This book examines current practices in chemical plants and also suggests ways for improvement. It is based on "Cheaper, Safer Plants or Health and Safety at Work - Notes on inherently Safer and Simpler Plants", published in 1984, but has been updated and augmented with other ways of making plants more "user friendly". This book is also essential reading for students and senior managers because it encourages the design of plants that can tolerate human error or equipment failure without serious effects on safety, output and efficiency.
After graduating in chemistry at Liverpool University in 1944 Trevor Kletz joined Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and spent eight years in research, sixteen in production management and the last fourteen as safety adviser to the Petrochemicals Division. In 1978 he was appointed an Industrial (part-time) Professor at Loughborough University, UK. On retiring from ICI in 1982 he joined the University full-time; in 1986 he became a visiting fellow and is now a visiting professor, and also an adjunct professor at the Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center at Texas A&M University.
He has written ten books and many papers on loss prevention and process safety and the 5th edition of his best-selling book, What Went Wrong?, was published in 2009. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the Royal Society of Chemistry (all UK) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997.
