Lessons learnt from process safety accidents - an article from insurancenewsnet.com

A good article is found on the above title, narrating lessons from five less known accidents. The lessons are,

1. containment of water from fire fighting operations to avoid contamination of water sources in the rundown 
2. to consider all auxiliary equipment also as important as main plant equipment for understanding hazards
3. not to ignore hazards and need for monitoring even during shutdown 
4. positive isolation, purging and checking for hazardous atmospheres (using flame is not a correct check for presence of flammable atmosphere)
5. follow written approval system to override interlocks
6. follow safety permit procedures
7. identify the correct equipment before taking up work
8. communicate with clear identification while handing over the equipment for maintenance
9. ensure physical check by another agency before permitting equipment operation/maintenance
10. hazards from dust, propagation of dust explosions
11. preparation of emergency response management, with detailed instructions for every type of emergency
12. good house keeping
13. establish process safety management procedures
14. inculcate good safety culture, starting from the top management

Safety department in the plant – boon or bane?

Governments made it mandatory to have a dedicated safety department in every plant/facility conforming to certain minimum conditions considered as hazardous. Generally, the role of the safety officer specified in the applicable legislations is to advice and assist the plant officials to carryout –

hazard identification, job hazard studies, accident investigation, procurement of safety devices, conduct of safety promotional campaigns, safety competitions, etc.

Further, it should also conduct monitoring inspections to evaluate safety performance, investigate select accidents/near misses, maintain records, etc.

However, when we hear/read from media about occurrence of accidents everyday at some plant or the other, it appears that the safety departments in these facilities are not effective by themselves or concerned plant managements are not heeding to their advice.

Having a separate safety department in every facility along with other departments like production, maintenance, quality, HR, administration, security, etc may be giving the impression to the other departments that safety in the work area is not their job(work/headache). And these departments may also be of the view that it is the safety department which should identify the hazardous conditions and ALSO to rectify them WITHOUT bothering them (i.e production, etc).

Such views are against the role specified by the legislations and clearly the importance of safety department is lost when such views are also supported by the top management. Clearly, safety department cannot go hand in glove situation with other departments, they confrontation is not the solution. Safety department should act tough with erring departments. If the role of safety department is limited by not listening to their advice, then the safety in the concerned facility is doomed and accidents will be just waiting to happen.

One should realize that safety is a line function i.e everybody in the organization should make it happen and not that of staff function i.e it is not the duty of safety department staff alone. If any plant management thinks it is staff function, then safety will not improve in that plant and the expenditure on safety department staff (salaries) is waste. May be they can only show to visitors that they are complying with legislations, they are spending so much, etc and make them scapegoats in case of any accident. This is true, as of late, filing cases on safety department officials along with other department officials is on the rise. It is easy to tell that the safety officer did not caution them about the hazards though clearly, it is the responsibility of the work area in-charge. 

The occurrence of accidents at work places that come to our notice through media, and the possible reasons as above sometimes lead to the conclusion that it is better to abolish the safety department by legislation and to make concerned plant management responsible for ensuring safety. Nobody should be designated as safety officer or person responsible for safety, even within each department as the results will be same.

The responsibilities of every department in-charge should include safety also, apart from other responsibilities. The issues to be discussed   in every review meeting should include all issues like, production, quality, safety, maintenance, developmental activities, projects, etc (need not be in that order, but all issues should be reviewed without fail).

Such procedure will make the in-charges to give equal time to all issues and ensure a safe work place for all.

Measures to be taken before a plant shutdown

The following link provides good information on the above topic. 
It suggests that one should engage experience technical persons for shutting down a plant and equipment conditioning, which may not be required to operate in the near future, but may be required at a later date. All process holdups should be drained, cleaned, protective coats applied, instruments/sensors kept in dry condition and kept in good condition so that when plant is to be restarted, it can be done with minimal costs, head aches and damage. One should also record all measures taken during shut down and to be taken while restarting as it is likely that same technical persons may not be available in the future. Cannibalizing also should be avoided so that plant can be restarted at short notice without searching for missing motors, pumps, valves, vessels, etc. One should also ensure periodical maintenance of the equipment and auxiliaries of plant that was shutdown. Else, we have to be satisfied in getting scrap value by sale instead of its full value.

http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/28796/do-before-plant-closure