Kingsport City Schools
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Historical Lecture on Eastman Aniline Plant Incident to be Held
KINGSPORT, Tenn. – Longtime Eastman Chemical Company employee and safety expert Peter Lodal will host an informational lecture on the 1960 Eastman Chemical Company aniline manufacturing facility explosion on Tuesday, August 25, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. The lecture will take place in the Kingsport City Schools Administrative Support Center, 400 Clinchfield Street, third floor, Tennessee Room, downtown Kingsport. This lecture is free and open to the public.
Considered the worst accident in the company’s 95-year history, the explosion at Eastman’s aniline manufacturing facility on October 4, 1960 killed 16 people and injured more than 400 others. The presentation by Lodal will analyze the incident and its aftermath, using both historical records and modern analytical techniques. The results provide useful insights into both the technical and cultural safety issues raised. A question and answer session will also take place following the lecture.
Lodal currently serves as a Technical Fellow and group leader of the Plant Protection Technical Services group at Eastman. He has been with Eastman in various positions for more than 37 years, 17 years in process engineering and 20 years in process safety and loss prevention. He is Eastman’s representative to the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) Technical Steering Committee, is the chair of the CCPS Planning committee, chairs the Process Safety Committee for the American Chemistry Council (ACC), and serves on the International Editorial Board for the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries.
Lodal is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and a Fellow of the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS). He was awarded the 2014 Outstanding Engineer of the Year by the Upper East Tennessee Chapter of the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers. He is a past Director of his local AIChE section (East Tennessee), and was the 2010 Chair of AIChE’s Safety and Health division. Additionally, he is the author or co-author of over 20 papers and publications. Lodal was also the 2013 Trevor Kletz Merit Award Winner, given by the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center at Texas A&M University, and holds BS (1976) and MS (1977) degrees in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.