Loss of Containment

Memorable images representing typical LoC events are employed to improve the awareness of a broad range of personnel to potential Loss of (Primary) Containment (LoC) scenarios and increase their vigilance to such events & their potential causes so they can be promptly addressed.

Users or ‘Players’ are encouraged & helped to learn & apply the principles using this simple mnemonic:

  • REMEMBER Events
  • RECOGNISE Threats
  • RESPECT Barriers
  • REPORT Concerns

Thereafter, there is an obligation on the duty-holder to:

  • RECOVER Protection

Visualization is used to get and keep the workforce onboard with the process safety mission by challenging them with these simple questions:

  1. Do you UNDERSTAND what can wrong i.e. HAZARDS & LoC Events?
  2. Do you KNOW what the systems are to prevent this from happening i.e. BARRIERS?

In simple terms, this encourages everyone to:

Know your enemy

SUN TZU “THE ART OF WAR”

Remember Hazards are not the enemy – they are part of normal business with the potential to cause harm e.g. a tiger or gorilla in a cage.

Cards

A pack of cards has 52 scenarios which are divided into the following LoC ‘suits’:

♥ DISCHARGE
♣ DAMAGE
♦ DEVIATION
♠ DEGRADATION

Open route to atmosphere
External impact
Failure beyond design conditions/envelope (over-stress)
Failure within design conditions/envelope (under-strength)

These provide simple visual prompts to remind or inform “players” of the potential for LoC:

Images © Process Safety Integrity

Although the cards are designed to be intuitive, they are annotated with LoC Event types which can be supplied in different languages or alternative terminologies.

◙ Human Factors
◙ Control Malfunction
◙ Equipment Failure
◙ Environmental or External Influences

The UK HSE conducted analysis (HSL/2003/07) into Loss of Containment incidents which is summarised as follows:

Details of scenario components are provided on the Bowties page.


For more information on LoC cards, options & pricing, please contact us.