Process Safety with Trish & Traci

Platypus, Duck or Weak Signal? Process Safety Lessons from Down Under

This In Case You Missed It episode brings the written word to life. Today, Trish Kerin, the director of Lead Like Kerin, and Stay Safe columnist for Chemical Processing, will read the first few chapters from her book  “The Platypus Philosophy – how to identify and manage weak signals” 
This book explores weak signals and focuses on how to identify and manage them to prevent incidents. It uses fun storytelling about the unique platypus as a technique to explain complex concepts and tools.
You can purchase this book on Amazon or snag a signed copy from Trish’s website, leadlikekerin.com.

Buncefield Explosion: 20 Years Later, Critical Lessons on Tank Storage Safety

The Buncefield explosion occurred when a gasoline storage tank overfilled after both its level gauge and independent high-level switch failed. Gasoline vapor formed a massive cloud that ignited, causing significant damage to surrounding business parks. Fortunately, the Sunday morning timing prevented fatalities, though 43 injuries occurred. The incident revealed critical gaps in safety control verification, testing procedures, and maintenance regimes. Twenty years later, the disaster emphasizes the importance of recognizing weak signals, maintaining bund integrity, and ensuring operators actively monitor tank filling operations rather than relying solely on automated systems.

Aborted Landing Reveals Critical Lessons in Safety Communication

In this episode, Trish Kerin reads her most recent column, which highlights the importance of immediate communication in safety situations, even when complete information isn't yet available to share.

You can read the column here.

Henry David Thoreau of Process Safety – Trevor Kletz

Trevor Kletz revolutionized process safety through HAZOP advocacy, inherent safety principles, learning from accidents, and emphasizing design simplification over complex add-ons. In this episode, Trish & Traci discuss his many contributions to the world of process safety.

Hidden Hazards: 10 Common PHA Oversights

When OSHA's Process Safety Management (PSM) standard took effect in 1992, it promised a new era of systematic hazard identification. Three decades later, process safety professionals are still witnessing the same critical oversights repeatedly compromising facility safety—oversights that have contributed to near misses, and far worse, major incidents.

Editor-in-Chief Traci Purdum reads an article from Felicia Miller, senior principal engineer at ABSG Consulting and Darshankumar Lakhani, senior manager in engineering at ABSG.

Original article: https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/safety-security/risk-assessment/article/55311485/hidden-hazards-10-common-pha-oversights

How Equipment Reliability Impacts Process Safety

This episode explores the critical role of equipment reliability in chemical processing, focusing on three major incidents: Longford, BP Texas City and Buncefield. Trish highlights how faulty instrumentation, poor maintenance and overlooked management of change led to catastrophic failures, fatalities and environmental impacts. The discussion emphasizes safety-critical elements, maintenance KPIs and the importance of accurate instrumentation.

Process Safety: The Dangers of Blindly Following Instructions

Workers who challenge flawed procedures can improve safety and production. In this episode, Trish Kerin reads her latest column, which details how a trip to Tasmania with her sister turned getting lost into a process safety lesson of not blindly following procedures. 

Enjoy as our favorite Australian safety guru guides you through the Bass Strait to Cataract Gorge.

Challenge the Illusion of Safety

In this episode, Trish Kerin and Traci Purdum discuss process safety insights with Alex Fernando and Warren Smith from Incident Analytics. Their research analyzed over 10,000 incidents across 12 countries and multiple high-risk industries.

Key findings include that organizations often misclassify serious incidents, missing critical learning opportunities. Many safety controls are "difficult" or "unworkable" in practice, with workers adapting procedures to get jobs done despite inadequate equipment or impractical requirements. The research reveals a significant gap between "work as imagined" and "work as done."

A fundamental shift in leadership thinking needs to take place — from asking "why didn't they follow the procedure?" to "why couldn't they follow the procedure?"

References: 

Whitepaper 1 

Whitepaper 2 

Lessons From Deadly Permit-to-Work Failures

This episode revisits the critical topic of permit-to-work systems, exploring how these systems manage the safe transfer of equipment ownership between operations and maintenance teams. Trish & Traci discuss key elements, different permit types, common failures, and the tragic Piper Alpha disaster.

Process Safety: Serve Up the Tim Tam Slam

Mastering Tim Tam timing mirrors process safety's critical risk-reward balance. Get it right and you’ll reap rewards.

As the bickie became gooey in my fingers, I knew the moment was now — time to slam that Tim Tam.

A Tim Tam is an Australian bickie — or cookie, to those of you in the U.S. It was created in 1964 by Arnott’s and is an iconic Aussie treat. It consists of two rectangular bickies with a flavored cream filling that is coated in chocolate. A Tim Tam Slam is a unique way to consume the bickie. The steps are as follows: