About Mike Schmidt

With a career in the CPI that began in 1977 with Union Carbide, Mike was profoundly impacted by the 1984 tragedy in Bhopal and has been working on process safety ever since.

Piping Leaks: The Most Common Process Hazard

“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”  — Benjamin Franklin The most common hazard we encounter during a HazOp is a leaking pipe. Not the most severe and not the highest risk. Just the most common. But we always encounter it. Why? Because pipes leak. All pipes, whether or not [...]

By |2023-08-14T17:49:00-05:00June 8th, 2023|PHA, Process Safety, Risk Assessment|Comments Off on Piping Leaks: The Most Common Process Hazard

But They Will Still Burn: Class IIIB Liquids

“Restaurant kitchens have grease fires all the time. A little oil on a burner, and you clear out a restaurant without raising too much suspicion or causing too much damage…Still, it’s best not to stick around too long after you’ve set a kitchen on fire.”  — Michael Westen, on Burn Notice It’s hard to get [...]

By |2023-08-14T18:29:51-05:00June 1st, 2023|Chemicals, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on But They Will Still Burn: Class IIIB Liquids

Cooking with Love: Multitasking in the Control Room

“There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at one time.”  — Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield When our children were young, we ate a lot of [...]

By |2023-08-14T15:50:17-05:00April 6th, 2023|Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Cooking with Love: Multitasking in the Control Room

Deadly Explosion…At a Chocolate Factory?

“The fact is the media never gets off the interstate unless there’s a major explosion.”  — Jim Harrison On Friday, March 24, 2023, shortly before 5 pm local time, an explosion leveled the R.M. Palmer Company chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania, killing seven workers. How does a chocolate factory explode? What are the explosive hazards, [...]

By |2023-08-14T15:45:53-05:00March 30th, 2023|Current Events, Gas, Process Safety|Comments Off on Deadly Explosion…At a Chocolate Factory?

Close to the Edge: Banking, Railroads, and…the Chemical Industry?

“Banking should be boring.”  — Senator Elizabeth Warren We tend to celebrate those adventurers who take big risks for the chance at big rewards, at least when it pays off. On the other hand, we tend to condemn those that take big risks but don’t suffer the consequences when their risk-taking doesn’t pay off. Especially [...]

By |2023-08-11T17:48:08-05:00March 23rd, 2023|Chemicals, Current Events, Process Safety|Comments Off on Close to the Edge: Banking, Railroads, and…the Chemical Industry?

Fire: What’s In a Name

“The name is the thing, and the true name is the true thing. To speak the name is to control the thing.”  — Ursala K. Le Guin, The Rule of Names Process safety has three concerns: fires, explosions, and toxic releases. The most ancient of these concerns is fire. Because fire has been our servant [...]

By |2023-03-10T15:10:13-06:00March 10th, 2023|Gas, Process Safety, Process Safety Management|Comments Off on Fire: What’s In a Name

Derailments: How a Process Safety Perspective Can Prevent Them

“Luck is not an acceptable substitute for early detection.”  — Valerie Harper Three weeks after the Norfolk Southern (NS) derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the well-meaning editorial board at the Washington Post published an editorial on “how to fix freight rail.” They consulted with a variety of transportation experts to come up with four recommendations: [...]

By |2023-03-02T18:12:24-06:00March 2nd, 2023|Chemicals, Current Events, Process Safety|Comments Off on Derailments: How a Process Safety Perspective Can Prevent Them

Ventilation: What is Adequate?

“There is nothing that this age, from whatever standpoint we survey it, needs more, physically, intellectually, and morally, than thorough ventilation.”  — John Ruskin I worked on a project once that required me to spend a lot of time in the control building. It was a substantial building with a kitchen and breakroom, several offices, [...]

By |2023-02-23T16:51:53-06:00February 23rd, 2023|Process Safety, Workplace Safety|Comments Off on Ventilation: What is Adequate?

What Can We Do? The Derailment in East Palestine, Ohio

“People just don’t sue doctors they really like.”  — Alice Burkin, plaintiff’s attorney Nice doctors get sued less. On the other hand, “evil corporations” are far more likely to be sued for their mistakes, or as lawyers describe it, their “negligence.” And in the consciousness of many Americans, there are few corporations more categorically evil [...]

By |2023-02-16T18:25:02-06:00February 16th, 2023|Chemicals, Current Events, Process Safety|Comments Off on What Can We Do? The Derailment in East Palestine, Ohio

OSHA’s New Dust NEP: What is the Impact on DHAs?

“I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”  — T.S. Elliot OSHA does not have a combustible dust regulation. Instead, it relies on a hodge-podge of regulations combined with the General Duty Clause. If someone wants to understand what OSHA expects in terms of combustible dusts, they must turn to OSHA’s Combustible Dust [...]

By |2023-02-09T16:34:03-06:00February 9th, 2023|Combustible Dust, Current Events|Comments Off on OSHA’s New Dust NEP: What is the Impact on DHAs?
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