North Sea gas leak on March 25, 2012 at 4000 m below the surface

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21637-no-toxic-hydrogen-sulphide-in-north-sea-gas-leak.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21631-north-sea-gas-leak-venting-from-newly-disturbed-source.html
http://www.fifetoday.co.uk/news/scottish-headlines/north-sea-gas-leak-source-located-1-2199804#


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2121457/North-Sea-gas-leak-threatens-repeat-Piper-Alpha-oil-rig-disaster-Aberdeen.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Change of guard - impact on safety policies

Changes are imminent - whether it is the top man or at different levels. Every time, organizational change occurs particulary at top level, it is certain that the new management will review policies in all respects. People want to leave their imprint by thinking differently and this is one of the reason for shuffling of positions in any organization.
Depending upon the knowledge, experience, interests and targets of the person taking charge,  and also the advise provided by down under, unless otherwise it is one-man army as in small organizations, the policy shift can be either good or bad to the organization (and to the subordinates?). It may take sometime to see the results of these changes.
As per rules, whenever the occupier or safety in-charge changes, this information needs to be informed to regulators immediately. And, it is better if regulators keep a watch on the affairs of such organization(s) for a reasonable period, to ensure that the safety issues continue to get top priority inspite of the changes in the organization.

A capsule for removing radioactive contamination from milk, fruit juices, other beverages

A capsule for removing radioactive contamination from milk, fruit juices, other beverages

LINK

Who is responsible for delay in work? Regulators or managements?

Many times regulatory process is shown as a reason for delay in work progress or failure to achieve production targets or failure to start or complete projects in times or ending up in losses. However, they do not explain or do not want to see why proper planning and execution is not done to comply with applicable procedures and statutes. When procedures are not followed and if and when the regulatory body finds violations or finds new information, they are bound to issue notices. Had the entity disclosed the information fully about its intentions initially itself or complied with conditions subsequently, there would not have been any tussle or heart burn.
Companies blame that the information which is not asked earlier is being asked later and their works are being suspended or such new information is shown as a cause for stopping the work. As long as any activity got potential to cause harm to people and environment, it has to be addressed, even if not during application process.These systems are evolved over a period of time based on past experience and considerable forethought and can't be questioned for one's problems.
Economic growth or profits of the companies alone can't be a reason for bypassing/violation the regulatory process. Safety of the persons and environment should get top priority over other issues and nobody got any right in this regard.

Safety Daily Advisor : Facts About Shiftwork Health Problems

Safety Daily Advisor : Facts About Shiftwork Health Problems

Shift work introduces changes in our daily routine and this requires adjustment and tuning of our body to new pattern. How fast this occurs varies from individual to individual. There are many who continue to work in shifts for years. Even in some of those people, there are problems of adjustment and complaints about health. Apart from loosing their family life which they could have when they come in general shifts, they are also prone to accidents for a variety of reasons like health, lack of proper supervision in shifts, psychological, etc. However, one of my senior colleague told me that he could use day time to undergo many courses and acquire higher qualification which he could not have got, if he attended work in general shift. But, such people are less and generally one will be taking more time for rest when working in night shifts. Persons especially in night shifts are prone to accidents. Further, in some industries, as reported in news papers, workers are engaged to letout untreated effluents in public drains during night times when vigil is almost nil. This may induce them to develop unlawful attitude and indirectly affects their own lives also.

Who bears the most of the cost of a workplace accident? Employer ! Community!! Workers!!!

In a blog (safetyatworkblog.com), it is reported that 95% of the cost of a workplace accident is borne by the workers and community, whereas the employers incurs the balance. If this is true, then, employers are making profit at the cost of the society even during accidents. Though, it is not clear, how this data is arrived at, however, it is true that a business minded person passes on all his costs to his customers and he may add a percentage of the total costs (including those incurred due to incidents/accidents) as his profit. Can we draw from this, by stating that the higher the input costs, higher the profit. May be the breakeven period will be more, but afterwards, profits will be more. I am not an economist, but with my thought process, I am putting this analysis.

Rare surgery, thumb reconstructed from toe

In a rare surgery, a carpenter is able to write, hold and eat after his right hand thumb was reconstructed from one of his foot toes. The carpenter lost is thumb while working and six weeks after the surgery at Yashoda Hospital, Secunderabad, he could do most of the jobs. It is reported that such surgery was done 20 years before at NIMS (Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderbad, India), but public awareness about such rare surgeries is almost negligible.

Dangerous lift, boy looses life

A boy died in the lift of an apartment under construction while playing inside the lift. The lift moved with boy's leg between the lift door and the wall. The lift stopped after moving some distance by which boy died. A case was registered on lift maintenance agency under IPC for rash/negligent act.
It is not clear from the reports,  how the lift is allowed for use without interlock between lift movement and door position. It is not clear from the news, whether the door is foldable grill type and the boy while playing put his leg through openings of the grill and somebody in someother floor pressed the button causing the lift to move.

Confined Space Entry ,BP Guidelines

Confined space jobs are very dangerous as one has to work in unknown atmospheres. Here is a link to BP Guidelines on confined space entry, found at Petroleum Community forum.

Confined Space Entry ,BP Guidelines

LINK

List of issues to be looked for during safety inspection

Link for a post on the above topic appeared in the internet is given below.

http://www.chemicalplantsafety.net/safety-inspection/a-must-have-list-of-safety-inspection-checklist/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ChemicalPlantSafety+%28Chemical+Plant+Safety+Resources%29

Mine accidents - a way to reach the trapped workers

This post is about a rescue operation of trapped miners about 45 years ago, narrated to me by a known person. He was working as a doctor in those mines. Some mine workers were trapped during drilling and authorities could not find it easy to rescue them. Then, based on the advise of an employee, they contacted local thieves, who used to steal valuables from the mines. One of them, confessed about a secret way to reach the location of mine collapse, by which all trapped miners were rescued within a day of the incident.

It is funny, but is a valuable lesson.

Charge the vehicle owners for parking on the roads

At many places, people park their vehicles in front of their houses on the roads, leading to narrowing of roads and accidents. It is mandatory to leave sufficient space (about 10 ft or more depending upon the plot area) in front of the house upto their compound wall. But, hardly this norm is followed. Overcome by greed, people leave little space and construct the houses upto their boundary, and may be sometimes encroaching their neighbour's area or public road. Naturally, this leads to no parking space and occupants park their vehicles on the roads. All such vehicles should be taken over by local authorities and charge heavy penalties. If there is no response within specified period (say two weeks), the vehicle should be put up for auction. There are thousands of vehicles of all categories that are parked on the roads and I feel this brings sufficient income for the local authorities and also bring discipline among the greedy.

Polluter pays - recovery of cleaning costs from company

In an incident involving overturning of tractor trailer leading to chemical spillage (50 gallons of tetra chloro ethylene) on the road, it is stated that the cost of cleaning, overtime charges of police personnel, cleaning personnel, emergency center setup expenses will be charged to the trucking firm. During clean up operations, the road traffic was stopped. Quantification of the loss incurred by those on the roads shutdown will be much higher than the bill that will be served to the trucking firm. However, billing is a good idea as many have scant respect for the national wealth spoiled by their acts.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Did-you-cause-the-wreck-that-shut-down-I-10-for-3388775.php

Standing under the coconut tree - a nearmiss incident

Yesterday, I went to my friend's house and while leaving he came out upto the gate to see me off. While talking at the gate, all of sudden there was cracking sound and a dry big leaf (about 4 m long) of the coconut tree that is adjacent to the gate fell down, almost touching the backside of my friend. The tree is about 12-15 m high. When we saw up, one more such leaf is loosely hanging dangerously at the top and may fall any time due to heavy wind.
In the city where we do not see coconut trees due to apartment culture with no room left for trees, I forgot the dangers of standing under the tree, though we have a coconut tree at our house in the native place. My mother says, scorpions and even snakes are likely to be encountered when a person goes up to cut the coconuts from the tree or for removing the dried leaves. Same is the case with various types of palm trees. But their leaves are not as heavy as coconut leaves.
The incident is a near miss and a few millimeters made the difference to avoid getting hit by the coconut leaf.

Holi (colours) festival - painful incidents

Every year Holiday will be celebrated in the country, by sprinkling colours on near and dear. Children and elders like the festival alike and play cheerfully, distributing sweets. People other than children also drink bhang and dance. At the end, they take bath to wash coloursAnd every year, there will be news of,

• persons admitted to hospitals because of effect of use of harmful colours, causing irritation, temporary/permanent damage to eyes, skin, etc
• persons vomitting because of excessive consumption or poor quality of bhang
• persons getting drowned in ponds and lakes as they do not swimming
• eruption of fights between groups of people because of indescent behavior

Like Diwali, this festival also some people suffer because of improper use of colours and others. Elders in the family should teach safety precautions and keep an eye so that Holi festival can be celebrated without pain.

Auto rikshaws - dangers due to narrow front

Sometimes, the drivers of autorikshaws on the roads take sudden unexpected turns on either directions leading to accidents. Any vehicle coming behind or along the auto-rikshaw will get involved in collision either from behind or on the sides resulting in verbal dual and traffic jams. For two wheeler drivers driving along, such turns lead to imbalance and falling on the road and getting over run by vehicles coming in opposite direction.

I feel there is a basic deign problem with auto-rikshaw. The driver takes turn as he wishes because he view is restricted both vertically and horizontally and being a narrow cabin in the front side, his perception of vehicle width is that of his cabin width and not that of passenger seat portion. If the autos are uniformly wide where the width of both driver seating area and passenger seat area are same, this perception problem will not exist. And there should two wheels in front also instead of single wheel and along with a steering instead of a handle to control directional movement will ensure safe driving.

Emergency exits - how they should be?

Recently, I attended a seminar and found the two doors marked as EXIT inside in the conference room, are leading to the same corridor. The conference room is located somewhat deep inside the building. I thought it is dangerous as any fire in the corridor will trap the seminar room occupants. Then during lunch time, I went behind the screens used for display of presentations and found two doors leading to outside of the building. Though, these doors are not marked as EXIT, still they serve the purpose. However, as they are not visible and there are no directional marks, people may or may not use them in an emergency.

Some of the guiding principles for emergency exits are,

1. doors should open outward
2. there should be one emergency exit for every 75 ft distance
3. emergency lighting along the corridor to maintain minimum illumination in case of failure of regular power supply
4. self glowing display signs (EXIT, arrow marking, etc)
5. availability of keys near the doors marked emergency exit, with hammer to break the box containing keys
6. not blocking the emergency exits
7. not having stairs in front of emergency exit doors

At some places, it looks funny to see signs of EXIT and directional arrows exactly on the doors instead of direction marks along the wall from inner rooms to outdoors. 

Only married men employed in a factory

In a Chinese factory that is engaged in manufacturing pesticides like guanidine nitrate, it is reported that only married men are employed. An explosion in the factory at about 0930 hr on 28th Feb 2012 led to 13 deaths and scores of injuries. The blast led to collapse of a workshop and breakage of window panes in 2 km radius. Tremors were felt by three villages nearby.
I am unable to guess the reason for only married male employees in the factory.

Huge propane storage tank in US to meet 6 month needs

A colorado based company proposes to have a 22.7 million gallon propane insulated tank. In the report, it is stated that locals will vote about the work on the project and describes about the facility, possible effects and measures. The report has some questions and some answers. It is an interesting article. I calculated fireball radius and its duration using the equations mentioned in "Major Hazard Control: A Practical Manual" published by ILO. The fireball radius is 803 m and its duration is 124 seconds. The impact distances for thermal radiation resulting from BLEVE/VCE extend much longer. It reminds me about the incident at New Mexico in the year 1984.
The owners must have taken suitable measures as per applicable NFPA and other regulations. Risk assessment of the proposed facility with its safety features, considering the presence of other manufacturing facilities and their impact will result in a meaningful conclusion.

Responsibility for failure to use PPE

In an article, the court dismissed the claim for the death of an employee as it is found that the employer did everything it can do to impart knowledge, train, issue PPE, conduct weekly meetings and toolbox meetings and so on.
Still, I feel effective supervision and not engaging the person when the employee refuses to wear PPE could have prevented such incident. Otherwise, why to engage supervisors. Apart from supervisors for safe production activities, site specific monitoring of safety supervision by designated persons will ensure accident prevention.

Road safety - Heavy penalties for traffic offences

As per a report in the year 2010, 1.3 lakh persons died due to road accidents. A study reveals road accidents cost the nation about Rs 1,00,000 crore.  There will be many road accidents which go unreported and authorities come to know of the accidents only when persons are seriously injured and require medical help.
Government proposes to penalize heavily those caught on the road with drunken driving/mobile use during driving/over speeding/jumping the signal/driving without helmet or seatbelt/using vehicle without registration. The government proposes penalties for first offence ranging from Rs 500 to 10,000 and for subsequent offences upto Rs 20,000. Dangerous driving and mobile use invite jail term also upto 2 years.
On this aspect, in earlier post way back in the year 2008-9, I felt the same.

Apart from penalising those with dangerous/unsafe driving, pedestrians crossing the roads without waiting for easing of road traffic, roadside business persons encroaching the roads, persons parking vehicles on the road also should be penalised heavily as they are also responsible for a number of road accidents and deaths.
And those caught with traffic offences should be forced to work on social service activities like cleaning the roads, schools, performing traffic control duties, etc.

Many times, to save the persons on the roads, vehicle drivers move away  and this during speed causes skidding/loosing control/hitting the road divider or street pole, etc leading to fall of the driver, toppling of the vehicle, hitting some other person/vehicle, etc and injury/death.

Government proposes to use 50% of the fines collected to use for road safety fund. Apart from this, I wish government gives 25% of the fines collected as incentive to the traffic police. In my earlier posts on the same topic, I opined to give some basic salary to the traffic police and allow them to take penalty amount as their income. This will also reduce burden on the government to maintain huge staff and encourage to recruit more and more traffic police all over the country by respective authorities. I also suggested in earlier posts to takeover properties of offending drivers/vehicle owners to teach lessons for life. In a situations where words are not enough, only actions / measures like above will control road accidents and save lakhs of lives.