Ten Process Safety Maxims

Compiled by Dr. Paul Baybutt

Primatech Inc.

www.primatech.com

Past performance is no guarantee of future success

Successful facility operation for many years without a major accident does not demonstrate tolerable risk

If you think safety is expensive, try an accident

Trevor Kletz

Absence of the evidence of risk is not evidence of the absence of risk

UK Health and Safety Executive

Almost all accidents are wholly or partially caused by human failure

Even equipment failures fundamentally are attributable to human errors

Listing human error as the cause of an accident is about as helpful as listing gravity as the cause of a fall

It may be true, but it does not lead to constructive action

Trevor Kletz

Fear of harm ought to be proportional not merely to the gravity of the harm

But also to the probability of the event

Antoine Arnauld

People who are risk averse make choices based on the consequences of an outcome without regard to the probability involved

People who are foolhardy make choices based on the probability of an outcome without regard to its consequences

P. L. Berstein

Conducting a hazard analysis for a process is much cheaper than paying for an accident

Hazard analysis studies cost thousands of dollars

Accidents cost millions of dollars

It is necessary for us to learn from the mistakes of others

You will not live long enough to make them all yourself

Hyman G. Rickover

Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety

William Shakespeare

For free materials on process safety:

notes.primatech.com/ss1