Chemicals & Materials Now!
From basic to specialty, and everything in between
Meteors and Black Swans: Worst Case Scenarios
Posted on November 10th, 2016 by Mike Schmidt in Chemical Manufacturing Excellence
“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.” Randy Pausch
We really need to stop talking about “worst-case scenarios” when we do a process hazard analysis (PHA) or a quantitative risk assessment (QRA). It’s a nonsense term. More often than not, it is an obstacle to good analysis, not an aid. Continue reading “Meteors and Black Swans: Worst Case Scenarios” »
Reducing Risk in the Chemical Process Industries
Posted on April 21st, 2016 by Mike Schmidt in Chemical Manufacturing Excellence
No one should die at work. Yet people do. Even the safest job in the United States, librarian, has a work-related fatality rate of 0.3 fatalities per year per 100,000 librarians. Continue reading “Reducing Risk in the Chemical Process Industries” »
Risk Tolerance: How Low Do You Go?
Posted on February 26th, 2016 by Mike Schmidt in Chemical Manufacturing Excellence
“Some risks are plainly acceptable and others are plainly unacceptable.” (I.U.D. v. A.P.I., 448 U.S. 607, 655).
When Justice Stevens wrote that opinion for the majority in the 1980 OSHA Benzene case, he went on to add that odds of fatality of one in a billion could not be considered significant but that for odds Continue reading “Risk Tolerance: How Low Do You Go?” »
Recognizing Hazards: PHAs
Posted on January 20th, 2016 by Mike Schmidt in Chemical Manufacturing Excellence
“The first step in solving a problem is to recognize that it exists.” – Zig Ziglar, American motivational speaker
