History
Prior to 1995, the main source of data pertaining to chemical reaction incidents was the regulatory bodies (e.g. HSE in UK), following the investigation (and maybe) prosecution post incident. There was very little data that could be obtained regarding incidents and near-misses that fell outside this area. By this time the majority of the larger chemical companies all had some sort of Process safety section, either as a stand alone unit or as part of a Process development area – increasing amounts of safety studies are needed as the scale is increased. Workers in this field were becoming acquainted with those in other companies, due to a rapid rise in the number of specialist safety testing equipment (most notably the Accelerating Rate Calorimeter and the Metter-Toledo RC1 Reaction Calorimeter) In 1994 two of these safety scientists got together with the idea of creating a forum for free and unbiased information exchange. They contacted many of the companies with known process safety sections, and an inaugural meeting in May 1995 was achieved, with people representing 15 different companies plus the addition of an academic expert in chemical reaction incidents from the South Bank University.
Read more about this topic: UK Chemical Reaction Hazards Forum
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