If I had a nickel for every time I have heard this phrase over the past 20 years of consulting… “industry standard,” I would have retired after 5 years. What is an “industry standard”? It is far from being a Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practice (RAGAGEP), that’s for sure. However, companies with an immature safety culture will adopt such practices to be “competitive” without understanding the risks they often pose. They are confident simply because “nothing bad has happened”… YET!
I lost a good friend because a company followed the “industry standard” and used natural gas rather than compressed air to blow lines of slag and debris. This was an accepted industry practice in building NG power plants, but it was an insane practice and a total lack of respect for the hazards of Natural Gas.
