What went wrong?
by Trevor A Kletz · first published 1999
3mentions
2recommended by
3HN commenters
2014–2025first – last mentioned
67% recommend33% neutral
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From the excellent series of books What Went Wrong by Trevor Kletz: ...our first choice should be to see if we can remove the hazard—the inherently safer approach. For example, could we use a nonflammable solvent instead of a flammable one?...the second…
on “Accidental release of 45L of polio virus solution into the environment – Belgium” ↗…manufacturer recommends for our massive pumps have a different additive that reacts with an impurity in our process stream which catalyzes an exothermic reaction”. I highly recommend a very short book named “What Went Wrong” by Trevor Kletz. It’s surprisingly entertaining and walks you through basic things that have caused disasters at countless chemical plants over and over again.
on “U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated” ↗…considering scenarios which are so bad that it would be unacceptable for them to happen even once. When talking about existential risks that certainly applies! [1] I think I read it in Trevor Kletz' book "What Went Wrong?: Case Histories of Process Plant Disasters".
on “Hostile AI: You're soaking in it” ↗