. The question is, how would I recognize it if it was perfect? And would others agree? What exactly is a perfect PHA? A PHA Identifies Hazards The primary [...]
“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 [...]
“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 [...]
“Devils drinking devils and the flames are getting higher. All of Bardstown’s crying tonight, Heaven Hill’s on fire.” — Shannon Lawson, The Galoots Chris Schmidt and I recently returned from a week-long trip to Kentucky to enjoy the countryside and to sample bourbons from some of the 46 distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. As [...]
“You can’t trust water. Even a straight stick turns crooked in it.” — W. C. Fields ChrisSchmidt and I recently visited several distilleries on Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail. After tasting one particularly strong whiskey, she reached for a tall glass of clear liquid to chase it down. “Yeah, that’s probably water,” said our tasting guide, hinting [...]
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.” — Voltaire Early in my career, our boss assigned a colleague and me to investigate an incident that was still having a significant impact on the plant. Being an arrogant know-it-all, I mean, an engineer, I was confident that I already knew what [...]
“Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future.” — Steve Miller The Process Safety Management (PSM) standard, 29 CFR 1910.119, states in (e)(6) that “At least every five (5) years after the completion of the initial process hazard analysis, the process hazard analysis shall be updated and revalidated by a team meeting the requirements [...]
“The hardest thing is writing a recommendation for someone we know.” — Kin Hubbard We’ve all heard, over and over, that data without analysis is useless. Well, analysis without recommendations is just as useless. Unfortunately, many young engineers are incredible analysts but then mistakenly believe that their analysis will stand on its own, that the [...]
