Hana had just joined a multinational chemical company as a young process engineer. On her first day, she was given a tour of the plant. Towers, pipes, storage tanks — everything looked massive and intimidating. But what truly caught her attention were the safety posters that said:
⚠️ “Safety is not an option. It must be designed.”
Curious, Hana asked her mentor, “Why do we talk so much about designing safety instead of just controlling hazards?”
Her mentor smiled, “That’s because we believe in Inherent Safety. Instead of adding alarms, sensors, and protective gear after building the plant, we design the process itself to be safer from the beginning.”
Over the weeks, Hana was trained in the four key principles of inherent safety:
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Minimize – use smaller quantities of hazardous chemicals whenever possible.
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Substitute – replace dangerous substances with safer alternatives.
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Moderate – operate at lower pressure and temperature to reduce risks.
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Simplify – make designs clear, easy to understand, and less prone to human error.
One day, Hana was assigned to a project involving the storage of a highly flammable solvent. The original design proposed large storage tanks under high pressure. Hana paused and thought back to her training.
Instead of blindly following the design, she proposed:
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Using smaller storage tanks spread across the site (Minimize).
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Checking if the solvent could be replaced with a less hazardous mixture (Substitute).
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Storing it under ambient pressure and moderate conditions (Moderate).
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Simplifying the pipeline layout to avoid complex valves that often failed (Simplify).
At first, the management hesitated, worried about the higher initial cost. But Hana presented a compelling case: in the long run, the company would avoid costly accidents, environmental harm, and reputational damage.
Months later, an incident occurred at a nearby competitor’s plant that did not adopt inherent safety. A catastrophic fire caused millions in losses. Meanwhile, Hana’s plant remained safe and stable.
Standing in front of the site, Hana reflected:
💡 “True safety is not about reacting to accidents. It’s about preventing them at the source. We cannot negotiate with hazards — we must design them out.”
📌 Footnote (Reference)
Khan, F. I., & Amyotte, P. R. (2003). How to make inherent safety practice a reality. The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 81(1), 2–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjce.5450810102
#safety #hsse #processsafety #engineering #usm #engineer #palmoilmill #miller
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