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The loss of technological knowledge is an important contributing factor to a major accident occurs. This article analyzed several major accident reports to corroborate to this premise. The more an organization moves further away from a known technology, the risk of an accident occurring considerably increases. This work discusses three ways in which technological knowledge can be lost: (1) new technology; (2) loss of knowledge due to inadequate training, procedures, and information; and (3) the failure to incorporate new knowledge (e.g., the lessons learned). For each means of technological knowledge loss, this article refers to an important major accident and shows how it contributed to the accident. It also addresses the types of failures and the concept of independent protection layers to help explain how to reduce the possibility of a major accident occurs. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 35: 253–257, 2016

Process hazard analysis (PHA) is important tool to identify the hazard and analyze the risk of a scenario. The risk is a function of the severity and frequency of occurring a loss event. Scenarios with high severity have the possibility to cause severe damage to people, environment and property. However, some companies have missed these scenarios because after applying mitigative safeguards, they have reduced the severity. Thus, these companies have lost the opportunity to draw plan to manage scenarios with high consequences, even if they are scenarios with a low frequency of occurrence. This paper aims to discuss how PHA practitioners should proceed when setting mitigative safeguards. Additionally, it proposes some actions to strengthen the process safety after identifying scenarios with high consequences. © 2019 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog: e12049 2019

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