Inherently safer design: The growth of an idea

Inherently safer design, that is, avoiding hazards rather than controlling them, has advocated since the explosion at Flixborough in 1974. Progress has been real but nevertheless the concept has not been adopted nearly as rapidly as quantitative risk assessment, introduced into the chemical industry only a few years earlier. The present position is reviewed and the constraints that have to be overcome are outlined. A man takes a mustard seed and sows it in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows up, it is the biggest of all plants. It becomes a tree…—Matthew 13:31–32 It takes longer to familiarize oneself with a region of the mind than with a country…—Graham Greene (Introduction to Brighton Rock)