Process Safety and POP's

No, I am not talking about Persistent Organic Pollutants! I'm talking about Pressure On Profits. Time and again, we see accidents happening even in the World's biggest companies who have all systems in place including OHSAS 18001,ISO14001,PSM, behaviour based safety and other programs, conducted HAZOP and LOPA studies etc. A current example is the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.Why does this happen? While everyone agrees that ultimately it is the human being who is the weakest link in any system, how do we ensure that safety is always looked at all times including times of pressure on profits? On one side OSHA is increasing the monetary penalties for deficiencies. Whether this will spur organizations to invest in process safety – we will have to wait and see. Ultimately decisions linked to spending and investments have a cascading effect on the whole organisation and finally lead to an accident. I was talking to the Head of Safety of a large organisation who had done a HAZOP study for a new facility. He lamented the fact that even though he had presented to the board the fact that the new plant was commissioned with only 50% of the HAZOP study recommendations implemented, there was no reaction from the board! This could be due to two reasons – a lack of perception of process safety risk and the lack of competence required to understand it. It’s a chicken and egg situation. The Baker Panel report on the BP Texas refinery accident in 2005 had suggested that BP appoint a person with process safety knowledge on its board, but as far as I know, BP has not appointed anyone.