From 1985 and 2000, large western chemical and petroleum companies, collaborating through the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), developed a sophisticated level of process safety knowledge and shared this knowledge in the western world through conferences and English-language books. This approach proved satisfactory to address the process safety needs of a large proportion of global industry existing at the time. However, since 2000, the industry has been expanding significantly in developing regions of the world. Communications in this region are complicated by language, time zone differences, and culture.

Meanwhile, as reported by the US Chemical Safety Board, many smaller companies, even in the west, are often unaware of the considerable resources that have been developed. Finally, new engineers entering the workplace around the world are generally unable to travel, and due to the Internet resources available to them during their formative years are less enthused about plowing through hardcover books to retrieve information. It is clear that traditional communication means do not successfully reach any of these groups.

CCPS has recognized that the communication paradigm must be changed and expanded. This paper is addresses means that CCPS has used to close physical and language gaps, through on-site participation and translation of key materials, and to utilize exciting new Internet tools to facilitate interaction across distances and meet the needs of new engineers.