An Introduction to Safety is my Job

The last 60 years have seen massive advances in safety in the process industries. We expect that the contribution that our discipline has made to these developments will feature throughout the discussions that take place this year as IChemE celebrates its centenary. Whilst methods, tools, techniques and systems are of crucial importance they are only part of the story.  A good safety performance can only be achieved if these are applied on a consistent basis to all aspects of a business from design and operation through to decommissioning. This requires the co-ordinated efforts of people throughout an organisation: the operators, the technicians, the engineers, the managers and the directors. Many of these will be chemical engineers and as part of IChemE’s centenary celebrations, the Safety & Loss Prevention SIG has developed a series of profiles called “Safety is my Job” that showcases the roles in process safety that are being undertaken by chemical engineers across a range of industries.

It features engineers at all stages in their careers carrying out roles which may not be celebrated in other ways but which are essential in any high performing organisation. The technical aspects of their work will, in most cases, have been described elsewhere and the articles concentrate on the people and their job as well as the enthusiasm and satisfaction they gain from it.

Our subjects have also shared their views on what led them to chemical engineering and how they expect industry to adapt to the challenges faced by society and climate change.

It has only been possible to include a very small proportion of the many thousands of engineers working in safety across the wide range of industries in which chemical engineers are employed. Shortened versions of the articles will feature on IChemE’s centenary website and in The Chemical Engineer throughout 2022. In addition, all contributions are available on the SIG web page.

We hope that readers will find these stories as interesting as we have.