Rethinking Bhopal


Book Description

Rethinking Bhopal: A Definitive Guide to Investigating, Preventing, and Learning from Industrial Disasters is the go-to source for anyone seeking to learn how to improve process safety management (PSM) through applying fundamental asset reliability and incident investigation concepts. The seeds that unified PSM on a global scale were planted in Bhopal, India on December 3, 1984. Since then, considerable progress has been made to protect both workers and communities from catastrophic industrial failures. Industry acknowledges its responsibility to create value with accrued operating experience and that using information received from previous failures is a direct way to prevent future incidents. With this principle in mind, Bloch evaluates modern references related to the Bhopal Disaster, using recognized industrial asset reliability and incident investigation concepts. The practice of objective incident investigation offers a compelling insight into specific decisions and actions that resulted in history’s worst industrial disaster. Recording a fully transparent sequence of events promotes a personal sense of accountability for anyone involved in the manufacturing industry. Lessons learned can be immediately implemented by those with direct PSM, management, engineering, and operating responsibilities. Case histories demonstrate how patterns observed in the timeline leading up to the Bhopal Disaster can be detected in modern incidents and by recognizing these patterns in present-day processes avoids counterproductive operating decisions and unprecedented destruction. This text is instrumental in helping existing organizations re-evaluate their own exposures and risks, and would be a valuable read for any member of a process safety management team. Rethinking Bhopal: A Definitive Guide to Investigating, Preventing, and Learning from Industrial Disasters provides an expansion of knowledge and understanding for the novice in PSM while also providing depth and application considerations to challenge more experienced industry professionals. Note: All royalties from this book go to the Process Safety Heritage Trust Scholarship at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, USA. Learn how to improve Process Safety Management (PSM) performance by applying fundamental asset reliability and incident investigation concepts Understand your personal role in detecting and preventing Loss of Primary Containment (LOPC) incidents before they occur Take immediate action to stabilize processes under your control while promoting a systematic approach to eliminating persistent failure mechanisms Includes case histories to helpfully illustrate how to detect potentially destructive patterns in your own organization




Risk Assessment


Book Description

Risk Assessment Explore the fundamentals of risk assessment with references to the latest standards, methodologies, and approaches The Second Edition of Risk Assessment: A Practical Guide to Assessing Operational Risks delivers a practical exploration of a wide array of risk assessment tools in the contexts of preliminary hazard analysis, job safety analysis, task analysis, job risk assessment, personnel protective equipment hazard assessment, failure mode and effect analysis, and more. The distinguished authors discuss the latest standards, theories, and methodologies covering the fundamentals of risk assessments, as well as their practical applications for safety, health, and environmental professionals with risk assessment responsibilities. “What If”/Checklist Analysis Methods are included for additional guidance. Now in full color, the book includes interactive exercises, links, videos, and online risk assessment tools that can be immediately applied by working practitioners. The authors have also included: Material that reflects the latest updates to ISO standards, the ASSP Technical Report, and the ANSI Z590.3 Prevention through Design standard New hazard phrases for chemical hazards in the Globally Harmonized System, as well as NIOSH’s new occupational exposure banding tool The new risk-based approach featured in the NAVY IH Field Manual New chapters covering business continuity, causal factors analysis, and layers of protection analysis and barrier analysis An indispensable resource for employed safety professionals in a variety of industries, business leaders and staff personnel with safety responsibilities, and environmental engineers Risk Assessment: A Practical Guide to Assessing Operational Risks is also useful for students in safety, health, and environmental science courses.




Principles of Forensic Engineering Applied to Industrial Accidents


Book Description

An introductory text on the investigation of industrial accidents Forensic engineering should be seen as a rigorous approach to the discovery of root causes that lead to an accident or near-miss. The approach should be suitable to identify both the immediate causes as well as the underlying factors that affected, amplified, or modified the events in terms of consequences, evolution, dynamics, etc., as well as the contribution of an eventual "human error". This book is a concise and introductory volume to the forensic engineering discipline which helps the reader to recognize the link among those important, very specialized aspects of the same problem in the global strategy of learning from accidents (or near-misses). The reader will benefit from a single point of access to this very large, technical literature that can be only correctly understood with the right terms, definitions, and links in mind. Keywords: Presents simple (real) cases, as well as giving an overview of more complex ones, each of them investigated within the same framework; Gives the readers the bibliography to access more in-depth specific aspects; Offers an overview of the most commonly used methodologies and techniques to investigate accidents, including the evidence that should be collected to define the cause, dynamics and responsibilities of an industrial accident, as well as the most appropriate methods to collect and preserve the evidence through an appropriate chain of security. Principles of Forensic Engineering Applied to Industrial Accidents is essential reading for researchers and practitioners in forensic engineering, as well as graduate students in forensic engineering departments and other professionals.




Recognizing and Responding to Normalization of Deviance


Book Description

An essential guide for recognizing and responding to normalization of deviance to help organizations improve their process safety performance This book provides an introduction and offers approaches for finding and addressing normalization of deviation both in operational and organizational activities. It addresses the initial and long-term effects of normalization of deviations as seen in reduced efficiencies, reduced product quality, extended batch run time, and near miss process safety incidents which can lead to loss of containment of hazardous materials and energies. Recognizing and Responding to Normalization of Deviance addresses how to recognize and respond to the normalization of deviation that can, and almost certainly will, occur in any ongoing operations that involves humans. The book’s primary focus is on reducing the incidence of normalization of deviation and the associated increased risk exposure due to its effects when operating chemical or petrochemical manufacturing facilities. It contains an introduction to the concept and offers approaches for finding and addressing normalization of deviation when it presents itself in both operational and organizational activities. Contains guidance to assist facilities in recognizing and addressing the phenomenon of normalization of deviation Provides techniques for addressing normalized deviations and techniques to eliminate waste in all manufacturing processes Describes methods for identifying normalized deviation as well as where to find deviations Includes techniques to reduce operational normalization of deviance and to reduce organizational normalization of deviance Aimed at process safety professionals and consultants applying process safety risk reduction efforts in manufacturing areas, Recognizing and Responding to Normalization of Deviance is an important book for any organization that has seen its process safety performance deteriorate over time.




Process Safety


Book Description

Effective process safety programs consist of three interrelated foundations—safety culture and leadership, process safety systems, and operational discipline—designed to prevent serious injuries and incidents resulting from toxic releases, fires, explosions, and uncontrolled reactions. Each of these foundations is important and one missing element can cause poor process safety performance. Process Safety: Key Concepts and Practical Approaches takes a systemic approach to the traditional process safety elements that have been identified for effective process safety programs. More effective process safety risk reduction efforts are achieved when these process safety systems, based on desired activities and results rather than by specific elements, are integrated and organized in a systems framework. This book provides key concepts, practical approaches, and tools for establishing and maintaining effective process safety programs to successfully identify, evaluate, and manage process hazards. It introduces process safety systems in a way that helps readers understand the purpose, design, and everyday use of overall process safety system requirements. Understanding what the systems are intended to achieve, understanding why they have been designed and implemented in a specific way, and understanding how they should function day-to-day is essential to ensure continued safe and reliable operations.




Petrochemical Machinery Insights


Book Description

Petrochemical Machinery Insights is a priceless collection of solutions and advice from Heinz Bloch on a broad range of equipment management themes, from wear to warranty issues, organizational problems and oil mist lubrication, and professional growth and pre-purchase of machinery. The author draws on his industry experience to hone in on important problems that do not get addressed in other books, providing actionable details that engineers can use. Mechanical, reliability, and process engineers will find this book the next best thing to having Heinz Bloch on speed dial. Focuses on pieces of hard-won experience from the industry that are rarely included in other books Presents not just a guide to technical problems, but also to crucial themes in management and organization Includes an informal and honest style, making author Heinz Bloch's 40 years of experience accessible to a broad audience of readers Contains a uniting theme that successful asset management requires the separation of application and implementation details




Revisiting Crimes of the Powerful


Book Description

Frank Pearce was the first scholar to use the term 'crimes of the powerful.' His ground-breaking book of the same name provided insightful critiques of liberal orthodox criminology, particularly in relation to labelling theory and symbolic interactionism, while making important contributions to Marxist understandings of the complex relations between crime, law and the state in the reproduction of the capitalist social order. Historically, crimes of the powerful were largely neglected in crime and deviance studies, but there is now an important and growing body of work addressing this gap. This book brings together leading international scholars to discuss the legacy of Frank Pearce’s book and his work in this area, demonstrating the invaluable contributions a critical Marxist framework brings to studies of corporate and state crimes, nationally, internationally and on a global scale. This book is neither a hagiography, nor a review of random areas of social scientific interest. Instead, it draws together a collection of scholarly and original articles which draw upon and critically interrogate the continued significance of the approach pioneered in Crimes of the Powerful. The book traces the evolution of crimes of the powerful empirically and theoretically since 1976, shows how critical scholars have integrated new theoretical insights derived from post-structuralism, feminism and critical race studies and offers perspectives on how the crimes of the powerful - and the enormous, ongoing destruction they cause - can be addressed and resisted.




Redefining Commerce and Management: New Paradigms for the Digital Age (Volume 1)


Book Description

"Redefining Commerce and Management: New Paradigms for the Digital Age" is an edited volume curated by Dr. Gurupada Das, a distinguished Assistant Professor at Trivenidevi Bhalotia College, Raniganj, West Bengal. This book compiles 21 insightful chapters that explore the profound changes and emerging trends in commerce and management brought about by digital advancements. It serves as a comprehensive resource for academics, practitioners, and students keen on understanding the intersection of digital technology and business. This book provides a thorough examination of the changing paradigms in commerce and management due to digital advancements. Each chapter offers unique insights and practical strategies, making this book an essential resource for understanding the opportunities and challenges of the digital age. It serves as a vital resource for understanding the opportunities and challenges in the digital age, making it essential reading for those involved in business and academia.




Rethinking Post-Disaster Recovery


Book Description

This book presents an original interdisciplinary approach to the study of the so-called ‘recovery phase’ in disaster management, centred on the notion of repairing. The volume advances thinking on disaster recovery that goes beyond institutional and managerial challenges, descriptions and analyses. It encourages socially, politically and ethically engaged questioning of what it means to recover after disaster. At the centre of this analysis, contributions examine the diversity of processes of repairing through which recovery can take place, and the varied meanings actors attribute to repair at different times and scales of such processes. It also analyses the multiple arenas (juridical, expert, political) in which actors struggle to make sense of the "what-ness" of a disaster and the paths for recovery. These struggles are interlinked with interest-based and power-based struggles which maintain structural inequality and exploitation, existing social hierarchies and established forms of marginality. The work uses case studies from all over the world, cutting-edge theoretical discussions and original empirical research to put critical and interpretative approaches in social sciences into dialogue, opening the venue for innovative approaches in the study of environmental disasters. This book will be of much interest to students of disaster management, sociology, anthropology, law and philosophy.




Re-Thinking Men


Book Description

Much writing on men in the field of gender studies tends to focus unduly, almost exclusively, on portraying men as villains and women as victims in a moral bi-polar paradigm. Re-Thinking Men reverses the proclivity which ignores not only the positive contributions of men to society, but also the male victims of life including the homeless, the incarcerated, the victims of homicide, suicide, accidents, war and the draft, and sexism, as well as those affected by the failures of the health, education, political and justice systems. Proceeding from a radically different perspective in seeking a more positive, balanced and inclusive view of men (and women), this book presents three contrasting paradigms of men as Heroes, Villains and Victims. With the development of a comparative and revised gender perspective drawing on US, Canadian and UK sources, this book will be of interest to scholars across a range of social sciences.