A news item on the above subject is interesting to read.
A good effort by Japanese factories to share information to prevent accidents. It is worth emulating by others also. Only that, the participants should not criticize the speakers for sharing the information about the accidents in their facilities. The speakers and their factory management should be appreciated that they came out boldly to tell about accidents and the lessons learnt to others with a godly view of preventing such accidents in other facilities.
Showing posts with label accident prevention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label accident prevention. Show all posts
Oct 13, 2014
Accident prevention - enforcement by mandatory publishing of safety data on product labels
Reasons for accident prevention, as quoted by experts, are humanitarian, economic and legal. Thus, organizations have to invest sensibly for implementation of occupational health and safety (OHS) in their organizations.
Further, it is stated that the reputation is also one of the factors for ensuring safety in the organization.
The reasons listed above, for investment in OHS are correct. However, I am not sure how many will see the reputation of the company with regards to OHS aspects, while buying its products.
Job aspirants and organizations engaging the services of organizations may take a step back and think before joining or using the services as they do not want to harm themselves or see delay of their projects. But, for this OHS data should be available before taking the decision.
I am doubtful about reputation aspect while buying a product as it does not make economic sense for anybody to pay more to products of another company because of poor reputation (on OHS management).
To drive home the message about OHS issues, may be, it should be made mandatory to display the safety statistics (readable font size and color) on their product labels. For example, 100 g of xxx biscuit packet contains 2 g calcium, 1 g iron, .......; and 2 persons injured in accidents during the making of this biscuit batch during the period ----. It is like blood stain on the product, made to be visible in the form of data display.
A rating system also may be thought off by governments or independent rating agencies that can be displayed and seen easily to enable quick decision by conscious public.
Nobody likes to display such information and thus may be more interested to ensure health and safety. And, once it is mandatory to display safety data or rating on the product labels, definitely, it will make manufacturers to be more sensitive (atleast to sell their products) to OHS issues.
Further, it is stated that the reputation is also one of the factors for ensuring safety in the organization.
The reasons listed above, for investment in OHS are correct. However, I am not sure how many will see the reputation of the company with regards to OHS aspects, while buying its products.
Job aspirants and organizations engaging the services of organizations may take a step back and think before joining or using the services as they do not want to harm themselves or see delay of their projects. But, for this OHS data should be available before taking the decision.
I am doubtful about reputation aspect while buying a product as it does not make economic sense for anybody to pay more to products of another company because of poor reputation (on OHS management).
To drive home the message about OHS issues, may be, it should be made mandatory to display the safety statistics (readable font size and color) on their product labels. For example, 100 g of xxx biscuit packet contains 2 g calcium, 1 g iron, .......; and 2 persons injured in accidents during the making of this biscuit batch during the period ----. It is like blood stain on the product, made to be visible in the form of data display.
A rating system also may be thought off by governments or independent rating agencies that can be displayed and seen easily to enable quick decision by conscious public.
Nobody likes to display such information and thus may be more interested to ensure health and safety. And, once it is mandatory to display safety data or rating on the product labels, definitely, it will make manufacturers to be more sensitive (atleast to sell their products) to OHS issues.
May 27, 2012
Subsidies by governments - what about safety investment?
In an article today, I understood where the huge amounts of subsidies allocated/borne by the government are utilized. Some amount goes to help the poor / middle class people. In this, some amount is also being spent on those who does not deserve because of their high income but possibly because of the difficulty in providing targeted distribution system, such leakages are happening. It is stated that Rs 5,29,000 crore is being the tax breaks given by the government to the corporations, which result is reduced cost of production thus the cost of product sold in the market.
I feel government should also include provision for exemptions on the money spent to improve safety in the work place. And while filing their tax returns, they should include the safety performance by way cost of the accidents (direct and indirect) and this much should be penalized for poor safety. This equivalent amount should be credited in to safety promotion fund account managed by the government for appropriate use. And those who do not incur any cost due to accidents, government can give some exemption either a % of their profits or the amount spent on safety betterment as safety reward by proper adjustment in balance sheets.
I am not an economist, but I feel such measures help in improving safety for the workers in the company.
I feel government should also include provision for exemptions on the money spent to improve safety in the work place. And while filing their tax returns, they should include the safety performance by way cost of the accidents (direct and indirect) and this much should be penalized for poor safety. This equivalent amount should be credited in to safety promotion fund account managed by the government for appropriate use. And those who do not incur any cost due to accidents, government can give some exemption either a % of their profits or the amount spent on safety betterment as safety reward by proper adjustment in balance sheets.
I am not an economist, but I feel such measures help in improving safety for the workers in the company.
Jun 30, 2011
Green Chemistry
There is an article in Chemical & Engineering News on 27.06.2011 about green chemistry, the history behind its development, 12 principles of green chemistry, sustainability and its role in accident prevention and environment protection and its use in business.
Nov 30, 2010
Number of safety officers in a hazardous plant - statutory and practical requirements
Safety officers in any hazardous installation are appointed as specified in statutes, which say that factories where 1000 or more persons are employed, safety officer should be appointed. When the employee strength exceeds 2000, for every additional 1000 employees, one safety officer should be employed with 500 or more employees rounded to 1000. For major hazard installations, factory inspector can specify the number of safety officers irrespective of employee strength. Accordingly, the number of safety officers for various employee strength will be as follows:
Employee Strength No. of safety officers
Upto 1499 1
1500-2499 2
2500-3499 3
3500-4499 4
5499-6499 6
8499-9499 9 and so on.
In some states, rules are framed as one safety officer for every 3000 employees is to be engaged.
As per Maharashtra Safety Officers Rules, 1982; the no. of safety officers required is,
1000-2000 1
2001-5000 2
5001-10000 3
>10000 4
But, in reality safety professionals find it difficult to manage safety aspects with so many employees in a factory, particularly where the operations are varied and complex, and with a large number of departments. The duties of safety officers include carrying out / conducting,
The work load increases depending upon the number of departments / sections, safety officer has to deal with. For example, if the number of employees in a factory having 4-5 departments is 4000, the work load for 4 safety officers appointed as per statutory requirement will be somewhat less compared to the work when the number of department is, say 30-40 as the complexity will increase both in technical and administration. The problem multiplies for the safety officers when his colleague in the safety department proceeds on leave as they have to look after safety aspects temporarily during the leave period.
Technical difficulties are in the form of wide variety of operations and administration difficulties are in the form of dealing with a number of shop floor/section/department heads. As the number of employees and departments increase, the levels of officers will increase and accordingly safety officers have to deal from lower to top level in orderly fashion and this increases work load enormously. Shop floor person can say he is doing as per his next level supervisor instructions and if safety officer directly talks to top and next level person, he can say he is not aware or instruct the safety officer to talk to lower level in-charges.
Added to the above, is contractor workers and their safety. Normally, contractor workers are engaged for doing various petty jobs and sometimes for regular plant operations and civil works. The real difficulty is that they will be working at different places on same day or at different periods and therefore job hazard analysis for their jobs and ensuring their safety is a tough task.
Though there are safety coordinators in some factories who do production and safety coordination with the safety department, in practice these safety coordinators give importance to production activities and thus safety at workplace rests with the safety department.
Though, Factories Act and its Rules say the duty of safety officer is to advice and assist, in reality, safety officer ends up in doing the jobs and in some factories, he will be asked to eliminate the hazards also by engaging few contractor workers, i.e., he has to identify and eliminate. After sometime, this may lead to not doing the jobs even as per Factories Rules and cause a dangerous work place for employees.
In view of the above, I feel that the legislations regarding number of safety officers should be reviewed and revised taking into account of number of employees and number of departments as below:
Upto 500 1 2501-2750 7 4001-4250 13
501-1000 2 2751-3000 8 4251-4500 14
1001-1500 3 3001-3250 9 4501-4750 15
1501-2000 4 3251-3500 10 4751-5000 16 and so on.
2001-2250 5 3501-3750 11
2251-2500 6 3751-4000 12
The employee strength should be taken as maximum number (including contractor workers, casual workers, etc) supposed to work at any given time. To ensure safety, atleast one safety officer should be available in shifts other than general shift, including Sundays and holidays.
With the above, I feel that safety department can function effectively to ensure a safe work place.
Employee Strength No. of safety officers
Upto 1499 1
1500-2499 2
2500-3499 3
3500-4499 4
5499-6499 6
8499-9499 9 and so on.
In some states, rules are framed as one safety officer for every 3000 employees is to be engaged.
As per Maharashtra Safety Officers Rules, 1982; the no. of safety officers required is,
1000-2000 1
2001-5000 2
5001-10000 3
>10000 4
But, in reality safety professionals find it difficult to manage safety aspects with so many employees in a factory, particularly where the operations are varied and complex, and with a large number of departments. The duties of safety officers include carrying out / conducting,
- inspections if not every day but atleast once in a week
- issue of safe work permits
- permission for modifications, changes, erection/commissioning of new equipment/process, etc
- job hazard analysis
- safety meetings in every department
- apex safety committee meetings
- safety audits
- accident/incident investigation
- training
- safety awareness programmes
- safety seminars
- followup with departments for compliance with recommendations of various committees
- safety studies like HAZOP, ETA, FTA, HIRA, etc
- coordination with regulatory agencies
- preparation and filing reports as per statutory requirement
- updating and maintaining records
- PPE procurement
- office safety (of various departments)
- contractor safety
- and so on
The work load increases depending upon the number of departments / sections, safety officer has to deal with. For example, if the number of employees in a factory having 4-5 departments is 4000, the work load for 4 safety officers appointed as per statutory requirement will be somewhat less compared to the work when the number of department is, say 30-40 as the complexity will increase both in technical and administration. The problem multiplies for the safety officers when his colleague in the safety department proceeds on leave as they have to look after safety aspects temporarily during the leave period.
Technical difficulties are in the form of wide variety of operations and administration difficulties are in the form of dealing with a number of shop floor/section/department heads. As the number of employees and departments increase, the levels of officers will increase and accordingly safety officers have to deal from lower to top level in orderly fashion and this increases work load enormously. Shop floor person can say he is doing as per his next level supervisor instructions and if safety officer directly talks to top and next level person, he can say he is not aware or instruct the safety officer to talk to lower level in-charges.
Added to the above, is contractor workers and their safety. Normally, contractor workers are engaged for doing various petty jobs and sometimes for regular plant operations and civil works. The real difficulty is that they will be working at different places on same day or at different periods and therefore job hazard analysis for their jobs and ensuring their safety is a tough task.
Though there are safety coordinators in some factories who do production and safety coordination with the safety department, in practice these safety coordinators give importance to production activities and thus safety at workplace rests with the safety department.
Though, Factories Act and its Rules say the duty of safety officer is to advice and assist, in reality, safety officer ends up in doing the jobs and in some factories, he will be asked to eliminate the hazards also by engaging few contractor workers, i.e., he has to identify and eliminate. After sometime, this may lead to not doing the jobs even as per Factories Rules and cause a dangerous work place for employees.
In view of the above, I feel that the legislations regarding number of safety officers should be reviewed and revised taking into account of number of employees and number of departments as below:
- One safety officer for every 500 employees upto 2000 employees or every 5 departments and thereafter
- one safety officer for every 250 employees
Upto 500 1 2501-2750 7 4001-4250 13
501-1000 2 2751-3000 8 4251-4500 14
1001-1500 3 3001-3250 9 4501-4750 15
1501-2000 4 3251-3500 10 4751-5000 16 and so on.
2001-2250 5 3501-3750 11
2251-2500 6 3751-4000 12
The employee strength should be taken as maximum number (including contractor workers, casual workers, etc) supposed to work at any given time. To ensure safety, atleast one safety officer should be available in shifts other than general shift, including Sundays and holidays.
With the above, I feel that safety department can function effectively to ensure a safe work place.
Nov 9, 2010
Responsibilities and limitations of regulators
Recently, I read in local news papers about the fire in a chemical plant. It is stated that during distillation of a chemical to supply to a factory, water entry caused explosion causing serious injuries to four workers. A visiting representative expressed his anger on the concerned Inspector of Factories for allowing the factory to run without permission. The licence for the factory expired a few years ago. Regional Pollution Control Board (PCB) also suspended the operations after a fire incident a year before. The anger of the representative is justified. That the plant was closed by PCB after a fire incident, two years after expiry of licence indicates that the plant was in operation all along.
But, on the other side, what are the resources available to the factory inspectors. What are the powers available to the inspectors. When an inspector identifies a plant with dangerous conditions or without valid licence, he will stop the operations. But, how to ensure physical stopping of operations. The factory inspector can't become watchman for the factory to ensure this. If that is the case, then for every factory or a few factories, one inspector is required. At this rate, the factory department needs hundreds of factory inspectors which is not at all possible because of lack of funds. This is a system failure.
If a factory is run inspite of stopping orders, then the occupier is liable along with the authorities responsible for continuing to supply services likes electricity, water, etc. Similarly, municipality, revenue, police, excise, customs departments which collect taxes and other service charges are also responsible. They can't work independent of other agencies. Once these agencies are intimated about a factory closure, all concerned have to keep check on the said factory. In addition, the customers (factories buying products) of the guilt factory should also be held responsible for making purchases without checking validity of licences. Now a days, with ISO certification, every management needs to ensure proper licences and authorizations before purchasing any items. Of course, if the product is a finished item for purchase by public, then these public can't be held responsible as there is no way of checking the credentials before buying.
There is no information in the news papers about how many times the factory inspector inspected the plant in the last few years. If there were inspections, factory inspector is equally responsible for the incident.
When a proper coordination exists between all concerned agencies as listed above and others, I am sure the hands of factory department will be strengthened to ensure safe work place.
But, on the other side, what are the resources available to the factory inspectors. What are the powers available to the inspectors. When an inspector identifies a plant with dangerous conditions or without valid licence, he will stop the operations. But, how to ensure physical stopping of operations. The factory inspector can't become watchman for the factory to ensure this. If that is the case, then for every factory or a few factories, one inspector is required. At this rate, the factory department needs hundreds of factory inspectors which is not at all possible because of lack of funds. This is a system failure.
If a factory is run inspite of stopping orders, then the occupier is liable along with the authorities responsible for continuing to supply services likes electricity, water, etc. Similarly, municipality, revenue, police, excise, customs departments which collect taxes and other service charges are also responsible. They can't work independent of other agencies. Once these agencies are intimated about a factory closure, all concerned have to keep check on the said factory. In addition, the customers (factories buying products) of the guilt factory should also be held responsible for making purchases without checking validity of licences. Now a days, with ISO certification, every management needs to ensure proper licences and authorizations before purchasing any items. Of course, if the product is a finished item for purchase by public, then these public can't be held responsible as there is no way of checking the credentials before buying.
There is no information in the news papers about how many times the factory inspector inspected the plant in the last few years. If there were inspections, factory inspector is equally responsible for the incident.
When a proper coordination exists between all concerned agencies as listed above and others, I am sure the hands of factory department will be strengthened to ensure safe work place.
Aug 1, 2010
What is the level of safety followed in advanced countries and others?
It is common to read / hear about the accidents all over the world. However, what is surprising me is that the number of accidents, type of accidents, deaths / injuries due to accidents are occuring in advanced countries as well as in developing countries.
Though governments of developing countries claim about poverty, illiteracy, lack of resources to implement safety, need for development as the reasons for inability to control accidents, I am unable to find the reasons for the accidents in advanced countries. In these countries, as I understand, greater transparency exists, unions are strong and are powerful that question the managements about poor conditions w.r.t safety, huge amounts are spent for ensuring safe conditions, providing PPE, doing audits, etc. Prosecutions are also carried out on erring companies and punishments/penalties are imposted. Still many accidents take place in advanced countries like those in the other world. Most of the accidents appear to be preventable. I am not really getting any reason for this phenomena.
Whether this indicates that the attitude to safety is same whether the country is advanced or not. The motive is to gain short term benefies i.e profits. Accidents are taken as part of the job and the victims are compensated. Only the amount of compensation varies from country to country. Paying compensation appears to be a better business model compared to spending money on accident prevention.
Though governments of developing countries claim about poverty, illiteracy, lack of resources to implement safety, need for development as the reasons for inability to control accidents, I am unable to find the reasons for the accidents in advanced countries. In these countries, as I understand, greater transparency exists, unions are strong and are powerful that question the managements about poor conditions w.r.t safety, huge amounts are spent for ensuring safe conditions, providing PPE, doing audits, etc. Prosecutions are also carried out on erring companies and punishments/penalties are imposted. Still many accidents take place in advanced countries like those in the other world. Most of the accidents appear to be preventable. I am not really getting any reason for this phenomena.
Whether this indicates that the attitude to safety is same whether the country is advanced or not. The motive is to gain short term benefies i.e profits. Accidents are taken as part of the job and the victims are compensated. Only the amount of compensation varies from country to country. Paying compensation appears to be a better business model compared to spending money on accident prevention.
Jul 15, 2010
Safety education - at what level it can be started?
I attended a one-day seminar on occupational hazards. The chief guest for the programme was Secretary for the Labour Ministry of the state government. In his address, he talked about various safety issues and finally he came to the subject of safety education. He advised the organizers of the event to coordinate with his senior staff and also of education department to introduce safety subject from school level onwards. He promised to talk to the secretaries of other departments for work in this direction. A noble promise indeed.
I never studied about safety, accident prevention, etc in my entire period of education. When I joined in the job, safety was touched upon during the training but there was no separte paper. Now for last few years, I am seeing that my children are having a chapter on road safety and environment protection. My juniors in the organization are having separte papers in their training programme on industrial safety and environment protection and I am taking classes for them on industrial safety. Really, a good development in our organization. Without studying safety subject, people are not aware of importance of safety and its benefits to the organizations.
In internet, we do have access to lot of information on safety, can see thousands of videos on selected topics. I feel that these videos as appropriate should be shown to children from high school level onwards and are discussed by teachers. At college level, videos on accidents (particularly those of CSB, WORKSAFEBC, HSE, etc) are to be shown and students should be asked to comeout with their own ideas and suggestions for preventing such accidents including design changes. US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is doing a great service to the world and they even send DVDs of videos free of cost whichever part of the world you are.
The pass mark for safety subject should be atleast same as that for other papers and it should be compulsory subject and not an optional subject.
If a person does not study about safety during his education years, then he will not understand the importance of safety in his employment years and he will be moulded by his workplace seniors in such a way that safety will not a priority to say the least. He may even think that safety procedures are an obstruction to his career growth, to his bonuses, etc till he lands in an accident or accident case depending upon his level of employment. I found this type of attitude when I discussed with my fellow safety professionals from various industries and the story is same. Not many care for safety or advise of safety professionals.
Therefore introduction of safety subject from school level is VERY IMPORTANT and should be continued upto degree level and specializations can be introduced at post graduation level.
I never studied about safety, accident prevention, etc in my entire period of education. When I joined in the job, safety was touched upon during the training but there was no separte paper. Now for last few years, I am seeing that my children are having a chapter on road safety and environment protection. My juniors in the organization are having separte papers in their training programme on industrial safety and environment protection and I am taking classes for them on industrial safety. Really, a good development in our organization. Without studying safety subject, people are not aware of importance of safety and its benefits to the organizations.
In internet, we do have access to lot of information on safety, can see thousands of videos on selected topics. I feel that these videos as appropriate should be shown to children from high school level onwards and are discussed by teachers. At college level, videos on accidents (particularly those of CSB, WORKSAFEBC, HSE, etc) are to be shown and students should be asked to comeout with their own ideas and suggestions for preventing such accidents including design changes. US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is doing a great service to the world and they even send DVDs of videos free of cost whichever part of the world you are.
The pass mark for safety subject should be atleast same as that for other papers and it should be compulsory subject and not an optional subject.
If a person does not study about safety during his education years, then he will not understand the importance of safety in his employment years and he will be moulded by his workplace seniors in such a way that safety will not a priority to say the least. He may even think that safety procedures are an obstruction to his career growth, to his bonuses, etc till he lands in an accident or accident case depending upon his level of employment. I found this type of attitude when I discussed with my fellow safety professionals from various industries and the story is same. Not many care for safety or advise of safety professionals.
Therefore introduction of safety subject from school level is VERY IMPORTANT and should be continued upto degree level and specializations can be introduced at post graduation level.
Jul 11, 2010
Safety mantra - If you can't do it safely, don't do it
I liked an article that was published in British Safety Council magazine (http://www.britsafe.org/). In it the Chief Executive of First Group Plc states their approach to accident prevention as below:
If you can'g do it safely, don't do it.
To improve the safety record, their new approach is "First to Zero" to eliminate all unsafe conditions. The target is not at accident numbers but to focus on persons representing these safety numbers. They do not want anyone to get injured and thus aim for eliminating all unsafe conditions. Really, we have to salute the managers and staff for aiming to such a high standards and working towards it.
Jun 29, 2010
Contractor safety, expensive accidents, accident prevention
I went through following articles at http://www.safetyxchange.org/ which I felt good to read. The website is very good and one can get e-mails by subscribing (free).
Most Expensive Accidents in History
How to Prevent Contractor Accidents, Part 1 Part2
The General Contractor Duty to Protect a Subcontractors Workers
To Prevent Accidents, We Must Change Attitudes
Have a nice reading.
Most Expensive Accidents in History
How to Prevent Contractor Accidents, Part 1 Part2
The General Contractor Duty to Protect a Subcontractors Workers
To Prevent Accidents, We Must Change Attitudes
Have a nice reading.
Jan 18, 2010
Accident prevention is cheaper than the accident
Yesterday evening, a 2-year old boy fell in an unused open borewell in a village in Andhra Pradesh. Today evening he died, though efforts were made to save the child.
It is not uncommon to hear such news now and then. There are many unreported incidents as well. Some lucky ones were rescued safely and many unlucky children could not. It is outrageous that when a borewell is dug, till other piping work is completed, the well is to be capped and all it costs for a perfect capping is only about Rs 500. People spend thousands of rupees for sinking a borewell but think that it costs them to securely close. Now, see the cost of resources put into saving the child fell in the borewell.
- EMRI service 108 personnel spent more than 24 hrs in rescue efforts
- District collector and SP also spent considerable time
- Earth removers were engaged on the job (it costs about Rs 500-1000 per hour when you rent it and for 24 hrs, more than Rs 20000/- is spent and this amount alone can be used for capping 40 wells. If you add cost of personnel and medical emergency care engaged in the work, the rescue efforts amount to another Rs 20,000/-)
It is good that TV9 channel started a campaign to inform them about all open wells so that message can be driven into concerned officials for capping the wells and save other children.
In the field of industrial safety, it is known that cost of accident prevention is only 1/4 of direct cost of the accident. Infact, the savings accrued from accident prevention, over a period of time, will far exceed the money spent on accident prevention and thus experts say that SAFETY IS CHEAP AND COSTS NOTHING compared to the expenditure one has to incur once an accident occurs.
The persons responsible for leaving the borewells in open condition should be held responsible and should be made to pay for their lapse so that all others will realize and try to be vigilant in their actions.
Publicity and awareness campaigns like the one started by TV9 should be on continuous basis and voluntary and should not be like knee-jerk reaction.
It is not uncommon to hear such news now and then. There are many unreported incidents as well. Some lucky ones were rescued safely and many unlucky children could not. It is outrageous that when a borewell is dug, till other piping work is completed, the well is to be capped and all it costs for a perfect capping is only about Rs 500. People spend thousands of rupees for sinking a borewell but think that it costs them to securely close. Now, see the cost of resources put into saving the child fell in the borewell.
- EMRI service 108 personnel spent more than 24 hrs in rescue efforts
- District collector and SP also spent considerable time
- Earth removers were engaged on the job (it costs about Rs 500-1000 per hour when you rent it and for 24 hrs, more than Rs 20000/- is spent and this amount alone can be used for capping 40 wells. If you add cost of personnel and medical emergency care engaged in the work, the rescue efforts amount to another Rs 20,000/-)
It is good that TV9 channel started a campaign to inform them about all open wells so that message can be driven into concerned officials for capping the wells and save other children.
In the field of industrial safety, it is known that cost of accident prevention is only 1/4 of direct cost of the accident. Infact, the savings accrued from accident prevention, over a period of time, will far exceed the money spent on accident prevention and thus experts say that SAFETY IS CHEAP AND COSTS NOTHING compared to the expenditure one has to incur once an accident occurs.
The persons responsible for leaving the borewells in open condition should be held responsible and should be made to pay for their lapse so that all others will realize and try to be vigilant in their actions.
Publicity and awareness campaigns like the one started by TV9 should be on continuous basis and voluntary and should not be like knee-jerk reaction.
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