A place for my personal thoughts/views on safety, with focus on industrial safety.
We are nothing after our death. Let us donate our body organs for the poor.
Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvelous work The moment you fear, you are nobody - Swamy Vivekananda
If you think safety is expensive, try an accident... - O.P.Kharbanda
Preventable accidents, if they are not prevented due to our negligence, it is nothing short of a murder - Dr. Sarvepalli Radha Krishna, 2nd President of India
Zero accidents through zero unsafe behaviors. Do not be complacent that there are no accidents. There may be near miss accidents (NMAs). With luck/chance, somebody escaped knowingly or unknown to the person. But, we can't be safe, if we depend upon the luck.
Safety culture is how the organization behaves when no one is watching.
We make No compromise with respect to Morality, Ethics, or Safety. If a design or work practice is perceived to be unsafe, we do not proceed until the issue is resolved. - Mission statement by S&B Engineers & Consultants Ltd. http://www.sbec.com/safety/
Human meat gets least priority - A doctor's comment on accidents
CSB video excerpts from Dr.Trevor Kletz, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQn5fL62KL8
Nov 27, 2019
Health problems with long driving in auto gear cars
It is reported that person driving automatic car will not use left leg and there is a valve in leg to control blood flow to the heart. Other information is available in the news paper report.
The news paper report in this aspect is given below.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health-news/why-long-drives-in-automatic-cars-may-be-dangerous-for-you/articleshow/72182040.cms
I got certain doubts about this, but may be it depends on person to person. The person referred in the news report is driver. However, the other occupants in the vehicle will be sitting throughout the journey whereas the driver will be moving atleast one leg.
Another question that arises is what about persons with amputated legs.
Nov 26, 2019
Accidents from opening of doors of vehicles
Nov 11, 2019
Air filling pressure tank burst
The pressure will be about 10 kg/sq.cm in normal conditions. The incident happened makes us to ensure that the equipment is checked for its integrity, connections and utility on regular basis.
Nov 10, 2019
Chlorine release in restaurant from mixing of bleach with cleaner
https://local12.com/news/local/chemical-blamed-for-deadly-reaction-in-mass-restaurant-common-in-local-eateries
As per information in internet, the following link provides useful information about chemical reaction of bleach with ammonia and other chemicals, in which harmful gases are liberated.
https://www.organic-chemistry.org/chemicals/oxidations/sodiumhypochlorite.shtm
Oct 27, 2019
Hyderabad traffic danger spots
Oct 24, 2019
Question of cost of safety!
Any caution on safety is not costly. It may appear costly with respect to money, time, presumed slowness in reaching immediate targets, etc. But, if something is found to be missing w.r.t. ensuring safety and it needs resources to correct it doesn't mean it is added cost.
We have to thank our luck that nothing happened till such time and that somehow the deficiency or lapse was seen by somebody and got an opportunity to rectify it.
Nothing goes waste when we allocate resources meant for enforcing or improving workplace. Those who suffered due to incidents/accidents can tell the impact faced by them, till their memory retains.
Generally, people will forget the lessons and repeat the mistakes in same or different form.
Repetition of mistakes and resultant accidents make the interested parties sick of the way the organization is being run with shortsightedness.
Strict control only appears to work, but how long this can go on depends on mental stamina of the persons in controlling positions.
I think we are destined to suffer at different intervals due to failure to follow the procedures meant for safety of persons/property/environment/etc and when the loss is huge, then the whole organization suffers, may lead to closure.
Sep 22, 2019
Lightning induced blast
Sep 15, 2019
Fall of crane trolley - death of person under
Such incidents can be prevented by barricading the area under loads being lifted, placing caution boards and ensuring supervision.
Jul 21, 2019
construction worker injured as Pump House Collapses
LINK
https://www.thehansindia.com/andhra-pradesh/under-construction-pump-house-collapsed-in-tirupati-548198
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vijayawada/under-construction-bldg-collapse-kills-one-injures-5/articleshow/70311376.cms
As per news reports as above, 5 persons got injured and one person died during the slab laying work for a pump house. Total about 35 persons are at work spot with six on the roof and another five below. It appears from television report that officers are not present during the work. Questions are raised on quality, supervision, etc for the incident.
There are several such incidents reported in the media, from time to time.
The reasons for such incidents and measures required are generally as below:
- Civil work is done in some sites based on rule of thumb or based on the knowledge / experience / perception of persons without proper design or approval from design engineer
- Successful execution of similar works without design gives confidence / presumed authority for taking up such works in larger scale
- Work is left to ground level workmen thereby not verifying the quality of work.
- The form work / staging work / scaffold made for laying the slab needs to confirm to design
- Design drawing should be complied during erection and to be verified for conformity with the drawing before going for slab concreting
- Checking the form work peripherally will not help as any deficiencies inside as well as under the proposed slab sheeting can lead to serious accidents
- Supervision from the firm issuing work order is required in addition to supervision from the executing agency, during the work as there can be compromise
- Minimum number of persons just sufficient for the work should be at site
- No person should be present under and around the slab work
- The approaches to the construction site should be available without obstructions for use in emergency
- Offset / gap between building and road should be ensured so that in case of collapse, the fallen material will not block the access for emergency services
- Persons engaged for work should be medically fit. It is better to provide food before and during the work and refreshments to the persons engaged in the work by the executing agency itself as some of the persons can be very poor and take work to earn livelihood
- Better to use steel for form work irrespective of height of work. Some agencies use wooden poles and eccentricity can be seen by persons going nearby. Doubts will arise immediately to the viewer that when this will fall. The gap on horizontal and vertical directions also will be so high that persons going nearby will be scared about its stability.
- Work should not be taken up in heavy wind or rain as scaffold can collapse
- In many sites ladder / access to reach point of work will not be available and persons are seen climbing up or down like monkeys jump from one branch to another or by sliding or climbing. This is unsafe and can lead to fall of persons.
- Sufficient illumination is to be planned and provided so that work can be done even in darkness with clear visibility.
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