Safety Considerations in the Chemical Process Industries

In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on chemical process safety as a result of a number of serious accidents. Public awareness of these accidents has provided a driving force for industry to improve its safety record. Local and national governments are taking a hard look at safety in industry as a whole and the chemical industry in particular, and there has been an increasing amount of government regulation. 

Although the chemical industry is one of the safest industries, its safety image in the eyes of the public is dismal, perhaps because sometimes when there is an accident in a chemical plant, it is spectacular and receives a great deal of attention. For many reasons, the public often associates the chemical industry with environmental problems and safety problems and, unfortunately, all too 

Chemical process safety involves both the technical and the management aspects of the chemical industry, and this chapter addresses both. It is not enough to be aware of how to predict the effect of process hazards and how to design systems to reduce the risks of these hazards. It also is important to consider how chemical process safety can be managed. Technical people at all levels have a degree of management responsibility, and can contribute to the overall management of safe plants. 

Loss of containment due to mechanical failure or misoperation is not a major cause of chemical process accidents. The publication One Hundred Largest Losses A Thirty Year Review of Property Damage Losses in the Hydrocarbon-Chemical Industry cites loss of containment as the leading cause of property loss in the chemical process industries. 

The term, inherent means belonging by nature, or the essential character of something. An inherently safe plant is safe by its nature and by the way it is constituted. 

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