Posted By jom
Process Safety is the business of preventing explosions, fires and chemical releases in industrial facilities that store chemicals.

That's one definition, there are others.

Process Safety stands to one side of OH&S, because delivering Process Safety is through engineering practises. (That statement might trigger argument.)

What I would like to inquire of this forum is how well you understand the term "Process Safety". It can be misunderstood.

To take it one step further, do people in this IOSH forum think it would be useful to have a web based repository of authoritive knowledge on the subject of Process Safety?

Any comments?

John.

Posted By Jay Joshi
It is my understanding that there are several bodies involved in storing/providing a repository of knowledge on Process Safety.

The primary ones are the enforcement bodies/statutory investigation boards that have detailed investigation reports etc

Then there are chemical engineering professional bodies (IChemE in UK & AIChemE in USA) and organisations such the
European Process Safety Centre already have such a repository of knowledge. It is another matter whether the information is freely available to all or has to be paid for.

Last but not least, there are regularly published works, either in the form of professional journals and texts.

I personally do not think it is for IOSH to get too involved in this, although IOSH could seek partnership arrangements with IChemE

Posted By jom
I should have been more explicit in my purpose here.

Thanks, Jay and Flic, for those pointers to sources on Process Safety information.

My query actually arises from discussions within those sources about the need for a comprehensive wiki on Process Safety.

So what I am searching for in this thread is some views from OHS practitioners on their understanding of Process Safety and if they would value something like a wiki on Process Safety.

John.

Posted By Andy Petrie
I'm a Chemical Engineer by trade and have worked a lot in this area, anyone doing process safety will know how to access appropriate material.

There are lots of books out there which can be useful and also the relevent Institutions have information available, the IChemE Safety Loss Prevention Group for example.

This subject is way to complicated for a short wiki to cover it and needs to be done by competent people with the appropriate skills and experience, not just someone who has read some information off a web page.

Posted By D. Hilton
But the reference to reliable authoratative publications i.e. Lees, Kletz, Bretherick's and Perry's would result in inaccuracies being less likely. If a OHS generalist had an interest in PSM, a wiki may be of interest provided that it made reference to the above. One concern would be the likelihood of attempting process safety related tasks on the back of information set out in a wiki as more often than not happens in the area of fire risk assessment. Intersting to note the diversity of opinions on Bleve's as an example

Posted By Andy Brazier
Whether we like it or not, new media is replacing some of the roles that books had in the past. This forum is an example of that.

I don't particularly understand why a book is necessarily more correct than a wiki populated by knowledgeable and experienced people. If we take the Kletz books - they are great with lots of useful information and ideas. But they are based on experience, rather than any in depth study. The Lees books are essentially a collation of other books and papers. Who can say Lees always selected the most accurate source of information?

If we look at the Bleve discussion going on at the moment, I don't believe there has been any disagreement with what a Bleve is, just a number of different ways of describing it. If it had been on a Wiki a single, refined definition could have been developed, which I believe would be much more useful to everyone. The fact that you can link to a video clip shows how much more powerful the medium is compared to a book.