There is a news item which mentions about the death of 2 persons and hospitalization of 2 more due to inhalation of poisonous gas from a manhole. One of the deceased went inside the manhole to check gas leak. As it appears, no PPE was used by the victims. Few years back, I read a similar incident wherein one auto driver opened the petrol tank lid and tried to check the petrol with the help of a lit match stick which resulted in burn injuries on the face. Similarly in another incident, a person died when he tried to see the water level in an underground water reservoir. The person died though he was sitting on the top of the tank and lowered his head without actually entering into it.
The safe practice is to lower the gas monitoring instrument / gas drawing tube to the place of work and check for levels rather than allowing the person to enter in to it. If it is not possible for any measurement due to complexity of the approach for the instrument, then a person should enter only after wearing self contained breathing apparatus and safety belt and communication system under the watchful eye of another person at the entrance of the opening.
Few years back, I saw in NGC in a "Seconds from Disaster" episode, where flammable gas leaked from the line (which was deep inside a river), diffused into a weak sewage water line adjacent to it, passed through sewage line network, leaked outside through open manholes of the city and caused widespread explosions after it found an ignition source in the form of a spark generated by lifting and dropping of manhole by one of the municipal employee. This type of fire and explosion is beyond imagination of persons. But, there was an accident reported where sparks from gas cutting work ignited a gas leak. Rules insist upon maintaining minimum 15 m radial distance around hot works, to be free from any flammable materials/storages. There is nothing wrong in covering flammable material containers with asbestos cloth / wet cloth to prevent spraks falling on them and there is no need to feel shy of being extra cautious about safety.
Though, people doing/permitting such hot works without safety precautions question about the wisdom of maintaining safe distances, occurrences of fire incidents remind us to be extra cautious and to know that "Rules are for all to implement" and only fools (though they claim that they are knowledgeable and are in good management position because of their so called hard work) violate the rules.
Feb 5, 2011
Fire during solvent transfer in buckets from drums
2-3 days back, I read a news item in a regional news paper that there was fire while transferring a solvent with a plastic bucket from drums. There were sparks followed by big fire.
It is clearly due to static charge builtup during dipping of plastic bucket in drums containing solvent. Static charge is generated due to friction between conducting (metal drum) and non-conducting (solvent, bucket) media. For solvent transfer, one should provide proper piping arrangement with earthing and bonding to dissipate the charge accumulated.
Few years back, I read a case study in which a fire occurred while transferring the solvent through braided plastic hose. Investigation revealed that the electrical continuiity was broken as there was no contact between the nozzle and the metal braid reinforcement to the hose. During transfer for extended time, the accumulated charge on the hose discharged as spark causing fire.
Hence, earthing and bonding are important aspects and one should avoid short term measures like bucket transfer to avoid recurrence of such fire incidents. Further, the operators should not wear synthetic dress (wear only cotton dress), wear antistatic foot wear, ensure turbulence, nozzle spray, etc to avoid static charge generation/accumulation.
It is clearly due to static charge builtup during dipping of plastic bucket in drums containing solvent. Static charge is generated due to friction between conducting (metal drum) and non-conducting (solvent, bucket) media. For solvent transfer, one should provide proper piping arrangement with earthing and bonding to dissipate the charge accumulated.
Few years back, I read a case study in which a fire occurred while transferring the solvent through braided plastic hose. Investigation revealed that the electrical continuiity was broken as there was no contact between the nozzle and the metal braid reinforcement to the hose. During transfer for extended time, the accumulated charge on the hose discharged as spark causing fire.
Hence, earthing and bonding are important aspects and one should avoid short term measures like bucket transfer to avoid recurrence of such fire incidents. Further, the operators should not wear synthetic dress (wear only cotton dress), wear antistatic foot wear, ensure turbulence, nozzle spray, etc to avoid static charge generation/accumulation.
Fatigue and reasons for it
There is an article in Safetyatworkblog on fatigue and the reasons for it. Based on a survey, it mentioned that this is due to workplace and some of the reasons are,
- reduced head count - more work, less people i.e overload
- overlapping of office and home life - taking the work to home, ignoring family members which can lead to increase of distance with family members. Only after retirement, one will realize the distance but it is too late.
- part time job after regular job - taking up additional jobs to get more income can increase take home pay but this stretches the person's ability to do to the maximum and after sometime, he will fail to deliver the targets and may be fired
- nature of the person to do entire work - due to lack of confidence on others. (I do this as I think that scribbling on a paper or giving dictation for the clerk to do typing puts additional work on me to correct again and again. Further, if I type the report on my own, I can incorporate my thoughts during typing itself. Else, I have to do correction in the typed matter by others. May be, I am ineffective in giving dictation or writing the draft)
- staying extra time - some employees stay extra time to do more work. This is like S.No.3 above. The reason can be to reach target in time or before time; or to be in the good books of the boss; or to use internet; or he did not have any work at home. This will lead others also to stayput extra hours, but at the cost of losing relaxation and increasing the mental stress (there is an article circulating in the Groups reportedly written by Infosys Chief on the impact of this and his advise to stay in office only as per working hours)
- using the leave - I was told by one my very senior officer that one should use the paid leave to relax to get charged and do productive work
Feb 1, 2011
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.
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.
Jan 16, 2011
Communication - its importance in personal and official matters
There is no news paper delivery today as it was a declared holiday yesterday on the occasion of Sankranthi festival. I was going through yesterday's Times of India news paper and read about the advice of a famous couple of Hindi cinema (bollywood) to be successful in life. They mentioned about the need for PROPER communication between the persons and not to take for granted just because they are known to you. It is true in every sense.
Let it be at residence, or office or on the roads, when we watch the way we talk with strangers/seniors, we find that we talk with respect, use good language, take efforts to explain and make them understand. And when it comes to our family members, all this will be missing and will be trying to show (may be unconsciously) who is the boss at home. Most of the time our talk will be in harsh language and will be shouting without reason. If sense prevails, atleast after sometime, we will apologize for the way we talked.
This is true at office also. When we talk with subordinates, we talk differently and while talking with boss, we are subdued. This leads to lot of communication gap and failure to achieve what we want. Before saying, for a moment, let us enter into other's shoe and visualise how our directions will be received/understood. If we are clear, then we can say what we want. If not, then we have to do communication the way it gets the result what we want.
In safety issues also, communication plays a great role. If there is no proper communication, then operators assume something and things may go wrong. Blaming the operator after an incident will not serve any purpose. Operators also should be bold to ask when they do not know what to do or how to do. Similarly, when we, the safety professionals do not communicate, or fail to communicate in simple language, then we can't expect safety at the shopfloor. We have to explain to the plant managers, contractors, occupier about their responsibilities w.r.t safety and advise them how to do in safe manner. Training, news letters, etc are aids in communication. Safety work permits, clearances are also form communication, but for the particular job/modification/new work. Many accident investigations stress about lack of communication/coordination.
Collective wisdom is available in the form of legislations. We have to communicate these to shopfloor people so that they can understand and implement. Of course, there will be few rebels who do not want to follow the rules and regulations and for them, we have to take into confidence of the management and punish them by caution, warnings, penalties and termination in that order.
Let it be at residence, or office or on the roads, when we watch the way we talk with strangers/seniors, we find that we talk with respect, use good language, take efforts to explain and make them understand. And when it comes to our family members, all this will be missing and will be trying to show (may be unconsciously) who is the boss at home. Most of the time our talk will be in harsh language and will be shouting without reason. If sense prevails, atleast after sometime, we will apologize for the way we talked.
This is true at office also. When we talk with subordinates, we talk differently and while talking with boss, we are subdued. This leads to lot of communication gap and failure to achieve what we want. Before saying, for a moment, let us enter into other's shoe and visualise how our directions will be received/understood. If we are clear, then we can say what we want. If not, then we have to do communication the way it gets the result what we want.
In safety issues also, communication plays a great role. If there is no proper communication, then operators assume something and things may go wrong. Blaming the operator after an incident will not serve any purpose. Operators also should be bold to ask when they do not know what to do or how to do. Similarly, when we, the safety professionals do not communicate, or fail to communicate in simple language, then we can't expect safety at the shopfloor. We have to explain to the plant managers, contractors, occupier about their responsibilities w.r.t safety and advise them how to do in safe manner. Training, news letters, etc are aids in communication. Safety work permits, clearances are also form communication, but for the particular job/modification/new work. Many accident investigations stress about lack of communication/coordination.
Collective wisdom is available in the form of legislations. We have to communicate these to shopfloor people so that they can understand and implement. Of course, there will be few rebels who do not want to follow the rules and regulations and for them, we have to take into confidence of the management and punish them by caution, warnings, penalties and termination in that order.
Jan 9, 2011
Some more short videos on safety
Causes may appear simple and we find them every day but can lead to major accidents as some of the incidents depicted in the videos of the following link. http://www.safetyvideoshop.com.au/free-safety-videos.php
Video on Manual Handling
Improper manual handling can break the backs of workers and here is a video on manual handling which can be viewed in the following link.
http://www.manualhandlingguidance.net/Index.htm
http://www.manualhandlingguidance.net/Index.htm
Equipment/structure failure - Fabrication details are also required
A belated new year greetings.
Of late, I am not getting any motivation to blog as what I see every day are nothing but same issues on which I already mentioned in my earlier blogs. People talk on safety but do not care to implement; talk on safety culture but do not follow; utter chaos on the roads with least regard for traffic rules or pedestrians; no respect for signals even by pedestrians who cross the roads even when signage is ON for vehicles, etc.
Now, the discussion on the title of this blog: Quite a few occasions, I read about collapse of buildings/ overhead structures/bridges, failure of equipment (leakages/rupture/bursting/collapse), and a few years ago I even heard from my wife that the chassis of a two-wheeler scooter of 1 year old broke at the centre, etc.
Though, people claim that the design is as per applicable codes like, NBC, ASME, IS, etc, still if the failures are taking place implies that the fabrication/manufacturing/usage is not proper (assuming design is perfect). It also means that quality checks are not proper, even if fabrication/construction is to be blamed.
Many times people rely on the designs and assume that everything is going to be alright giving not much attention to other aspects.
It is sad that though people chant, "SAFETY FIRST, QUALITY NEXT & PRODUCTION LAST" on list of priorities, actually it is the other way. One can not say that quality gets second priority to safety, as both safety and quality are interlinked and are integral. Safety during construction/fabrication ensures well being of the workers on the shopfloor/in the plant at that time, but a product with poor quality endangers the lives of users and those around. Factory workers are aware of hazards in their job, but not the public who use the produce.
The number of persons going to be affected can also be a huge number depending upon the product we consider. A poor quality waist belt may affect the user alone. But, a poorly constructed building/bridge can affect many lives.
Hence, we have to give top priority for quality also to ensure safety of all.
Of late, I am not getting any motivation to blog as what I see every day are nothing but same issues on which I already mentioned in my earlier blogs. People talk on safety but do not care to implement; talk on safety culture but do not follow; utter chaos on the roads with least regard for traffic rules or pedestrians; no respect for signals even by pedestrians who cross the roads even when signage is ON for vehicles, etc.
Now, the discussion on the title of this blog: Quite a few occasions, I read about collapse of buildings/ overhead structures/bridges, failure of equipment (leakages/rupture/bursting/collapse), and a few years ago I even heard from my wife that the chassis of a two-wheeler scooter of 1 year old broke at the centre, etc.
Though, people claim that the design is as per applicable codes like, NBC, ASME, IS, etc, still if the failures are taking place implies that the fabrication/manufacturing/usage is not proper (assuming design is perfect). It also means that quality checks are not proper, even if fabrication/construction is to be blamed.
Many times people rely on the designs and assume that everything is going to be alright giving not much attention to other aspects.
It is sad that though people chant, "SAFETY FIRST, QUALITY NEXT & PRODUCTION LAST" on list of priorities, actually it is the other way. One can not say that quality gets second priority to safety, as both safety and quality are interlinked and are integral. Safety during construction/fabrication ensures well being of the workers on the shopfloor/in the plant at that time, but a product with poor quality endangers the lives of users and those around. Factory workers are aware of hazards in their job, but not the public who use the produce.
The number of persons going to be affected can also be a huge number depending upon the product we consider. A poor quality waist belt may affect the user alone. But, a poorly constructed building/bridge can affect many lives.
Hence, we have to give top priority for quality also to ensure safety of all.
Dec 21, 2010
Top 50 Risk Management Blogs
Listed below is the link on top 50 risk management blogs of which I follow the 7th blog i.e Risk and Safety Blog that gives some ideas of risk assessment and an understanding of the risk.
http://www.mastersinriskmanagement.org/top-50-risk-management-blogs.html#7
http://www.mastersinriskmanagement.org/top-50-risk-management-blogs.html#7
Dec 13, 2010
Recurrence of accidents - lack of safety culture
We read a number of industrial and road accidents in news papers. It appears that we never learn and never want to learn also. In factories, we do not follow even the well laid out rules of various statutes and established procedures and on the road, we do not respect the others on the road. We are in hurry always and we do not want to start a bit early. Even if the other person on the road is wrong, if we avoid showing our road rage, we can avoid many of the accidents.
In the factory, regular monitoring of operating parameters, keeping an ear for the noises from the machines,motors, agitators, equipment; monitoring process and storage inventories; leaving the aisles free from obstructions, interacting with shop floor employees, self discipline by employees, etc can reduce accidents. But, most of the supervisors and engineers appear to be stuck to the tables. When there is no monitoring, then it leads to bypassing of procedures, wrong reporting and complacency. This also gives a wrong signal to new recruits.
Most of the plant layouts also appear to be congested. We put more and more equipment in the same area and whatever planned during initial setup with sufficient space will not be seen after future capacity additions. This congestion also leads to unsafe conditions and can endanger the lives of employees in emergency.
If the rot is not attended in the beginning stage, then even the best management expert can't do anything. When we compromise the above safety issues for the fear of unrest, union problems, unrealistic production goals, then so be it and see the deterioration of safety culture and one day, you may close the shop temporarily for a few months or permanently.
In the factory, regular monitoring of operating parameters, keeping an ear for the noises from the machines,motors, agitators, equipment; monitoring process and storage inventories; leaving the aisles free from obstructions, interacting with shop floor employees, self discipline by employees, etc can reduce accidents. But, most of the supervisors and engineers appear to be stuck to the tables. When there is no monitoring, then it leads to bypassing of procedures, wrong reporting and complacency. This also gives a wrong signal to new recruits.
Most of the plant layouts also appear to be congested. We put more and more equipment in the same area and whatever planned during initial setup with sufficient space will not be seen after future capacity additions. This congestion also leads to unsafe conditions and can endanger the lives of employees in emergency.
If the rot is not attended in the beginning stage, then even the best management expert can't do anything. When we compromise the above safety issues for the fear of unrest, union problems, unrealistic production goals, then so be it and see the deterioration of safety culture and one day, you may close the shop temporarily for a few months or permanently.
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