ABSTRACT
Process safety incidents can truly be catastrophic in terms of potential impacts on people, facilities, companies, and communities. Process safety program effectiveness requires daily focus and discipline by everyone in an organization to understand, implement, follow, and improve systems for successfully managing process hazards. Process safety programs must necessarily focus on safety culture/leadership, process safety systems and operational discipline. In thinking about the future, the one certainty is that change will be continual. Businesses will grow, acquisitions will be made, and new technologies will be developed. Process safety will need to change as well and will continue to be a focus for engineering and industrial education. The primary goal of process safety is the prevention of injuries and severe incidents, the goal and commitment must be zero, and this will not change. Knowledge of process safety system requirements and awareness of how drift in managing risk can occur over time require a continued focus on achieving process safety goals.
