Process safety incidents across 14 industries

Abstract

Abstract Many think of process safety incidents as loss of containment events in the chemical and refining industries. In this work, we note severe/catastrophic process safety incidents across a wide spectrum of 14 industries, including agriculture, food, fireworks, manufacturing, and mining. Eighty‐one incidents were reviewed, generally at least three per industry, as well as noteworthy historic incidents. We searched for global incidents of significance in terms of lives lost, damage, and environmental impact, focusing on incidents during this century with the availability of modern technology and practices. Data captured and analyzed per incident‐included region/location, on‐going operation, number of fatalities, damage, whether damage was confined to the plant, where available. Most of the incidents studied resulted in more than $1 million damage and many more than $1 billion. Most important, we sought the factors contributing to the incidents, in search of common ones per industry, and then those most prevalent across all 14 industries. The most common contributing factors are safety culture, emergency preparedness, and mechanical integrity.

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