“We Are Comfortable with Our Current Safety Procedures”: How Do You Prevent Something You Don’t Recognize?

When I am asked to consult on safety issues or provide safety training for laboratories and pilot plants, I usually suggest starting with a safety audit of the facility or operation to determine what are the areas that require attention. Limited resources, tight funding, other priorities are among the most commonly cited reasons for deferring any audit to a later date and just focusing on the specific question I was asked. All these reasons are valid constraints but bad reasons. Limited resources, tight budgets, and multiple (and usually divergent) priorities make it critical to determine what are the potential safety issues so as to allow them to be addressed in a priority order using the limited means available.