Government proposes safety rating system for chemical plants | Business Standard

Government likes to rate chemical plants based on 19 key performance indicators in order to create need for zero accidents in their plants with respect to safety and security and also to provide incentives to good organizations.

I feel this is a beginning and new idea from government. Government should further extend this and ask insurance companies to use this rating while assessing the premiums. Erring companies should be charged high premiums.

But, care is to be taken to ensure that (risk) assessment will be carried out by experts and these experts are selected based on strict parameters. Else, poor assessment leads to wrong faith in the capabilities of chemical plants and its management.

Government proposes safety rating system for chemical plants | Business Standard

The draft document is available from the link as below. Interested parties can send suggestions by  end of October 2013. Such suggestions can be sent by e-mail at dirrt1@rediffmail.com; arun.agarwal@nic.in or by post. The department after receiving the comments will incorporate to prepare final documents on “Chemical Plant Safety and Security Rating System”.

http://chemicals.nic.in/Forwd30092013.pdf

Infrared thermography - use it to know about impending electrical fire in your place

Yesterday (14.12.2012) there was an article in The Hindu, about infrared thermography and its use to detect  heating of electrical systems at the point of electrical cable input joints due to over load, loose contacts, improper wiring, etc. The heat emitted is read by the portable device and temperature is displayed to decide about whether it is within or above the limits. I also heard earlier from my colleagues that wall mounted thermography devices are also available to monitor continuously about critical electrical systems.
As most of the fire mishaps are attributed to electrical short circuit (more than 40%) that led to loss of lives, property damage, use of infrared thermography for electrical safety inspections in residential buildings, shops, public places, etc will help in saving us from the perils of fire.
For a long time, I had this question in mind about knowing the health of electrical wiring in my apartment. Fires in apartments, multi storey buildings endanger human lives of all and one should check about electrical safety aspects in the building.
From my electrician, I found that generally, the wiring lasts for 15-20 years, though industrial wiring lasts for more than 30 years as per information from colleagues in power supply department. However, these are theoretical and based on experience limited to specific conditions.
As the author in his article mentioned, over loading is a reason for electrical fires. Wiring gets deteriorated quickly  under excess loads and the general information about life of electrical cable can't be applied universally. And, it is human tendency to add electrical loads with or without knowledge about electrical safety. At least at home front, it is the lack of knowledge on electrical safety that keeps people to add electrically operated kitchenware, electronics, etc. Tripping of MCBs will not lead to thinking by the residents for reasons, and instead, they just put it back and resume with the work.
And, in factories, it is the greed to prolong till it breaks without understanding or may be underestimating the costs to be incurred in case of fire. It is good that insurance companies are giving a thought to electrical safety audits. In many of my posts in this blog and in my comments in newspaper websites, I stressed upon the role of government agencies, regulators and insurance companies for enforcing electrical safety audit without which heavy premiums, penalties and punishments should be the order of the day. Only then, everybody will become aware of electrical safety and other issues and save themselves from fire mishaps and its consequences.
As mentioned in the article, there is company called CSR Impex Private Limited (C.Vidyasagar Reddy, Ph: 040-65212780, 9440066907)  which is involved in use of this technology for the past ten years to inspect electrical panels of various establishments, especially software companies. (I did not check with the company but as I believe in electrical safety audits to know the healthiness of electrical systems, I thought that I can reproduce this information appeared in the newspaper for use by all).

Short circuits main cause of fire - is it so?

It is reported that 45% of the fire accidents in Hyderabad are due to short circuits and another 31% are due to lighted cigarette butts. As rightly pointed out by Addl Director of Disaster Response and Fire Services department, people tend to buy cheap quality electrical cables and equipment for buildings resulting in early damage leading to such fire incidents. It is common for investigators to conclude majority of fires to short circuit but the root cause lies in use of improper electrical wiring, switches, and other electrical fittings. Also, people fail to ensure checking the healthiness of cables and others in their building and one should remember that even the best will not come for life. It should be made mandatory to check the healthiness of electrical systems after first 15 years and thereafter once in every five years. It is better to change electrical fittings at regular periodicity, say once in 15 or 20 years. Insurance companies should not pay any compensation if the fire is due to short circuit and they should insist on certificate for healthiness of electrical systems before renewing the policies.


http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-23/hyderabad/31386060_1_fire-accidents-fire-incidents-fire-safety

Insurance

Everybody tells us to take life insurance. Elders advise insurance even as a saving measure for future. Insurance agents showcase benefits of insurance to dependents after our death. And eventually, all those having regular income will take life cover for huge amounts and end up paying premiums.
But, we ignore insurance cover for our property. We try to avoid insurance for vehicles.
The loss from property damage can cause huge setback and often will be difficult to earn and build again. If we take loan for purchase of property, we take insurance to the extent of loan amount for loan period. But, as we repay, loan amount will reduce but our exposure to risk will increase. Unless we take insurance for entire property value, we will be taking risk with our hard earned money put in the property.
Similarly, we should take vehicle insurance both for the value of the vehicle and compensation to be paid to the persons in case of any accident. If we look at the amount saved by not taking insurance cover, in times of any accident, we may end up paying all our savings, may also incur loans and receive punishment.