New year resolutions - Incident reporting culture

Wish you all a healthy, happy and safe new year.

Everybody will be cheerful and resolve to do so many to have a good year. At the end of the year, when we review, there may be some misses and some are forgotten. Everybody wishes for zero accident status in every sphere of work. But, this is possible only when there is a good system of reporting each and every incident whether it involves or not, of injury, property damage and environment damage.
It is reported widely and is also observed that many incidents do not come to the notice of  colleagues, supervisors and managers. This can be due to the fear of rebuke, chiding and becoming a fool in the eyes of others. Sometimes, an enthusiastic employee is dissuaded from reporting. If the employee reporting the incident is issued notice for occurrence of incidents, then he will try to cover from next time. Or, if warned, to ensure that there are no incidents, then also he will not report, though he may try to take some measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents, or he will take care that it will not go to the notice of superiors.
I feel that unless the problem of not reporting all incidents, however minor in nature they are, is not addressed, there will not be any improvement in shop floor safety. And, this is possible and can be done only with the whole hearted commitment and support from the top man of the organization. Though, critics question getting results from the action of one person (i.e top man), being in-charge of all affairs and with his powers, he is the only person who can influence the thought process of all persons down below for a safe production.
One can ask why incidents should be reported? When an incident is reported, it will be investigated by a team comprising production, maintenance, safety and other experts and analyzed for root cause and suggest measures to be taken. If it is not reported, then it may not be investigated, and even if investigated, it will be the individual or his friends which may not lead to effective investigation. Then, each work place should have a mechanism for periodical review on action taken on  recommendations. There should not be any delay in implementing the recommendations. Otherwise, improvement can't be achieved and we will see repetition of incidents again and again.
Sometimes, it appears so simple to take action but will find inordinate delay in implementation. This reflects lack of concern for safety of persons and generally reflects organization's poor safety culture.
When performance of individuals is reviewed, inputs on number of incidents occurred, number of incidents reported, measures taken to prevent incidents at the work place, extra work done to ensure safe place in areas not of his concern also should be obtained along with production figures by the assessor, which will send strong signals to all employees about the intention of the management for a safe work place.
Else, employees will be bothered about reaching production targets without caring for preventive measures to ensure safety of persons and environment.
Jobs done routinely i.e accident investigation after occurrence will yield only limited results whereas a paradigm shift in thinking of the decision makers will help in achieving good results in improving safety culture and ensuring a safe work place.

Some maths on environment damage costs in China

http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/international/2012/02/08/200548.htm

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/business/2012-02/07/content_14550738.htm

As per reports, in the year 2011, there were 542 environment related accidents out of which 60% are from road and process related accidents. It is estimated that the loss due to these accidents resulting in environment damage is about US$ 220 billion and this cost does not take into account of impact on public health and loss of productivity from farm land contamination. The number of accidents causing damage to environment is on rise.

I am not an economist and can't think much. But, it appears that countries while setting ambitious export targets are overusing the available limited natural resources and giving less importance to safety of employees and environment protection. When everybody tries to flood markets with their products, costs will come down, but this will also lead to wasting of resources and loading the environment. 

One of the units to measure development in an area is that of per capita energy consumption. This unit neither takes into account of effective use of energy not actual need for the energy consumed. 

Instead of craving for tags/labels of development, one should use available resources judiciously to provide necessary comfort for all.

Effect of diesel subsidies on environment

There is an excellent article on damage to environment due to artificially cheap fuels. It is an eye opener for common man how indirect free lunches are doled out to those who have enough money in hand. Many middle income group and above will come into these beneficiary list. It is unfortunate that because of wrong focus, the aim of improving the life of common man is still a dream.
The article also mentioned about efforts required to develop rail freight corridor to transport goods economically rather than depending upon inefficient road transport system. This road transport with diesel driven trucks is contributing to huge pollution burdening the environment. With the addition of more vehicles every year, the life of the roads also shortened and more and more money is spent on repairs / relaying of the roads. If they are not repaired, then the mileage will comedown, trucks get damaged and this again leads to pumping more money and reducing its availability for social development. Many state government run bus transport organizations are bleeding due to control of fares, poor occupancy and are unable to replace inefficient buses due to lack of funds.
Another point brought out is smuggling of the fuel to neighbouring countries due to price difference, indirectly financing their economies instead of our poor people.
We subsidize many things apart from fuels. The cost of a single tea even on a road side shop is costlier than the postcard. The actual user of the cards may not be intended people but those who participate in various entertainment programmes and subsidies go to them.
Thousands of crores of rupees is pumped into aviation sector to cater to a minuscule population. Such financing is avoidable and better utilized to avoid starvation deaths, rescue poor farmers who are the backbone for our survival. Else, sooner or later the food prices will spiral and there will be more deaths even in middle income groups and lead to law and order problem to lay hands on available food items.
As suggested in the article, it is better to remove all subsidies and support the farmers by increasing MSP.
In many states, governments provide housing to the poor. This can be little modified by constructing townships and banning the registrations to avoid change of hands.

Process Safety Management - for whom?

Everybody says process safety management (PSM) without knowing or having commitment. Many may be thinking it as day-to-day plant operation. In this regard, to identify, evaluate and control hazards in chemical plants, OSHA has given guidelines and can be read here.
It must be understood that by doing PSM, we are doing favour to ourselves and not to others. Even, production cost can be brought down, if we do PSM sincerely and follow it. If we do not care to spillages/leakages of chemicals, air, steam; do not care to study in detail before going for a new process / chemical / modification; do not make checklists for operations, then it means that enough attention is not paid for plant operations and it adds to cost of production by way of wastage, inefficient operation, accidents, and so on.
We should not feel like Alice in the wonder land when the unidentified hazards manifest into incidents/ accidents. One may feel stressed to follow the safety principles all the while. But, the stress will be more and can also lead to penalties and punishments when there is loss of life/damage to environment/property.
Many times when we land into simple accidents outside factory, we vow not to repeat such mistakes. But, when we commit such mistakes in a factory, the consequences will be very high and at that time we can move the time back to correct our mistakes. There is no time machine yet available to correct ourselves otherthan following safety principles in toto.

Increase of fuel prices - what is its impact on safety?

From y'day, the increased prices of fuels came into effect. Many are opposing the increase. I thought, okay, it will make a hole in my pocket, but what is its impact in my field, i.e., safety and environment. I think that the increased prices may reduce consumption of fuel to some extent thus contribute to the reduction in environment damage. When something is available cheap, it will loose its value / importance.

Many people use vehicles, particularly 4-wheelers for joy rides. Two advertisements which I am seeing in TV channels for last few months depict the same. In one advertisement, a child is sad because he did not get good marks or so, so his father takes him on a ride and the child asks for one more ride. In another advertisement, I think a couple or would-be couple will be on a ride to come out of their moodiness. Actually, it appears many persons don't have any work and therefore wander aimlessly in bikes, cars, etc. Subsidising fuel for such people is a crime. Similarly, supplying subisidised fuel for cars and sports cars whose mileage is very less is also waste of public money which could have been sent on providing education to poor children. In fact, subsidies are becoming a headache for the governments in the long run and they are finding it difficult to come out of this expenditure.

My suggestion is to eliminate fuel subsidies totally. Government should subsidise only public transport to such an extent that people of all categories should feel it economical to travel in public transport than using their own transport. All students can be allowed to travel without paying during their college hours. A pass should be issued to each student and should be punched for one trip to college per day so that wandering by students for timepass can be avoided.

Like issuing licence for driving, governments can issue permits for private transport at a price. This will reduce traffic congestion, reduce pollution, leading to better environment and good health of people. Then, to take care of emergency requirements, government should strengthen ambulance services for medical care and run public transport throughout 24x7 so that people will not be at disadvantage.

Similarly, government should increase excise duty / sales tax on vehicles equivalent to the cost of the vehicle or more. Today, I read in the newspaper that in Nepal, 300% tax is levied on imported cars and thus the cost of Nano car at Nepal works out to INR 4.5 lac. We should tax at these hight rates for all vehicles that are made within the country also.

The decrease in vehicles on the road will also reduce road accidents also and will save many elders and dependents caused by deaths.

The money spent on fuel subsidies can be better used for providing education and public health care which are becoming costly. Though the oil companies claim huge losses on account of subsidies, I am unable to understand why their shares value somuch. The share value of any loss making company will not even quote at its face value but all oil shares trade at multiples of their face value. I have to understand why it is so. After freeing the fuel prices from control, by how much their shares will go up will tell the extent of losses suffered due to subsidies.

Nothing lasts forever. It is obvious that if not now, in another 25-50 years fossil fuels will not be available. As the reserves comedown, oil producing countries will increase their prices and atleast next generation has to pay higher prices because no government can subsidise forever. Instead of using recklessly the valuable resources, let us use them judiciously and increasing the prices is a forceful method for conserving the fuel resources.

Oil spillages - What about other environment damage factors?

There is lot of concern about BP oil spillage and its effect on environment. But, very little action is seen on the use of fuel guzzlers for which BP and others produce oil. Most inefficient vehicles are produced and used everyday. People say two wheelers are worst environment polluters. I am not able to understand this. A 4-stroke two wheeler gives a mileage of 60-80 kmpl whereas a car gives mileage of 10-18 kmpl. Though, people argue that cars accommodate four persons, it is a normal practice that any vehicle is of single user only and occasionally, it is used for group travel. Thus, two wheelers are better than four wheelers from emission point of view. Further, the pressure on public roads will be less with 2-wheelers than 4-wheelers. Best is public transportation system (rail and bus).

More and more oil is drawn to meet the demands of hungry users. We are using the fossil fuels that are formed over millions of years of formation and projections show that we will consume all these fossil fuels by this century end. That means, in about 150 years (1950-2100) we consume all energy resources that are formed over millions of years with crocodile tears for future generations.

If we are reasonable, then there will not be so called false development / industrial growth with regards to these fossil fuel extraction, refining and usage. Then, there will not be any need for coming up of such greedy corporations who do not care about impact of there misdeeds. Everybody in public pronounce their commitment to save environment but how many practice this.

World Environment Day 2010

Today is the World Environment Day and our organization is celebrating it in a big way. Last few days saw conduct of competitions in slogan and essay writing. Organizers also invited entries for posters and all winners will be distributed prizes today by the chief guest who is an expert in the field of environment. To mark the occasion, pens were distributed to all employees. More than US $ 1,000/- is being spent for this occasion.

In our safety division, yesterday we discussed about what can be done for reducing environment pollution. We use about 40 nos. of two and four-wheelers for internal transport. A friend suggested about use of bicycles instead of auto vehicles. A good idea worth following. In my earlier organization which is a sister concern of our department, everybody including senior officials use bicycles to go around for meetings, library, seminars, etc within the compound wall of the organization. Only the head of the unit is having a car and few cars are in service for external transport (for going to airport or making enquireis and purchases). Other than the top man, every one uses mass transport system (bus) for transfer from colony to office.

Already many organizations are following this. To maintain bicycles and attend repairs, the organization should have a maintenance section.

I also heard that in a company, only bicycles are used and any body can take any bicycle available nearby and leave it wherever he goes for others also to use. They are not locked. It is like a free trolley system as it is in departmental stores, super markets, airports.

A good system indeed.