Book excerpt: Summarizes some of the wisdom accumulated by chemical process industry risk analysis practitioners and safety professionals, providing information on the applicability of quantitative risk analysis (QRA) to the chemical processing industry. Discusses essentials of QRA, outlines considerations for deciding when to apply QRA, and describes practical situations in which QRA may be used successfully. Overviews the process of setting up an individual QRA, discusses the importance of defining the right problem for analysis, and overviews various classes of QRA techniques. The authors are affiliated with EQE International, Inc. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR