Contents Under Pressure (CUP) is a virtual game which addresses the topic of human decision making, which has been found to be the root cause of many process safety incidents. CUP provides a digital virtual environment designed to more realistically situate students in an authentic scenario in which they must balance multiple constraints, including process safety decisions. This more authentic environment is critical toward practicing process safety decision making skills, as in-class discussions, tests, etc. do not capture factors such as time or money constraints, or coworkers’ influences that may alter decisions in the real world and reveal a different level of moral development and understanding.
STEM4All video describing the background, gameplay and student perspectives of CUP
The Engineering Process Safety Research Instrument (EPSRI) is a survey tool designed to measure students’ moral reasoning in the context of
process safety decision making using process safety scenarios drawn from personal experience and reports from the Chemical Safety Board. Each scenario is followed by a decision prompt and 12–15 considerations. The EPSRI has been deemed valid and reliable in measuring senior chemical engineering students’ moral reasoning within process safety contexts.
Information on scoring of the EPSRI is given in the following paper: B. L. Butler, C. Bodnar, M. Cooper, D. D. Burkey, and D. D. Anastasio, “Towards understanding the moral reasoning process of senior chemical engineering students in process safety contexts,” Educ. Chem. Eng., vol. 28, pp. 1–12, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.ece.2019.03.004.
Modules and Tutorials
Course-specific modules, tutorials, and safety resources (University of Michigan): Course safety modules for material and energy balances, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, separations, reaction engineering, and process control. Safety tutorials and other resources.
Software
Chemical Reactivity Worksheet: A free software program for the chemical reactivity of thousands of common hazardous chemicals
AIChE Process Safety Progress Journal: This journal is supported by the AIChE Safety and Health Division and has leading research articles on process safety
U.S. Government Agencies
U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration: Access to all the regulations related to process safety, including 1910.119 process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals. This includes permissible exposure limits (PEL) promulgated by OSHA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Provides government resources for emergency management. This includes regulations, publications, databases and tools
U.S. National Library of Medicine: Toxicology data network provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It includes databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, environmental health and toxic releases