Metrics and process safety

There is a lot of work in progress regarding leading and lagging indicators for process safety performance. While I do not dismiss the importance of the metrics, the problem is that unless the metrics are understood by the board or whoever is interpreting risk through the usage of these metrics, it will just be another non financial number. A dollar metric will grab eyeballs rather than metrics that tell you about leading indicators for process safety. This is the nature of humans. This can be avoided only by having technically competent personnel on the board of chemical companies. I believe things will improve only after it becomes legally necessary to have technically competent persons on the board of chemical companies and make them responsible for process safety management. Otherwise we will only keep seeing newer and newer terminologies but accidents will continue to happen and I will never be out of a job as a Process Safety Consultant!!
I welcome your views.

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