Man Choked on HF acid cloud at refinery - experience briefing

Giant Acid Cloud in Nevada Desert

BBS-Reaction and Response

I read a post in http://www.lifeplan.co.nr/ dated 07.03.2011 on reaction vs response. It made be to realize about our behavior to different situations, let it be office or road or home. This can be used in safety training programmes also while talking about behavior based safety.

Spread of acid fumes from broken bottles to three villages

A news item in Hindu news paper today is about leakage and impact of acid fumes on residents of three villages. The leakage and spread of fumes from possible broken bottles containing bromine (HBr?) caused health complications such as irritation in the eyes, trachea and stomach, coughing, nausea, skin allergy. Another report says about the quantity stored as 40 bottles of each 750 ml. And as per another report, it is stored in 2 and 5 lit bottles and liquid bromine from one broken bottle reacted with husk in the area. I am unable to guess what quantity of the chemical leaked that caused spread of thick fumes to three villages affecting the people. 
A report on the same incident mentions

Height of guard railing

Last week, there was water drip in the bedroom from the indoor unit of split AC. I went to the outdoor unit located on the chajja (sun shade) outside in the balcony, suspecting water pipe choke. I found that somebody put the water pipe in vertical position and is above its elevation in the indoor unit. This chajja is accessible to anyone on the stairs of the apartment complex. While trying to put it horizontal on the window chajja by standing on the stairs floor and bending, I nearly lost balance.
I got doubt what should be the height of the guard rail and a search in internet and factory legislations mention

Competitive world - Stress on safe production

In his address to the National Governors' Association, President of USA said,

"We now live in a world that's more connected and more competitive than ever before. When each of you tries to bring new jobs and industries to your state, you're not just competing with each other but you're competing with China, you're competing with India, you're competing with Brazil, you're competing with countries all around the world".

And a US trade report states about increased US exports to India and Indian investment in US and the need for more responsibility by the emerging economies like India, China, etc towards global economic growth.

The message lays stress on competition.

Wrong signals - a nearmiss experience

Yesterday, I went  to see my friend staying about 20 km from my residence. I went on a 2-wheeler and stopped at a traffic signal. A car was on my right with right indicator blinking. When the traffic signal turned green, I moved straight and this car on my right instead of going straight or right turned left. I was just ahead of it and would have fell down had the left moving car bumped my vehicle. My heart pounded fast for few minutes.
A similar incident happened earlier few months ago which I mentioned in my earlier post wherein I was hit by a car and I fell on the road. Few years ago, when I was going to my office, again, I had a near miss, this time from another 2-wheeler with wrong signals. I was going straight and the scooter with left indicator ON, moved right. The driver shouted at me and when I pointed him to his left indicator, he laughed and drove off.

This type of driving with wrong signals is very dangerous and we have to be careful on the road, more so at junctions, irrespective of the indicators on the other vehicles.

Distraction during work

An article mentions about distractions and interruptions at work arising out of phone calls, visitors, etc and its impact on time to get back to work with same concentration. It says that on average, everyday a desk worker loses 2.1 hrs. Apart from colleagues in the same department, there will be visits by some unexpected visitors without notice which one has to give some time. Then there are some who keep talking on phone. You may want something, but

Population growth - impact on environment and safety

A report says that by the year 2050, our planet will have 9 billion people from 7 billion this year. As many experts says, increase in population will put pressure on scarce resources, environment damage, unemployment and so on. The report says that income will increase and this could lead to more consumption and stresses on finding better methods to produce as at present 7-8 pounds of grains are required for 1 pound of meat and 3-4 pounds for 1 pound cheese or eggs. This may be an indication to have vegetarian food instead of meat products but I do not know whether a person's needs are matched with equal quantity of either grains or meat.

Fall of persons and objects

A news item  mentions about suicidal death of a young lady software engineer by jumping from the 4th floor of a multilevel car parking building. What is stunning is the injury to a contract labourer as the lady fell on him during the jump.
This reminds me of an incident heard from my colleague in which a snake held by a bird flying in the sky slipped and fell on a person on the road and the person died due to snake bite.
The reasons for accidents are generally attributed to as 88% from unsafe acts, 10% from unsafe conditions and 2% from others. This type of accidents i.e injury to contractor worker or death of person on the road due to snake bite come under this 2% category.
Though we say all accidents can be prevented, it is difficult to imagine what can be done in these situations to avoid accidents. In the first case, may be, if the sidewalls of the terrace or road inside the parking building are raised to a height of - say 5 ft or more, could have prevented the person from scaling the height and protected the persons down below. But, in the second case, I do not know what can be done.
Such situations, even if brought out by any safety person, would have been laughed off as 'nonsense' and the person will be snubbed for thinking too wild. May be the risk level is very low, but not ZERO. As long as any opportunity is available to save the persons, the investment is worth as nobody can get back the life. The person's life may be valued at some amount and is compensated but he is more valuable to his family members than the compensation and this should be kept in mind. Else, surely there can be chaos and society has to bear it.