Sparks fall on solvents causing burns to two persons

A newspaper report stated that in a pharma company, sparks fell from a capacitor when two electricians were on the job. The sparks fell on the nearby solvents and chemicals, leading to fire and burn injuries on face and arms of the two electricians.
Safety norms say that ignition sources should not be present atleast 15 m around the flammable storages. Though this is applicable for hot works, the same logic can be extended for storage of flammables also. It is likely that sparks can fly along the wind and can cause fire. The solvent storage area also should be provided with dyke so that leakage / spillage will not spread and are contained.
If it is not possible to remove the flammables away from ignition sources, atleast they should be covered with asbestos cloth or similar fire resistant cover; sand and other suitable fire extiniguishers should be provided near these flammable storages; fire department of the plant should be informed about the srorage and maintenance jobs proposed to be takenup; carryout hazard analysis; communicate the workers about hazards and safety measures to be taken; etc

An animated video describing the hazards during hot works in flammable areas is available at US Chemical Safety Board website (http://www.csb.gov/) and the video link is given here.

Whether safety procedures cause stress at workplace

Sometimes I hear shopfloor people grumbling at safety supervisors that by seeing them, B.P. increases in shopfloor workers. Others say that they are afraid that safety manager will come to them to enquire on some issue. Shopfloor supervisors advise safety persons not to approach their workers directly to avoid undue stress. All such talk or apprehensions appear to be unwarranted unless people do not follow safety procedures or the safety man talks in a dominating manner.
Some safety professionals too think that they get truth, if they pose like a  tough guy. But, with my own experience, I can say that this is not true. Whatever the shopfloor person is willing to tell will escape from the scene next time as soon as he sees the tough talking safety guy. The smooth talking safety supervisors also should be careful that they are not taken for granted. They have to develop friendly networks in all departments so that before entering the shopfloor to enquire about unsafe conditions or investigate accidents / incidents, full information is obtained through these friendly networks.
When someone gives information on phone, safety person should not insist to know the name of the person so that he will feel secured and will have peace of mind. If he is willing, then safety person can declare his sources and also recommend for some appreciation and reward.
Stress will be felt by safety guys also when all shopfloor people surround him questioning his failure to identify and communicate hazards. This, I think should be handled by being visible in the shopfloor through frequent inspections,giving pep talks as often as it warrants and making the people to know about their responsibilities under law. Then, safety department persons will be viewed as their friends and get their help to solve safety issues at the shopfloor.
Workers will be stressed for other reasons also as it was mentioned in a news paper article today that spouse causes more stress than the boss. Again, males cause more stress to their spouse than the female. Other reasons for stress can be ill health, unfulfilled ambitions,  family issues, etc

Contractor safety, expensive accidents, accident prevention

I went through following articles at http://www.safetyxchange.org/ which I felt good to read. The website is very good and one can get e-mails by subscribing (free).

Most Expensive Accidents in History
How to Prevent Contractor Accidents, Part 1  Part2
The General Contractor Duty to Protect a Subcontractors Workers
To Prevent Accidents, We Must Change Attitudes

Have a nice reading.

Safety violations are found, then why the plants are allowed to run?

In an article at http://www.safetyxchange.org/, I read that there were more than 700 violations of safety, operation and environment found by OSHA, EPA and other regulating agencies. It was questioned about the compulsions or need for allowing the unit to operate though so many violations were found before the spillage itself. Many times, regulators identify violations and give time to rectify or pay penalty later for continued violations. Only a few times, unit operations were suspended or stopped. This creates a lenient attitude by managements that outweigh profits over the loss of production suffered because of suspension of unit operations to carryout works for rectifying the violations. After some accident / incident occurs, we repent for not doing the right thing before the event. This like applying the balm after burning rather than avoiding the burns itself.

If plant operations are stopped after allowing some time to correct, then everybody will fall in line and though it looks difficult to achieve safety discipline and people are scared of immediate losses, long term benefits will outweigh these losses and every one will follow the directions of regulators. Or they will not give chance for regulators to find safety violations and a system of identification and rectification will be established by the organizations themselves.

Road rage – what are the reasons?

Now-a-days, TV channels are reporting road accidents every hour and a full page in news papers is about road accidents. Some of the reasons are,


High speed
Overtaking without caring for the vehicles coming in opposite direction
Drivers under the influence of alcohol
Entry of another vehicle from side lane
Parked vehicles on the road without warning / cautioning
Persons / children on the roads
Animals on the road
Lack of proper rest for drivers
Mobile use while driving the vehicles
Not concentrating on the road
Talking with others in the vehicle
Urge to display their driving skills to friends (girls and boys)
Driving before fully learning
Skidding due to sand / soil / oil / water, etc on the roads
Overcrowding leaving little room for the driver to control
Poor condition of the vehicles, etc

Whether oxygen levels at 19.5% are safe for work in confined space?

Many people consider that the oxygen levels at or above 19.5% are safe to work in a confined space. However, I read somewhere that before assuming oxygen level of 19.5% is safe, one should find out why the levels are below that in atmosphere. If the balance 1.5% is of some toxic chemical, it might be fatal also. CO is fatal at 5000 ppm (0.5%). Similarly ammonia. However, if the chemical present has some odour, we can immediately detect and come out.

Otherwise, measuring oxygen levels alone is not sufficient and we have to analyse for presence of other chemicals and purge the confined space with fresh air till oxygen levels are near 21%, say 20.8-20.9%. And fresh air supply should not be stopped during the work. Each and every time when work is stopped for rest or tea break or lunch or end of the day, before resuming the work the levels are to be checked at the place of the work.

I came to know of an accident in which three workers were involved in cleaning the oily floor at a basement were overcome by the toxic vapours present when they resumed work after a tea break. First two persons one after another entered inside the basement and became unconscious. The third one too was overcome but before that he shouted for help and other coworkers present at 0.0 m level immediately rescued them and were alright after a day's treatment.

The unfortunate observation during the rescue opertions was workers lack of knowledge about the switch of fresh air supply blower for the basement. Even the shopfloor supervisor does not know about its location. Awareness about location of emergency systems is the most important aspect and a sketch showing the same should be displayed at important locations in the shopfloor and mock drills should be conducted before start of work in a confined space, every time.

Poisonous fumes from incinerator near Indore - six lost vision?

Y’day a scrolling news item in TV channels and news reports today mentioned about six labourers losing part of their vision because of toxic fumes from an incineration plant in Pithampur, while cleaning solid waste. It is stated that all labourers suffered symptoms of insecticide poisoning (organo phosphorous) like blurred vision, vomiting. Before taking up any chemical handling work, engineers and supervisors should refer to Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) of the chemicals to be handled. It will give information on nature of hazards, handling methods, personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used, etc. It is mentioned that workers did not use any PPE, though the company that engaged the persons is a reputed one.


If the companies do not follow safe procedures and do not ensure supervision, public will lose faith in the industry and whatever they do later will be of no use.

Further, such accidents will show that more inspectors are required to inspect more frequently the premises of the organizations, audit their systems and the findings have to be put in public domain. It may be remembered that though the auditors from head quarters of UCC reported serious nature of hazards in the Bhopal unit, as the report was not known to many, the inaction could not be questioned in time and only after the worst chemical disaster, all concerned started questioning.

Therefore, it should be made mandatory about making availability of audit findings (by regulators as well as certifying agencies) also public like the provisions of Factories Act 1948 under Chapter IV-A and should attract penal provisions like those for violations of Sec 41-B,C,H

Increase of fuel prices - what is its impact on safety?

From y'day, the increased prices of fuels came into effect. Many are opposing the increase. I thought, okay, it will make a hole in my pocket, but what is its impact in my field, i.e., safety and environment. I think that the increased prices may reduce consumption of fuel to some extent thus contribute to the reduction in environment damage. When something is available cheap, it will loose its value / importance.

Many people use vehicles, particularly 4-wheelers for joy rides. Two advertisements which I am seeing in TV channels for last few months depict the same. In one advertisement, a child is sad because he did not get good marks or so, so his father takes him on a ride and the child asks for one more ride. In another advertisement, I think a couple or would-be couple will be on a ride to come out of their moodiness. Actually, it appears many persons don't have any work and therefore wander aimlessly in bikes, cars, etc. Subsidising fuel for such people is a crime. Similarly, supplying subisidised fuel for cars and sports cars whose mileage is very less is also waste of public money which could have been sent on providing education to poor children. In fact, subsidies are becoming a headache for the governments in the long run and they are finding it difficult to come out of this expenditure.

My suggestion is to eliminate fuel subsidies totally. Government should subsidise only public transport to such an extent that people of all categories should feel it economical to travel in public transport than using their own transport. All students can be allowed to travel without paying during their college hours. A pass should be issued to each student and should be punched for one trip to college per day so that wandering by students for timepass can be avoided.

Like issuing licence for driving, governments can issue permits for private transport at a price. This will reduce traffic congestion, reduce pollution, leading to better environment and good health of people. Then, to take care of emergency requirements, government should strengthen ambulance services for medical care and run public transport throughout 24x7 so that people will not be at disadvantage.

Similarly, government should increase excise duty / sales tax on vehicles equivalent to the cost of the vehicle or more. Today, I read in the newspaper that in Nepal, 300% tax is levied on imported cars and thus the cost of Nano car at Nepal works out to INR 4.5 lac. We should tax at these hight rates for all vehicles that are made within the country also.

The decrease in vehicles on the road will also reduce road accidents also and will save many elders and dependents caused by deaths.

The money spent on fuel subsidies can be better used for providing education and public health care which are becoming costly. Though the oil companies claim huge losses on account of subsidies, I am unable to understand why their shares value somuch. The share value of any loss making company will not even quote at its face value but all oil shares trade at multiples of their face value. I have to understand why it is so. After freeing the fuel prices from control, by how much their shares will go up will tell the extent of losses suffered due to subsidies.

Nothing lasts forever. It is obvious that if not now, in another 25-50 years fossil fuels will not be available. As the reserves comedown, oil producing countries will increase their prices and atleast next generation has to pay higher prices because no government can subsidise forever. Instead of using recklessly the valuable resources, let us use them judiciously and increasing the prices is a forceful method for conserving the fuel resources.

Accident liability of independent directors

An article published in Deccan Chronicle today (24.06.2010 Thursday) states that CII asked government to insert a clause in the Companies Bill 2009 to exclude independent directors from any criminal liability for offences commited by the company, saying that they are not involved in day-to-day running.

Though they are not in operation, but any influence of these independent directors in the decision making process of business towards profits, cost cutting measures, etc will have a direct bearing on the safety measures followed by plant operators and thus they are involved indirectly in day-to-day running of the plant. Therefore, it is not correct to exclude them from liability. If they are like ordinary public shareholders and not consulted or involved in any decision making process (in finance, technical,...), then they can be excluded.

All those who are involved in decision making of financial aspects should be made liable for accidents. The deactivation of safety systems at Bhopal was done to cut business losses with the assumption that a plant not in operation does not require maintenance of safety systems. The decision was made because of lack of technical knowledge on what can go wrong.

Any financial decision on plant operations should be supported by a report from operations in-charge (who should be a technical man) that was discussed by all directors and approved.

Road rage

There was a news report on 20.06.2010 in which a promising actor died in a road accident. He was driving a bike. Suddenly a van entered the main road from a side road. The bike driver could not control his vehicle and in the collision, he died.

It is common for people drive vehicles at very high speed. Everyday, people die in road accidents and is common to see a full page of such accident reports in news papers.

Driving the vehicles at speeds which they can't control is wrong in the first place. Then, not following road discipline is another worst factor. People entering main roads do not slow down to see a clear road and instead enter the road at the same speed as they are driving and thus unnerve the drivers on the main road. Most of the accidents are due to entry of vehicles from side roads or vehicles slowing down suddenly in the same lane without indication or taking turns from extreme left to right without watching for vehicles coming behind.

Our roads are not racing tracks. It is proper if the bikes above 100 cc are banned. Similarly, four wheelers of high engine capacity should be banned so that vehicle speed can be limited to 50 kmph. All side roads should have speed breakers before they join the main road. The road dividers should of such height that nobody can use them to cross the road.

As someone suggested in a TV discussion programme, the licence of the vehicle drivers involved in accidents should be cancelled and drivers without licence should be imprisoned to reduce the accidents. Similarly, the pedestrians crossing the roads as they please should be fined heavily. I observed a few times that the pedestrians crossing the road wave their fingers to motorists. These people do not have sense that even if a motorist sees them, he may hit before slowing down the vehicle.