“Before the first atomic bomb test, scientists took the time to calculate whether the blast would ignite the nitrogen in the Earth’s atmosphere and incinerate us all. The risk was low and the test went off, but Rees wonders what the odds would have had to be to discourage the bomb makers.” — Dennis Overbye [...]
“At this time, we have not located any survivors.” — Chris Davis, Humphreys County Sheriff Not long ago, I was at a plant to facilitate a HazOp and LOPA for one of their processes. As is usually the case, my visit included going out to the process, accompanied by my host—an engineer from one of [...]
“More often than not, to blame someone else is to play ‘hot potato’ with something that’s neither hot nor a potato.” — Craig D. Lounsbrough Imagine you work at a plant that makes a polymer. One of the raw materials is the monomer and it is toxic, reactive, and flammable. It contains an inhibitor to [...]
“I have a horror of being in confined spaces.” — Hayley Mills At a craft distillery that is not too far from Bluefield’s offices, the owner spoke about his need to climb into the pot still to clean out the stillage, especially the spent grains. He saw me wince and said, “Yeah, I know. It’s [...]
“Anyone can see a forest fire. Skill lies in sniffing the first smoke.” — Robert A. Heinlein One of my children has a house in The Ville, the neighborhood in north St. Louis that a tornado ripped through in May 2025. Since that tornado, I’ve become adept with a chainsaw, cutting into firewood the felled [...]
“Obsolescence is a factor which says that the new thing I bring you is worth more than the unused value of the old thing.” – Charles Kettering I am the blacksmith at a historic village. I burn coke, coke I make right there on the forge. I start by laying bituminous coal around the coke [...]
“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 [...]
“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 [...]
“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 [...]
“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 [...]
