(3c) Expanding Role of the Loss Prevention Professional, Past, Present and Future

The forty years of the Loss Prevention Symposium has paralleled the careers of several of us in the loss prevention profession. During this time period, at the Dow Chemical Company, Rohm and Haas and many major chemical companies the role of the loss prevention professional has expanded from a concern for fire protection engineering to a more proactive concern for process hazards and process safety management. The role of the loss prevention professional has changed primarily because of lessons learned from major chemical processing incidents that have occurred. The Loss Prevention Symposium has served as a forum for discussing these incidents and related process safety technology. For example Flixborough (1974) demonstrated the concern for large quantities of flammable material in the process. Seveso (1976) demonstrated the necessity to review processes for reactive chemical potentials. Mexico City (1984) illustrated the hazard of large inventories of flammables, the consequences of inadequate separation distances and the need for adequate firewater supply. Bhopal (1984) clearly emphasized the need to evaluate processes for large toxic inventories that could be released and cause harm to large populations. Pasedena (1989) reemphasized the hazards of large inventories of flammables. Recent investigations by the U. S. Chemical Safety Board, West Pharmaceutical (2003), CTA Acoustics (2003) and Hayes Lemmerz, have awakened the industry to the hazards of combustible dusts. Because the root causes of all these incidents were management system deficiencies, the current role of the loss prevention professional now focuses on the evaluation of process safety management systems as well as the evaluation of process hazards. This paper will explore the effect of major chemicals incidents on the role of the loss prevention professional past, present and future.