Fiona Macleod

Part memoir, part crime story, part text book.
During the demolition of a fertiliser factory, a shocking discovery is made: a mummified corpse encased in a carapace of hardened dust – phosphate rock – surrounded by ten objects that provide tantalising clues as to its identity.

The Trevor Kletz Compendium: His Process Safety Wisdom Updated for a New Generation introduces Kletz’s ideas and brings them up to date, equipping readers to manage process safety in every workplace. Topics covered in this book include inherent safety, safety studies, human factors and design. Learn the lessons from past accidents to make sure they don’t happen again.

Deep in debt, Jaq Silver takes on a risky contract in China. But when her former student and the chemical factory she was meant to be investigating both mysteriously disappear, she realises nothing is as it seems.

Four key ideas that help us understand the real world of work.

1. WAI-WAD – Work as Imagined vs Work as Done
How work is actually done, how everyday performance is adjusted to match the conditions and why things go well is a prerequisite for understanding what has or could go wrong.

2. ETTO – Efficiency Thoroughness Trade Off
The ETTO fallacy is that people are required to be both efficient and thorough at the same time – or rather to be thorough when with hindsight it was… Show more

Four key ideas that help us understand the real world of work.

1. WAI-WAD – Work as Imagined vs Work as Done
How work is actually done, how everyday performance is adjusted to match the conditions and why things go well is a prerequisite for understanding what has or could go wrong.

2. ETTO – Efficiency Thoroughness Trade Off
The ETTO fallacy is that people are required to be both efficient and thorough at the same time – or rather to be thorough when with hindsight it was wrong to be efficient.

3. M&M – Methods and Models
Accident analysis is often based on simple linear causality – one thing causes another. But modern process plants are complex, interlocking systems, designed and run by people – socio-technical rather than pure technical systems.

4. WYLFIWYF – What you look for, is what you find
The assumptions about the possible causes of an incident (what-you-look-for) will, to a large extent, determine what lessons are learned (what-you-find). Show less

On 8 August 1975, about one hour after midnight, China's Banqiao dam failed. A tidal wave of water 10 km wide, over 5 m high and travelling at up to 50 km/h raced across flat farmland in Henan Province, demolishing everything in its wake. It tore up roads and bridges, power and communication lines. Whole villages were swept away. As the torrent continued downstream, more dams failed, one after another, like dominoes. An estimated 230,000 people drowned.

What went wrong?

Dr Jaq Silver blows things up to keep people safe. Working on avalanche control in Slovenia, Jaq stumbles across a problem with a consignment of explosives. After raising a complaint with the supplier, she is first accused of professional incompetence and then murder. Can she uncover the truth before her time runs out?

2018 brings the 30th Anniversary of this tragic accident in which 167 people lost their lives. The systems that failed and the lessons learned apply to all hazardous installations and are every bit as relevant today.

Chernobyl 30 years on - LPB Issue 251
The 1986 Chernobyl accident has lessons that extend beyond the nuclear industry and the former Soviet Union. These lessons are directly applicable to today’s international chemical industry.

Webinar

A Special Edition of the Loss Prevention Bulletin concentrating on the lessons that we should have learned from the tragedy in Bhopal 30 years ago.

http://www.icheme.org/~/media/Documents/LPB/LPB240_digimag.pdf

http://www.icheme.org/media_centre/news/2016/medals-recognise-volunteer-commitment-to-chemical-engineering.aspx#sthash.AvEJVDPU.dpbs