Autonomous body for nuclear safety

A news item that appeared on Times of India on 31.08.2011 (Wednesday) states about cabinet approval for setting up an autonomous independent regulatory authority for monitoring nuclear safety. The Government of India decided for such authority in the wake of Fukushima incident caused by a series of failures after earthquake induced tsunami and to ensure safety and create confidence in the minds of all interested parties on nuclear power programme. 

The powers stated in the article are in line with The Factories Act, 1948.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cabinet-nod-for-autonomous-N-safety-regulator/articleshow/9802779.cms

Restrictions on entry of old ships on Indian waters

Mint magazine published an article on the proposal of Indian government to impose restrictions on entry of ships that are older than 25 years into Indian waters due to recent accident.
Regulations are lessons learned from incidents. I thought it is useful to post this article so that history can be remembered. Many times, production managers question the feasibility/utility of rules and regulations without knowing the reason for such issues. Though, they are statutory, but this questioning attitude and not implementing the rules lead to hazardous conditions and endanger the persons and environment. These questioning type are arrogant, no regard for safety and blind by their egos. They do not realize that law of the land is supreme and one has to follow it. People make fun of rules saying that it is not practicable. Threaten them to put behind bars for non-compliance, overnight, they show it how to implement.
Ships older than 25 years will be allowed when they meet certain criterion like, membership in international body, insurance for damage due to accident, registration of agent for foreign ships to deal with issues arising out of any incident. I feel that this move is good and protect waters from pollution which is seen due to oil spillages from damaged oil tankers, ships carrying hazardous goods, etc.

Road rage - a car accident

Today morning while going to my work place, while going over a rail over bridge, I saw a car that hit a truck on its rear side, possibly in the darkness. No idea about injuries. Yesterday, same time, I saw the truck at the same place in halt condition, due to some breakdown. The surrounding area was isolated by keeping some tree branches.
Normally, when some vehicle is under breakdown, the driver uses blinkers that are ON indicating about vehicle presence. Some keep stones upto some distance. Some use night reflectors to indicate presence of vehicle.
Nobody expects, vehicle parking on the rail over bridges, flyovers, etc and drive vehicle at full speed, particularly at night times due to little traffic. I suspect accident might have occurred for this reason.
Many times, I too had heart jump while driving on flyovers, as suddenly I find some one talking on mobile after taking sides to the extreme end; some repairing their vehicle; some stopping the vehicle and looking at the nature; and so on.
Some trucks while carrying lengthy rods, pipes, etc do not tie the red flags, do not switch on the blinkers, and those driving behind, if they do not recognize, surely they get involved in accidents.
Road safety is very important for every one and loosing concentration even for a second may lead to deaths.
Sometime back, a person driving his 2-wheeler on a main road died, as all of sudden a mini truck entered from side road to main road rashly, leaving little chance for the person to escape.
I feel there should be speed breakers on all branch roads just before joining the main road so that vehicle speed will come down drastically.
Some places, I found branch roads immediately at the end of the flyovers. This condition too can lead to accidents as those driving fast on flyovers will find vehicles entering from branch roads. This is my personal experience too. Once, I was driving my vehicle on a rail over over bridge. I saw a 2-wheeler raider in front of me skidded and fell down while applying brakes as he saw a vehicle entering from branch road. Seeing this another vehicle driver nearby also applied brakes and he too fell down. From then on, whenever I drive down on flyovers, I am going very slowly, though I drive at speed while driving up on the flyover.

Asphyxiation - death of persons

Today, in a lecture, I heard about asphyxiation deaths, in which two persons died in a manufacturing facility. The reason was that instead of air, nitrogen gas was admitted in the work space in which they were working. This happened due to lack of colour coding on pipelines carrying air and nitrogen. Effect of different oxygen levels on human beings is listed below.

     
     % of O2     Effect
20 – 21            Normal
12 – 15            Muscular coordination for skilled movement is lost
10 – 14            Conscious, but judgment is faulty and muscular effort leads to fatigue
  6 – 8              Collapse occurs rapidly, but quick treatment prevents fatal outcome
       ≤ 6            Death occurs in 6 – 8 minutes
   > 60             Inhalation for several days may cause lung damage
35 – 40            Permanent visual impairment / blindness

·         A common symptom at low levels of exposure is headache. 

·         Depletion of O2 by combustion in a confined space may cause adverse health effects Some metals burn intensely in oxygen rich atmosphere (ex: iron wires)

·         Lubricating oil undergoes exothermic reaction causing intense burning in the presence of liquid oxygen

People question the need for measuring oxygen levels with the routine reply that they worked like that in the last 10 years.The main reason for the accidents is not the lack of the knowledge in our work place activities. It is the lack of application of the knowledge we already have.

An activity is being done in a particular fashion without any accident for a few years does not mean that it is safe. We have to remember the words of renowned safety professional, Trevor Kletz, “We have done this way a 100 times without an accident is not acceptable, unless, an accident on the 101^st occasion is acceptable to all of us”.

Deaths due to non-communicable diseases

A report in today's Times of India states that non-communicable diseases (NCD) cause more deaths than communicable diseases. As per latest data, in India, 80% of the deaths in urban areas are due to NCDs like cancer, heart ailment, respiratory disease and diabetes and 60% of deaths in rural areas. Globally, 36 million deaths are due to NCDs contributing 63% of all deaths. In India, in 2004, 7.3 lakh deaths are due to cancer, 27 lakh due to cardiovascular. i.e 34 lakh deaths are only due to these two diseases.  And India lost US$ 9 billion from heart disease, stroke and diabetes in 2005 which is a considerable amount.
It is not known about the causes for these NCDs, whether arising out of occupation or not. Heart diseases can be due to  life style, struggle for existence and to have minimum requirements of food, cloth and shelter, good education for children and so on.
The number of deaths appear to be much more than industrial accidents and road accidents put together. This requires initiative by government to provide better facilities for health, transport, education. Also managements of industrial establishments can participate in community activities in the form corporate social responsibility by adopting localities and engaging the people in the area for their betterment.

Industrial courts - concept from Australia

A company was fined by an industrial court for safety violations leading to a nearmiss incident that could have caused several fatalities. Exclusive industrial courts will help in speeding up the hearing and awarding judgement. If it goes to civil courts, with so many cases, industrial cases will be heard when their turn comes and justice will be delayed. Penalties also should be revised with emphasis on punishment in the form of imprisonment rather than on cash penalties which can lead to proactive measures rather than half-hearted measures.
After every accident, it is common to hear renewed commitment by the company management for health and safety of the employees and a list of measures taken or proposed for improving the workplace safety and environment.
In some industrial areas, the cost of establishing and establishing and maintaining local emergency response centers is borne by the industries in the area. Likewise, it should be made mandatory for industries in the area to contribute for industrial courts. If any company is found operating without contribution, it should be closed.
Relevant articles for this blog can be read here 1, 2, 3. 

Ground water pollution

Today an article appeared in Times of India about pollution of river due to discharge of effluents from dyeing units and resultant loss of crops, barren fields and loss of livelihood to those dependent of agriculture. Toxic discharges in Noyyal river by dyeing units in Tirupur caused the agricultural field to become barren as toxic water can not be used for cultivation and farm works. A case in the court by those who lost there fertile lands lead to closure of the units which do not have effluent treatment plants (ETP) and because of this even the workers in these factories also lost their jobs.

Business is done to get profit. But, profit making is not at the cost of endangering eco system. ETP must be set up to treat the effluents so that no harmful substances enter into rivers or ground water. One can't say ETPs are costly and affects their business. They should see that it affects health of others in the area including themselves. 

Earlier, similar situation was there in another place where tanning industry growth led to contamination of ground water. This made government to take stern action on pollutants to treat or shut policy.

Product safety: who’s watching? - Columns - livemint.com

Today an article on consumer product safety was published in MINT. I learned about product safety when I did my safety diploma few years ago. The Factories Act 1948 Section 7B is about product safety but for use in a factory. Apart from this, time to time we see awareness campaigns in the media by Ministry of Consumer Affairs under JAGO GRAHAK JAGO on various topics. But, as the author says in the MINT article, there is no agency for monitoring and implementation similar to Consumer Product Safety Commission of US. After purchase, we find the item with defects, not as per specifications, less weight, poor quality etc.Of late however, few online shopping websites are offering replacement guaranty within specified period. Some retail outlets also offer exchange, if brought within specified period. Hope this will spread and lead to practices as followed in US.

Product safety: who’s watching? - Columns - livemint.com

LINK

Clothes caught in fire - STOP, DROP & ROLL

In an article, I read that two persons received severe burn injuries when their clothes caught fire and started running. The Chief of Fire Services said that fire will increase when you run due to fanning. He advised that to extinguish fires of clothes you are wearing, you should stop immediately, drop on the floor and roll.

The fire started when two highly volatile substances were used for cleaning after carpet removal by dissolving the adhesive with gasoline and turpentine. The vapors found ignition source and led to fire. The action by Fire Services is quick as the fire occurred at 1840 hr and fire was extinguished by 1859 hr.

Another news item on the above can be read here.

Safety Daily Advisor : Office Workers: The Forgotten Workforce?

Office safety is as important as industrial safety. Normally, our safety inspections, audits, training programmes are focused on production plants and seldom we think about administration block, canteens, parking areas, etc. We may not get any report on incidents that occurred in these places unless otherwise it is something of serious nature. Those working in these places also may not be aware of safety programme that's going on in shop floors.
Once, when I pulled upper drawer of a filing cabinet (with 4 compartments one above another), due to load, the filing cabinet tilted forward thereby causing all drawers to come out. I missed narrowly of getting hit.
Similarly, when you take out two cabinets and absentmindedly close the lower one, definitely you will injure your fingers.
Few years back, my younger boy tried to climb the open refrigerator and due to shifting of centre of gravity it started tilting forward. As I was nearby, immediately jumped and held the refrigerator. Else, it would have fallen on the kid.
It is common to hear fall of persons in the change rooms. Same thing can happen in wash rooms also.
We see dumping of files in loft / on cupboards / on tables, which can be a fire hazard. These files may fall on the persons below and injure them. Apart from these, there can be reptile movement or damage to files due to termites, and so on.
The article below stresses on importance of safety for office workers and a safety plan for them.

Safety Daily Advisor : Office Workers: The Forgotten Workforce?

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