4 died (factory employees) and 11 were injured in an incident of a toxic hydrogen sulphide gas leak on 20.09.2011 (Tuesday) at 1915 hr in a pharma factory plant operations, located in Tarapur, India. The gas spread 5 km around the plant. The residents in the nearby area were evacuated after the incident. The leak was arrested. The plant did not request fire services as they thought that they can handle the situation and that there is no fire.
The nearest railway station is about 1 km from the factory. Three persons of the factory were booked for the incident, as per reports. The plant is located in an area along with about 1250 factories and few residential areas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=IN&v=HbP_BmhpmaI
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-21/mumbai/30184327_1_gas-leak-fire-brigade-plant-officials
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/thane-gas-leak-3-company-officials-booked/1/152110.html
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_tarapur-power-plant-gas-leak-kills-4-workers_1589638
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/article2473702.ece
Sep 23, 2011
Sep 19, 2011
Large reservoir of water in the universe
Scientists found huge water body in the universe around a black hole at 12 billion light-years distance. It contains 140 trillion times the water in the earth oceans. Is there any possibility of this water body coming closer to the earth or Sun any time in the future. Definitely a fiction movie can be made on such story. The web link containing the details is given below.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/universe20110722.html
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/universe20110722.html
Apartment first floor collapse
There was an incident of partial collapse of a 5-storey apartment in which the first floor sank and rested on the parking floor (cellar) below. 10 persons were injured during the incident. Some girls practicing dance in the cellar were rescued. It is reported that the building was constructed 3-4 years ago in the area which was used as sewerage tank earlier. The area was filled and the apartment was raised. On visit, the Civil Engineering experts observed shallow waters in the area and opine that the soil has become weak.
Following are few reports appeared in the media.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/andhra-pradesh/article2461744.ece
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/regions/rajahmundry/police-security-post-symala-sadan-apartment-573
http://www.crimenews.co.in/building-collapses-cmorders-help/
Following are few reports appeared in the media.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/andhra-pradesh/article2461744.ece
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/regions/rajahmundry/police-security-post-symala-sadan-apartment-573
http://www.crimenews.co.in/building-collapses-cmorders-help/
Sep 16, 2011
DGCA removes its top safety officer - Home - livemint.com
DGCA removes its top safety officer - Home - livemint.com
The above article is about removal of safety in-charge working for The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for delay in investigations and not producing reports in time.If the officer is inefficient, the action is warranted. But, in the same article it is mentioned that only 14 officers monitor over 1000 flights on Indian skies. With the increase in number of air craft, no. of incidents/accidents and other activities, the staff will be stressed to perform. And the issues are concerned with safety of invaluable human lives. Under stress, the performance will deteriorate over a period of time and the quality will dive to the bottom. After all, they are also human beings and not machines to generate output automatically after keying in certain parameters. If the problem i.e delay in reports, persists for long time, then the system needs to analyzed for problems. The issue of man-power and other issues like training need to be addressed before holding safety personnel as responsible. Airlines too should be held responsible for engaging persons with fake certificates, for incidents and accidents, instead of blaming one man. It may be a management principle taught to accept additional work, but will not help the organization in the long run when limits of human beings are exceeded.
The above article is about removal of safety in-charge working for The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for delay in investigations and not producing reports in time.If the officer is inefficient, the action is warranted. But, in the same article it is mentioned that only 14 officers monitor over 1000 flights on Indian skies. With the increase in number of air craft, no. of incidents/accidents and other activities, the staff will be stressed to perform. And the issues are concerned with safety of invaluable human lives. Under stress, the performance will deteriorate over a period of time and the quality will dive to the bottom. After all, they are also human beings and not machines to generate output automatically after keying in certain parameters. If the problem i.e delay in reports, persists for long time, then the system needs to analyzed for problems. The issue of man-power and other issues like training need to be addressed before holding safety personnel as responsible. Airlines too should be held responsible for engaging persons with fake certificates, for incidents and accidents, instead of blaming one man. It may be a management principle taught to accept additional work, but will not help the organization in the long run when limits of human beings are exceeded.
Proposal of amendments to Factories Act 1948 by Government of India
The Ministry of Labour and Employment proposes 52 amendments to The Factories Act, 1948. The proposed amendments were uploaded at http://labour.nic.in/main/dgfasli.pdf and comments/suggestions were invited at http://labour.nic.in/main/AmendmentsAct,%201948.pdf within 45 days from 06.09.2011.
Sep 13, 2011
A freak accident - unsafe act
It happened.
In a house, the family head tried to lit something. It did not. Then, he brought petrol in a bottle, poured a little on the material which he want to lit. After keeping the petrol bottle aside, he lit the matchstick. Immediately the fire spread from the material to the petrol bottle. In panic condition, he threw the bottle outside his house. The burning petrol bottle fell on a lady going on the road. She received burn injuries on hands and her clothing got burnt partly. She was admitted in a nearby hospital for treatment.
Mindless acts can lead to such type of accidents, endangering the persons who do not know what is going to happen to them.
Similar things can happen in industries endangering the environment and public at large due to unsafe actions by the persons inside the factory.
In a house, the family head tried to lit something. It did not. Then, he brought petrol in a bottle, poured a little on the material which he want to lit. After keeping the petrol bottle aside, he lit the matchstick. Immediately the fire spread from the material to the petrol bottle. In panic condition, he threw the bottle outside his house. The burning petrol bottle fell on a lady going on the road. She received burn injuries on hands and her clothing got burnt partly. She was admitted in a nearby hospital for treatment.
Mindless acts can lead to such type of accidents, endangering the persons who do not know what is going to happen to them.
Similar things can happen in industries endangering the environment and public at large due to unsafe actions by the persons inside the factory.
Sep 12, 2011
Gasoline fire in Nairobi, Kenya
As per reports, 61 persons died and 116 were seriously burned due to a fire today (12.09.2011) at 1000 hr local time. The fire occurred possibly due to a cigarette butt thrown on a pool of gasoline that got accumulated from a leaking pipe passing through densely populated slum area and where people gathered to collect the gasoline. As per one report, the pipeline might have been punctured deliberately to collect the fuel. Fire fighters had difficult time in controlling the fire.The leaking gasoline floated on a nearby sewer and it resembled like a burning river after the blast and resultant fire.
A report says, fire started after a fuel tankers dumped the fuel in the open sewer flowing through the slums.
If this is the reason, it is most unpardonable act and the guilty should be punished. If the reason is leak from the pipe line, then large quantity must have escaped from the line into the sewer till it is identified either by pressure drop or somebody noticed and informed the company. Both the company and the authority that cleared pipeline layout are responsible for the incident in this case. One can't lay the pipelines through populated areas. If the settlers came after piping job, then the company with the help of local police should have got it vacated. Such piping should terminate at a place far off from the habitation and should be protected. As per the reports, when a news channel asked the resident two years ago, he don't want to move from the place though he feels that there is a chance of the fire that occurred today.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/09/12/kenya.fire/
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-kenya-fire-20110913,0,5237204.story?track=rss
http://www.africareview.com/News/Riddle+of+Nairobi+pipeline+fire+that+killed+75/-/979180/1235086/-/10hj59jz/-/
Video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14887938
A report says, fire started after a fuel tankers dumped the fuel in the open sewer flowing through the slums.
If this is the reason, it is most unpardonable act and the guilty should be punished. If the reason is leak from the pipe line, then large quantity must have escaped from the line into the sewer till it is identified either by pressure drop or somebody noticed and informed the company. Both the company and the authority that cleared pipeline layout are responsible for the incident in this case. One can't lay the pipelines through populated areas. If the settlers came after piping job, then the company with the help of local police should have got it vacated. Such piping should terminate at a place far off from the habitation and should be protected. As per the reports, when a news channel asked the resident two years ago, he don't want to move from the place though he feels that there is a chance of the fire that occurred today.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/09/12/kenya.fire/
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-kenya-fire-20110913,0,5237204.story?track=rss
http://www.africareview.com/News/Riddle+of+Nairobi+pipeline+fire+that+killed+75/-/979180/1235086/-/10hj59jz/-/
Video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14887938
Explosion at a nuclear waste treatment facility in France
A blast occurred at 1037 GMT today (Monday 12.09.2011) at Centraco nuclear waste treatment facility in Marcoule, France reportedly during melting of metal scrap. One person was killed, one was seriously burned and 3 others were slightly injured. As reports say, there is no leakage of radioactivity from the site.As per BBC reports, blast happened in a furnace used to burn waste, including fuels, tools and clothing which had been used in nuclear energy production but had only very low levels of radiation. The ingots formed after melting will be stored safely at a designated place. This is an accepted procedure.
Authorities informed that there are no nuclear power reactors at the site. The explosion also is not from waste storage tanks where radiolytic hydrogen formed can lead to explosion if not diluted. It is also not of any explosion that may arise during concentration of waste by evaporation.
Any non-nuclear incident in a nuclear facility can be misunderstood as nuclear explosion. This accident is to be treated as industrial explosion and not as nuclear explosion. If the explosion occurred during melting, one reason can be water reaction with molten metal. But, as per BBC report and other reports, explosion occurred after fire. It is not known the reason for fire which can be due to flammable solvents or due to friction of fine turnings of iron,zircaloy, aluminium, etc in the metal scrap. It is a known fact that dust explosions are possible with fine dust of these metals.
As there is no radioactivity, we have to assume the explosion is non-nuclear of one of the above types.
http://hanlonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/09/marcoule-explosion-is-the-tide-of-anti-nuclear-irrationality-on-the-turn-.html
1) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44483925/ns/world_news-europe/?GT1=43001
2) http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/french-nuclear-safety-body-says-an-explosion-has-rocked-a-nuclear-plant-in-countrys-south/2011/09/12/gIQAJUkcMK_story.html
3) http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/09/12/explosion-kills-one-at-french-nuke-plant.html?obref=obnetwork
4) http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?30252-Breaking-Nuke-explosion-in-France
Authorities informed that there are no nuclear power reactors at the site. The explosion also is not from waste storage tanks where radiolytic hydrogen formed can lead to explosion if not diluted. It is also not of any explosion that may arise during concentration of waste by evaporation.
Any non-nuclear incident in a nuclear facility can be misunderstood as nuclear explosion. This accident is to be treated as industrial explosion and not as nuclear explosion. If the explosion occurred during melting, one reason can be water reaction with molten metal. But, as per BBC report and other reports, explosion occurred after fire. It is not known the reason for fire which can be due to flammable solvents or due to friction of fine turnings of iron,zircaloy, aluminium, etc in the metal scrap. It is a known fact that dust explosions are possible with fine dust of these metals.
As there is no radioactivity, we have to assume the explosion is non-nuclear of one of the above types.
http://hanlonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/09/marcoule-explosion-is-the-tide-of-anti-nuclear-irrationality-on-the-turn-.html
1) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44483925/ns/world_news-europe/?GT1=43001
2) http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/french-nuclear-safety-body-says-an-explosion-has-rocked-a-nuclear-plant-in-countrys-south/2011/09/12/gIQAJUkcMK_story.html
3) http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/09/12/explosion-kills-one-at-french-nuke-plant.html?obref=obnetwork
4) http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?30252-Breaking-Nuke-explosion-in-France
Power failure due to snake in a feeder box
A snake entered a feeder box from which power is supplied to an industrial area. The snake died of electric shock and at the same time, power supply to the industrial area also got cut off. Concerned officers of electricity board could not find the reason for power failure for more than 10 hours. After search, they found 1.5 m long dead snake in the feeder box. They claim that they did not see such a problem earlier. Production loss for 10 hours, environment pollution due to DG (diesel generator) sets operated during the period, revenue loss for the power supplier and the inconvenience caused to public will add to large amount, though the cost of preventing such incident i.e ensuring no openings, is minuscule. Many times, we see open fuse boxes, partly opened doors of power distribution boards, etc which can lead to entry of reptiles and causing such damages and this has become an accepted norm for such industries.
The following link give some extra information about similar incidents.
http://www.fort.usgs.gov/resources/education/bts/impacts/electrical.asp
The following link give some extra information about similar incidents.
http://www.fort.usgs.gov/resources/education/bts/impacts/electrical.asp
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