Serious safety
29 Mar 2000
With estimates of over 2000 explosions a year during storage/handling of combustible materials, 20 accidents a month involving runaway reactions, and one large fire a day, the European process industries are having to take safety extremely seriously. But there is a gap between process safety research results and their uptake by industry, particularly small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
To bridge this gap, the Brite Euram Programme is funding Safetynet, an Internet-based network to disseminate knowledge on all aspects of health and safety in the areas of fire, explosion and process hazards. With over 90 participants from 15 countries - including large companies, SMEs, professional bodies, and academic and research institutes - Safetynet aims to encourage links between all sides of industry and research bodies.
The main organising body is Prosicht in Germany and the UK `national focus point' is Dr Geoff Lunn of the HSE's Health and Safety Laboratory in Buxton (tel 0114 2892006, e-mail geoff.lunn@hsl.gov.uk)
As part of its activities, Safetynet is hosting, from 20-24 March 2000, the 2nd Internet Conference on Process Safety on its own website: http://www.safetynet.de
