Podcasts
Trish Kerin, director of IChemE Safety Centre, and Chemical Processing’s Traci Purdum discuss current process safety issues offering insight into mitigation options and next steps.
Educated workforce key to safety in China
Trish and Traci examine recent catastrophic events at chemical plants in China. Trish offers compelling insight into what might be causing so many accidents abroad.
Do regulations make chemical processing plants safer?
Trish and Traci discuss process safety regulations. In the end, a safe workspace is a productive workspace and regulations are not meant to keep you down — they are meant to keep you safe. The key is making sure regulators are educated enough to help you reach your safety goals.
Is a hurricane Harvey hangover the reason for so many safety incidents in Texas?
Trish and Traci discuss the aftermath of a hurricane or extreme weather goes well beyond the event itself. Many issues arise that can cause problems months or even years later. How do you prepare for the current weather and mitigate against accidents in the future?
Cyber security: It's not if you'll be hacked - it's when
Trish and Traci discuss cyber security.
A corroded pipe and decades-old regulations
Guest Expert Greg Borgard joins Trish and Traci to discuss a news story from earlier this year regarding the fire and explosions and ultimate shuttering of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery. The official word from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is that a corroded pipe fitting, found to be half the thickness of a credit card at its thinnest point, led to that incident. The concern is that the pipe, which was installed when Richard Nixon was president — 1973 — went all this time without being properly checked.
Are corporate manslaughter charges too much for safety incidents?
Trish and Traci discuss if plant management should face punishment for safety incidents.
Is inherently safer design really safer?
Born out of Trevor Kletz's 1978 article entitled "What You Don't Have Can't Leak", inherently safer design focuses on design philosophy. Trish and Traci seek to answer if the concept really makes facilities safer.
Operating during a pandemic and process safety documentation
Operating during a pandemic is challenging. If something goes wrong what are you going to do about it. Regarding process safety knowledge is power and make sure your documentation is thorough and current.
Leading through a crisis
Trish and Traci details tips and tactics to better lead during trying times — whether it’s a global pandemic or just a time of critical importance.
What have we learned from significant safety incidents?
Trish and Traci point out that while it is easy to judge accidents after the fact, judgment does not help prevent tragedy. You need to really unpack why the decisions were made in order to avoid them.
Take advantage of downtime to ramp up process safety
Trish and Traci uncovers best practices for presenting and attending safety training virtually.
How the Chemical Industry is Adjusting to the New Norm
Trish and Traci talk about what needs to happen when bringing back your workforce. How will they remain safe distances? How will they handle PPEs? What could go wrong and how to manage and mitigate all the risks.
Mistakes make good leaders
Trish talks to Traci about how she landed her role as Director of the IChemE Safety Centre. Mishaps and safety incidents led to Trish's passion to ensure process safety standards were practiced all over the world.
Transporting Dangerous Cargo via Train - What could go wrong?
Applying process safety principles like inherently safer design could prevent derailments, explosions and deaths. Trish and Traci examine the recent uptick in crude oil derailments and what could be done to prevent them.
Catastrophe at the hands of legacy design issues
In this podcast, Trish and Traci discuss lessons learned from the Mumbai High North Platform disaster of 2005. Ultimately, a range of different natural events can cause all sorts of issues at industrial facilities. The bottom line: You need to be prepared to deal with myriad scenarios via mitigation strategies and response.
Ensure your safety message is understood
In this episode, Trish and Traci speak with podcast guest Valerie Stakes, a bilingual safety trainer based in San Diego, California. The trio conclude companies need to ensure that communications are understandable because process safety doesn't give you second chances.
Lessons learned from the Longford Gas Explosion that killed two
In this episode, Trish and Traci examine the Esso Longford gas explosion. Sadly, all the mistakes were nothing unheard of — simply a chain of errors that caused the deaths of two workers.
How to apply Process Safety during Concept Select
In this episode Trish and Traci reiterates that process safety requires constant vigilance. The challenge is when it works well, nothing goes wrong. People then question if you really need to spend all that money on safety efforts. The reason nothing is going wrong is because you’re doing it right.
Understand the Importance of Partnering with First Responders
In this podcast, Trish and Traci speak with Fire Captain Bryan Suesse about the dangers first responders face and how chemical-processing facilities can mitigate risks and help save lives.
Focus on the right Process Safety Indicators
The absence of an incident does not mean the presence of safety. Focusing on the correct indicators can help you intervene and potentially change the future. In this podcast, Trish and Traci prove when the measure becomes a target it ceases to be a good measure.
Lessons Learned from the Fukushima disaster 10 years later
The Cost Climate Change has on Process Safety
In this podcast, Trish and Traci speak with Dale Sands, an expert in risk reduction and resiliency.
The Ripple Effect of Recent Cybersecurity Breaches
In this podcast, Trish and Traci speak with Eric Byers, one of the world's top experts in the field of ICS and OT security.
Lessons Learned from the Seveso Environmental Disaster
Was the Seveso accident, which released dioxin in the air and was named by Time magazine as one of the top manmade environmental disasters, a black swan event? Trish and Traci discuss the lessons learned from this catastrophic event.
Could Deepwater Horizon have been prevented?
In this podcast, Trish and and Traci look back at the lessons learned from the Montara oil field incident in 2009.
What is Delta HAZOP?
In this podcast, Trish and Traci will focus on subtleties. Hazard and operability studies are a common process hazard analysis technique designed to find the big safety offenders. However, to really ensure process safety, facilities must also focus on subtle changes, which can lead to degradation of the design safeguards.
How to avoid dumb ways to die
If you are relying on humans getting it right every time, you are going to have an incident. The key is making sure that your systems are more resilient to humans making a mistake. Trish and Traci discuss this in further depth.
Preventable patterns revealed in 2021 Process Safety incidents
In this podcast, Trish and Traci review some of the process safety incidents that have occurred in 2021, and see if there are any lessons learned that can help others avoid or be aware of in the future.