Control room safety - Hospital 'Alarm Fatigue' Killing Patients » SafetySmart

Hospital 'Alarm Fatigue' Killing Patients » SafetySmart

Control room safety issues:

How much is TOO MUCH? There is a limit for everything, but what is the limit is the main question and it may depend on person to person.
Lack of or overdose of information also do lead to dangerous practices in a workplace.
Few years ago, I saw a number of information bulletins in a factory which I visited as a part of my safety diploma course and I thought that nobody will see those bulletins as people will not find time unless 15-30 minutes is spent in that place. And shop floor supervisor will not allow his worker to stand and read for so much time.
Information should be crisp and to the point.
Similarly, number of indications and alarms in control room of a plant also should be judicious. If more number are to be provided, then there should be more number of persons in the control room, i.e limit the indications and alarms to be taken care by each person. May be 3-5 monitor screens (monitor size also matters!!!) per person to be viewed for action.
Else, one will not be attentive and is lost in the maze of so many parameters to be monitored, leading to a dangerous situation.

Burn injuries - an article from The Hindu titled "A burning question"

A burning question - The Hindu

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In an article on burn injuries in The Hindu, following are stated:

1. Out of 30 lakh burn injuries every year in India, 10 lakh victims die and most of them are women and children.
2. Burn injuries can be from heat, electricity, chemicals, light or radiation. 
3. First degree burns involve upper skin (epidermis) and need about a week to heal.
4. Second degree burns involve upper skin (epidermis and and portions of dermis), sweat glands, hair follicles, etc leading blister formation, swelling and pain and require two weeks to heal.
5. Third degree burns involve deeper skin, charring the tissues and structures and may require three weeks to heal.
6. Fourth degree burns involve subcutaneous tissue, tendons and even bone damage.
7. Hot air inhaled during fire incidents damage respiratory tract and swelling and lead to complications.
8. Beyond 40 degree centigrade, protein in the skin is coagulated causing tissue destruction.
9. In chemical burns, protein is converted rapidly to salt causing same damage.

Burn injuries also affect psychology of the persons and require care and counselling.

During acid splash, generally persons wash with some water and do their business. But until unless total chemical is washed, it will continue to cause destruction. There can be delayed effects from inhalation of vapors from the dress material that is soaked with the chemicals like HF, phosgene, etc leading to deaths in the sleep.
Alkali burns cause more destruction to eyes even to the extent of blindness.

Therefore, removing the clothes with chemicals, continuous washing for atleast 15 minutes (even then only about 93-95% chemical is washed off) is necessary and this information should be spread among all persons working with chemicals.
In case of flash burns from arc flash, the temperature can be 20000 degree centigrade and can lead to deaths.
Then, immediate treatment to burn victims is also a must. As it gets delayed, damage will be more and chances of recovery will come down. One should know, whom to contact, which hospital to be referred and action should be taken to quickly shift the victim with care.

Mixing of chemicals - chlorine release

Chlorine gas released in to atmosphere affected persons, when staff of a health club accidentally mixed

ub chain has been fined £20,000 after several people were treated in hospital due to a chlorine gas leak. 

polyaluminium chloride with the swimming pool disinfectant sodium hypochlorite

 

Poor management and control of hazardous substances was found as the cause for the occurrence of the incident during investigation.

        

Proper training, testing of understanding and retraining are most important in handling chemical substances and only those who qualify and are certified for hazardous substance handling should be engaged in such works.      

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/health-club-fined-over-toxic-gas.21393479

New NIOSH Smart Phone App Addresses Ladder Safety

The following links to the subject matter. While I copied this application in my android tablet and phone, I found a number of android applications useful for safety professionals, like checklists, API pressure vessel questions, dangerous goods manual, physics equations, chemistry equations, heat exchanger, cylindrical tank volume, valves, sound meter, light meter, speed meter, HSE news, etc. And all these and many more are free.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-06-17-13.html

Scaffold erection - work at height - construction safety

I booked a flat and work is in  progress (for last three years!!!). Today, I attended a meeting of flat owners with the builder. Like earlier times, again date for handover was extended by a month. The reason told was that because of rains and high velocity winds at height, and as it involves erection of scaffolds i.e work at height, construction activity was stopped.

Whatever was in other owners' minds, as a safety professional, I was glad to hear such a thing that builder stopped his work inspite of project delay. Already, he is running beyond the agreed possession date which was almost two years ago and is liable to pay some compensation as per the agreement.

How many will take such a decision though it is well known fact that any untoward incident will lead to project delays due to enquiries by police and municipal authorities.

Construction is an activity in which large number of accidents take place and the work force is also mobile with little protection for their lives.

Bank employee takes a nap on keyboard, transfers millions | The Hindu

Bank employee takes a nap on keyboard, transfers millions | The Hindu

293 million US dollars were transferred by a bank employee who was asleep while on the job. Imagine what can happen if somebody on the job in the control room of a chemical plant sleeps.

All plant employees should be healthy, and had sufficient rest before attending their duty. In some plants, workers have long working hours and on few occasions, they have to continue if reliever does not come, doing overtime.

Legislations specify number of working hours (8-9.5 hr) with rest in between and also the number of hours which a person can work continuously in a day and number of hours in a week, quarter and so on to ensure that they get sufficient rest and are not forced or lured for extra money they get. It is not possible to work more hours continuously and this will lead to mistakes and accidents.

Work at height - Two Decisions and Two Outcomes

Picture This! Two Decisions and Two Outcomes » SafetySmart

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The above link shows necessity of using safety belt while working at height.