Trevor Asher Kletz,
OBE,
FREng
Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and Scholarship, fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK a ...
,
FRSC,
FIChemE (23 October 1922–31 October 2013) was a prolific British author on the topic of
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...
safety. He is credited with introducing the concept of
inherent safety
In the chemical and process industries, a process has inherent safety if it has a low level of danger even if things go wrong. Inherent safety contrasts with other processes where a high degree of hazard is controlled by protective systems. As per ...
, and was a major promoter of
Hazop A hazard and operability study (HAZOP) is a structured and systematic examination of a complex plan or operation in order to identify and evaluate problems that may represent risks to personnel or equipment. The intention of performing a HAZOP is to ...
.
He is listed in The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History.
[ ]
Early life and education
Kletz was born 23 October 1922
in
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town.
In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...
of Jewish parents, from a Russian immigrant background. He attended
The King's School, Chester
The King's School, Chester, is a British co-educational independent day school for children aged 4 to 18. It is one of the seven 'King's Schools' established (or re-endowed and renamed) by King Henry VIII in 1541 after the Dissolution of ...
, then the
University of Liverpool
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
, where he graduated in
chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
in 1944 and joined
ICI the same year. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he was a member of the
Home Guard
Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense.
The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...
. On 28 October 1958 he married Denise V. Winroope
(died 1980) and they had two sons, Anthony and Nigel.[Trevor Kletz (2000) ''By Accident… a Life Preventing them in industry'' PFV, ]
Professional life
In ICI he worked initially as a research chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...
, then became plant manager (in turn) of iso-octane, acetone
Acetone (2-propanone or dimethyl ketone), is an organic compound with the formula . It is the simplest and smallest ketone (). It is a colorless, highly volatile and flammable liquid with a characteristic pungent odour.
Acetone is miscib ...
and tar acids plants. After further experience in process investigation and commissioning in the Technical Department, in 1961 he became assistant works manager on the ICI Olefines Works near Wilton, Redcar and Cleveland
Wilton is a small village in Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England. In 1951 the parish had a population of 958.
Geography
It is located between Redcar and Eston at the base of Eston Hills – to the east of Eston Nab.
The village i ...
. In 1968, he was appointed the first Technical Safety Advisor.
During this time, ICI developed hazard and operability studies, now known as Hazop A hazard and operability study (HAZOP) is a structured and systematic examination of a complex plan or operation in order to identify and evaluate problems that may represent risks to personnel or equipment. The intention of performing a HAZOP is to ...
, for which he was an enthusiastic advocate, and the author of the first book on the subject.
When he retired in 1982 he had established a safety culture within the company based on communication, and had begun a second career and an international reputation as an author and speaker. Most of his books are concerned with case studies from industry and the human and technical causes. Shortly after his retirement he expanded a paper entitled "What you don't have, can't leak" into the book which began the concept of inherent safety
In the chemical and process industries, a process has inherent safety if it has a low level of danger even if things go wrong. Inherent safety contrasts with other processes where a high degree of hazard is controlled by protective systems. As per ...
.
Honours
He was a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering.
The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...
, the Royal Society of Chemistry
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...
, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. AIChE was actually established in 1908 to distinguish chemical engineers as a profession independent of chemists and mechanical engineer ...
. He was awarded medals by the latter two institutions.[
He was a visiting Professor of Chemical Engineering at ]Loughborough University
Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...
and an adjunct professor of the Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.[
In 1997 he was awarded the OBE for 'services to industrial safety'.]
In 2009 he received the Mond Award for Health and Safety of the Society of Chemical Industry
The Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) is a learned society set up in 1881 "to further the application of chemistry and related sciences for the public benefit".
Offices
The society's headquarters is in Belgrave Square, London. There are semi-in ...
, where he was said to be a 'founding father' of safety in the chemical industry.[Society of Chemical Industry News]
A glittering awards night at Belgrave Square[''TCE'' Dec 2009/Jan 2010 p 54 SCI lauds Kletz as "founding father of modern safety"]
Books (sole author)
*''Cheaper, safer plants, or wealth and safety at work: notes on inherently safer and simpler plants'' (1984) IChemE
*''Improving Chemical Engineering Practices: A New Look at Old Myths of the Chemical Industry'' (1989) Taylor & Francis, ;
*''Critical Aspects of Safety and Loss Prevention'' (1990) Butterworths ;
*''Plant Design for Safety – a user-friendly approach'' (1991) Taylor & Francis ;
*''Lessons from Disaster – How Organisations Have No Memory and Accidents Recur'' (1993) IChemE ;
*''Learning from Accidents'' (1994/2001) Butterworth-Heinemann ;
*''Dispelling Chemical Engineering Myths'' (1996) Taylor & Francis, ;
*''Process Plants – a handbook for inherently safer design'' (1998) Taylor & Francis ;
*''What Went Wrong? Case Histories of Process Plant Disasters'' (1998) Gulf, ;
*''Hazop and Hazan'' 4th ed (1999) Taylor & Francis, ;
*''By Accident… a Life Preventing them in industry'' (2000) PFV, ;
*''An Engineer's View of Human Error'' 3rd ed (2001) IChemE, ;
*''Still Going Wrong: Case Histories of Process Plant Disasters and How They Could Have Been Avoided'' (2003) Gulf,
*''What Went Wrong?: Case Histories of Process Plant Disasters and How They Could Have Been Avoided'' 5th ed (2009) Butterworth-Heinemann/IChemE ;
Books (joint author)
*Trevor Kletz, Paul Chung, Eamon Broomfield and Chaim Shen-Orr (1995) ''Computer Control and Human Error '' IChemE, ;
*Trevor Kletz, Paul Amyotte (2010) ''Process Plants: A Handbook for Inherently Safer Design'' 2nd ed, CRC Press ;
References
External links
U. S. Chemical Safety Board
Statement from CSB Chairperson Rafael Moure-Eraso on the Passing of Noted Chemical Process Safety Expert Professor Trevor Kletz
Trevor's Corner
Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center
Oration on the award of an honorary degree 2006
Brief biography and list of publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kletz, Trevor
1922 births
2013 deaths
People from Darlington
British Jews
Imperial Chemical Industries people
British chemical engineers
Alumni of the University of Liverpool
People educated at The King's School, Chester
Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Academics of Loughborough University
British people of Russian-Jewish descent
Fellows of the Institution of Chemical Engineers