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Sector backs push for improved safety

Some of the world’s leading organisations and agencies will be converging on Edinburgh, UK, in May to improve safety and reduce hazards in the chemical and process industries.

Hazards 24, which is organised by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), is the leading safety event in the chemical and process industries and this year will include speakers from BP, Foster Wheeler Energy, Health and Safety Executive, ABS Consulting, PM Group, Shell, Atkins and the Indian Institute of Technology.

The event will be the first held since the death of Hazards’ stalwart and leading process safety expert, Trevor Kletz, who died in November last year. This year is also the anniversary of several major incidents from the past forty years including Flixborough (1974), Bhopal (1984), Exxon Valdez (1989) and the Phillips disaster (1989).

Hazards 24 will feature more than 60 technical presentations from process safety experts, who will share the latest best practice and research in the sector.

Some of the topics being discussed will include: the Seveso III directive; ammonium nitrate fertiliser explosion hazards; quantifying and assessing environmental risk for major accident hazard sites; and how to sustain effective corporate governance in process safety across global sites.

The event is being held on 7-9 May 2014 at Scotland’s Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Sponsors include ABB, Abbott Risk Consulting, BP, Petrotechnics, ABS Consulting, DNL GL, BakerRisk and GexCon.

David Brown, chief executive of IChemE, said: “Process safety is an area where we must continually learn together and work together to manage the risks in the process industries.

“IChemE is fortunate to be able to draw upon some of the world’s leading experts and thought-leaders in this field to host a conference solely designed to help prevent disasters like Flixborough, Bhopal and Exxon Valdez, which all have sobering anniversaries in 2014.

“In the words of Trevor Kletz – ‘if you think safety is expensive, try accidents’. We look forward to welcoming you all to Edinburgh in May.”

The Hazards conference series has gone from strength to strength since it was first staged in 1960 in Manchester, UK, and now has similar events successfully running in Malaysia and Australia.

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