Process Safety with Trish & Traci

Decades of guidance on alarm management exist. So why are control rooms still drowning in noise?

Trish Kerin breaks down the runaway reaction that triggered a mass evacuation in Orange County, California, and explains what facilities handling reactive chemicals can learn about instrumentation, warning signs and emergency communication. Editor's Note: We mention an upcoming webinar that Trish will be hosting: a webinar focused on leadership in uncertain times — looking at key strategies and to...

The analog timepieces at Melbourne's Flinders Street Station offer a timeless lesson: sometimes the simplest solution is the most elegant — and the most reliable. 

Eleven refinery and fuel facility fires across four continents in roughly 60 days — that's the alarming backdrop for this episode of Process Safety with Trish and Traci. Process safety expert Trish Kerin examines whether the 2026 incidents are a statistical anomaly or a symptom of deeper systemic pressure. She points to deferred maintenance, narrowing margins and the normalization of risk during p...

When economic pressures mount, safety vigilance can quietly erode — and that's when incidents happen. In this episode, process safety expert Trish Kerin introduces APTBED, a practical decision-making framework for navigating volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times. The acronym covers six critical areas: Authority (know who's in charge), Psychological Safety (create space for honest inform...

When operators inevitably push levels to their limits, a poorly placed vapor inlet nozzle can turn a routine excursion into a tower-wrecking event.

In this episode, Stay Safe Columnist Trish Kerin reads her latest article for Chemical Processing. She's a proud GenXer, and she points out that a line from Dr. Ian Malcolm cuts to the heart of a critical distinction in process safety — the difference between what we are allowed to do and what we ought to do. You can read the column here.

When natural disasters strike industrial facilities, the results can be catastrophic — and most companies aren't ready. In this episode of Process Safety with Trish and Traci, Trish Kerin and Traci Purdum explore NATECH events, where natural hazards collide with industrial risk. Drawing on real incidents including Arkema in Crosby, Texas, BioLab in Lake Charles and the Fukushima disaster, they exa...

Chernobyl, Bhopal, Three Mile Island, Deepwater Horizon, Texas City — What do they have in common? Human error or human factors were identified as contributing to the incidents. But what are these factors? Understanding how people actually perceive, decide and act is essential to preventing catastrophic industrial accidents and everyday errors. This In Case You Missed It episode brings the written...

In this episode, Trish Kerin and Traci Purdum explore process hazard analysis revalidations and how to make them more effective. Kerin explains the difference between redoing a PHA and revalidating existing assessments, introducing the Delta HAZOP methodology that focuses on creeping change in facilities. She discusses triggers for revalidation, from legislative requirements to significant operati...

Applying risk management principles helps Process Safety Engineer Trish Kerin navigate her first successful year of self-employment. Listen in as Trish brings her January column to life. You can read her column here.

Engineers couldn't prove danger, so managers launched anyway. Seven astronauts died when O-rings failed in freezing temperatures. Apply the lessons learned to help avoid future incidents.   Three Key Takeaways: Reverse the burden of proof: Require positive proof that something is safe before proceeding, rather than forcing engineers to prove it's unsafe. Simplify safety communication: Complex data...

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 her column " Bird’s-Eye View Prevents Process Safety Groundings ," which was published to chemicalprocessing.com on Dec. 17, 2025.

In this year-end episode, hosts Trish Kerin and Traci Purdum welcome Hayley Little, a U.K.-based process safety engineer who tracks quarterly catastrophic incidents on LinkedIn. The discussion explores origin stories in process safety, the critical gap in fundamental safety knowledge outside petrochemical industries, and the alarming frequency of preventable incidents in lower-hazard sectors. They...

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...

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 ver...

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.

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.

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...

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 a...

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.

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 "u...

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.

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...

This 100th episode of "Process Safety With Trish and Traci" examines the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster through the lens of due diligence. Columbia disintegrated during re-entry after foam debris damaged heat shield tiles during launch. The podcast explores how NASA normalized foam strikes over time, turning "lessons of failure into memories of success." Multiple intervention opportunities w...