Customer Reviews

Chemical Process Safety, Third Edition: Learning from Case Histories

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The emphasis in this book is on accidents that have occurred as the result of the unforeseen effects of changes to chemical plants. The descriptions are well written, easy to read and bring out the essentials of each incident. Everyone who works in the process industries, from operator to operations director, should read the book. But what is read is soon forgotten. More will be remembered if the incidents are discussed at toolbox talks or safety meetings. Someone should ask if anything similar has happened locally, if it could happen and, if so, how we should prevent it? In an introductory Chapter Roy shows that the chemical industry has a good safety record, better than many industries that have fewer intrinsic hazards. Nevertheless, none of the incidents need have happened. There is something fundamentally wrong with our safety training. Its weakness, I think, is that it pays too much attention to principles, procedures, codes and standards and not enough to incidents. Accounts of incidents can grab our attention and stimulate us to look into the procedures and codes that will prevent them happening again. If we read only the theory and the codes we soon forget. Accident reports can demonstrate their importance and make us remember. We should start with accident reports, such as those in this book and draw the theory and codes out of them, not start with theories and codes.