Overview

“Process safety deals with the fires, explosions, and toxic releases and things like that. You can have a very good accident rate for what we call “hard hat accidents” and not for process ones.” – Dr Trevor Kletz.

There is a wealth of knowledge readily available on Process Safety Incidents yet there are tens of thousands of incidents where a series of failures result in a fire / explosion, injury and loss of life due to working in hazardous atmospheres. Why aren’t we learning the lessons from past incidents to ensure the proper safeguards are in place to prevent these types of incidents?

Trish Kerin, Director of the IChemE Safety Centre talks us through why we are not learning from past incidents when it comes to hazardous atmospheres. 

Speaker

Trish Kerin, Director, IChemE Safety Centre

After graduating with honours in mechanical engineering, Trish spent several years working in project management, operational and safety roles for the oil, gas and chemical industries. 

Trish has represented industry on many government committees related to process safety including the board of the Australian National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority. She is a member of the Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center steering committee.

Trish is a Chartered Engineer, registered Professional Process Safety Engineer, Fellow of IChemE and Fellow of Engineers Australia. Trish holds a diploma in OHS, is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a Master of Leadership. Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and a Fellow of Engineers Australia (FIEAust).

In 2015, Trish was awarded the John A Brodie Medal from Engineers Australia for the best paper at the Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering Congress 2015 (incorporating Chemeca). The award recognises Trish’s peer reviewed paper on Process Safety Competency. In 2018, Trish was awarded the Trevor Kletz Merit Award by the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center for her work in advancing process safety worldwide.