"Better safety data could help prevent oil industry
disasters,” says Rafael Moure-Eraso, chair of U.S.
Chemical Safety Board (CSB), in an op-ed piece published on the Houston Chronicle website. Discussing
how statistics can be misleading, Moure-Eraso uses the example of the March
2005 explosion at a Texas City BP refinery that killed 15 workers. The incident
occurred shortly after refinery personnel had been congratulated at a
celebratory lunch for an outstanding safety record., Moure-Eraso says. “But the
basis of the kudos—data indicating a low personal injury rate from accidents
like slips, trips and falls—blinded operators, managers and top executives to
more significant data concerning overall process safety that were warning that
something catastrophic could hit the refinery.” Read
the complete article at the Houston Chronicle’s website, then tell us what
you think in the comments section below.