The rapid development and expansion of the process industries in the European Com-munity (EC) back in the 1960s led in various EC countries in frequent incidents with explosions, fires and dispersion of toxics. In order to deal with this alarming situation efforts were initiated within and between these countries to exchange knowledge and expertise. One result of these efforts was the formation of the Working Party Loss Prevention in the frame of the European Federation of Chemical Engineers. One of the main activities of the working party has been from the very beginning the organization of a series of triennial sympo-sia of which the upcoming, the fifteenth, will take place in Freiburg in June 2016.