Experience in Safety implementation

There is a saying that "Experience makes a man wise". Yes, this is true, but not in all respects. Sometimes, it is good if we do not get experience, for example, tasting a food item that is made by a first timer, or, learning 2-wheeler driving where there is every possibility of fall of person.

I like to taste a mango once again rather than getting injured first time or next time also.

The greatest safety professional, Mr. Kletz said in one of his books on industrial safety that, it is better to learn from others mistakes rather than experiencing all those by ourselves. By this, we can ensure a safe work for ourselves and our colleagues and public.

Information on accidents is available in various books, news papers, journals, websites. We should be interested in searching and getting all those information and then applying the lessons learnt to our work place.

Still, it is surprising to see that we do not learn from the accidents, leave those at other places, even from our own work place accidents, we refuse to learn. We are so lethargic and self centered that we do not want even to inform the people in our work place about accidents that are likely to occur. Every thing we leave it the wisdom of the shopfloor workers or Know Your Self way.

However, when an injury occurs, it is likely that the injured apart from pain has also be ready to receive admonishing from superiors by way of a memo / advise letter / explanation seeking letter for the injury. What the works manager or his supervisor does during regular plant visits is known only to the GOD, I suppose.

It is to be noted by all that apart from penalties (financial as well as sitting in a jail) listed in the Factories Act, there are provision listed even in the Constitution where by way of negligence, when failure to take protective measures is established, concerned in-charges are likely to be punished under constitution also.

Hence, one should not be relaxed that their work place does not come under Factories Act. Constitution contains all to see that persons are protected.

Sometimes, when safety supervisor / officer gives advise on safe acts / practices or stops an activity that is carried out in an unsafe manner, then the production in-charge asks the safety person to do the work or he will try to shift the safety person to that production activity or sees that he is removed. Of course, removal is not possible in a government organization, but it is always possible to shift safety person to production line as a punishment or teach a lesson for advising on safety.

The production fails to see why a safety person advises so. It is production in-charge who has to face questions, in case of an accident and he may have to be prepared even for a possible arrest by police. Instead of seeing or visualizing the situation, production in-charge questions safety department like, are you not belonging to the organization, don't you want a good name for the General Manger, etc.

Chief Executive / General Manger who is designated as Occupier should be careful against people like the above who want to get production somehow and want to claim for the production but not about the injuries. Such people should be thrown out of the organization or they should be sent to training programmes compulsorily on the statutory requirements with stress on penalties so that they MAY be able to see the implications. Even then if they do not learnt, better they are removed from the job itself so that workers will be protected and organization's name is not spoiled.

Mr Om P Kharbanda in one of his writings mentioned that SAFETY IS NOT ONLY FREE, BUT IT ALSO PAYS. Like quality brings down the cost of production, similarly safety also is cost reducing proposition. However, safety brings more tangible benefits when it is thought and implemented during the design stage itself. If it is implemented later as an ADD ON feature, then people may resist to follow unless until they see the reason clearly.

Though people say penalties do not have much effect in safety, I feel strongly that safety department should be given the authority to impose cash penalties where safety advisor can caution once and if the problem persists, then he can take evidence by photograph or other means and also impose penalty straight away. The penalty amount should be deducted from the concerned production department / agency Head of the Account to Safety Department which can be used as fund for safety promotion. Again, the facility in-charge should seek explanation from the concerned production department where penalty is recovered for the safety lapse.
When managers are questioned on penalties and is shown as a negative aspect, then only production mangers will realize the importance of safety.

Stopping the work by safety person will not have impact, because once the safety person leaves the shopfloor after advise / instruction, the work will be resumed in the same manner. This is true in most of the cases.

Sometimes, when shopfloor persons are questioned about unsafe practices, like doing maintenance on a running machine, or not wearing PPE, etc, they start complaining about the knowledge of the safety person or quality of PPE or need for getting an item of a particular brand, etc without justification so that safety person can be undermined and will be made to leave the place. It should be known that PPE of good quality meeting standards only will be recommended by safety person but not of brands. If there are more suppliers meeting the required standards, then supplier of the item meeting standards at lowest cost only will be recommended for purchase.

Sometimes, when workmen face problem with overtime, they they call safety persons on the pretext of unsafe conditions in the shopfloor. Once the manager agrees for giving overtime, then workmen forget about safety aspects and everybody disappears. At the end, you may see shopfloor in-charge and safety person arguing on the unsafe conditions, that may not be existing at all which were complained by workmen.

Workmen also should realize that if they do not follow safety, they can be punished under various provisions.

Finally, safety implementation requires commitment by shopfloor people and the production department. If they follow advise by Safety Department, then they can get benefited more. Else, it is they who have suffer the pain, not the safety persons.

Chewing 32 times - benefits

This is nothing to do with industrial safety or such sort. However, how I would like share my experience of chewing more number of times.

We read in books about the need for chewing any food item in the mouth for 32 times. However, we are all busy and in hurry due to lack of time, we swallow the food and leave for the work. By this we are taking more food which will add to our weight in the form of fat. Sometimes due to indigestion, we end up in vomittings or suffer with gastric troubles. This is my experience also.

Once, I took food leisurely by chewing more number of times and I found that the quantity of intake is very less. Moreover, I enjoyed my food also. This I did for a few days may be 10 days or so and subsequently I found my weight also reduced by 2 -3 kg.

As it is difficult to stick to good habbits, I could not follow the above method of eating and now my weight is hovering around 85 kg.

A number times, I thought of chewing more times but did not follow it.

Sometimes, we do not take lunch may be with the aim of reducing weight but we end up eating more food in the evening than had we took lunch. So, instead of weight loss, we will gain some more weight.

However, for the last few months, I am taking more banana and this is helping me in having my stomach clean and bowl movements are normal and in time. Only when I am in journey, I find this is disturbed and it will become normal once I am back home.

Importance of Learning

Accidents and near misses are the result of mistakes committed by some one.

On human errors, there is a quotation by the great safety professional, Mr Trevor A. Kletz (retired from ICI, UK and now is about 90 years old),

“Mistakes occur because someone does not know what to do. To prevent them we need better training or instruction or changes to the plant design or work method so that the task is easier”.

It can be due to shop floor person, supervisor, officer during operation, issue of instructions or during design. A mistake can be a part of the system right from the beginning or it could have been committed subsequently.

We all make mistakes. However we can become wise and knowledgeable only when we learn from these mistakes.

Experience makes a man wise. However, experience is not desirable in all aspects.

Again in the words of Mr Kletz in his book, “Still Going Wrong”,

“A high price was paid for safety information mentioned in various sources (like books, films and internet). People were killed or injured and billions of dollars worth of equipment was damaged. Someone has paid the TUTION FEES. There is no need for you to pay them again”.

It only takes one apple to spoil the whole barrel as the old saying goes, and this is time when a group of humans gather together. If one friend or family member is not happy, then their unhappiness can spread to infect the others in the group.

Same can be applied to safety. If a person is unaware / not bothered about safety, he will endanger others also.

If we see the accidents that occurred in any particular industry from its inception or even for that matter for the last few years, can we say that all those accidents that occurred were of first time in nature? It is unlikely and I am sure nobody agrees with this statement. Most of the accidents are of repetitive nature, if not exactly, slightly in a different manner. If we go through the accident and near miss records, we can find similarity in the type of accidents. May be it is not in the same plant but in some other plant under the management of same organization.

Dissemination of information is vital so that all of us can study the accidents and near misses and can see whether IS IT POSSIBLE IN MY PLANT FOR OCCURRENCE OF SUCH AN ACCIDENT. It is important in safety committee meetings held every month that the discussions should be on accidents and near misses occurred in the plant or other plants. Instead, the observation is that mostly discussion goes on pending safety related deficiencies (SRDs) which were already brought to the notice of the plant management by the safety officer and by allocating necessary resources (responsible person, man power, finance, etc), these SRDs can be corrected. Information on accidents, near misses, unusual occurrences etc is normally compiled at corporate level and are sent to all units under the organization after review. This is one valuable source of information on accidents. Similarly, we read such incidents in the newspapers that there is some fire, explosion, electrocution, fall of person, etc with some details. Therefore media is another source. Similarly those who had access for other sources like books (library) or internet can get valuable information.

Seminars can be conducted for employees in which those who were actually involved in accidents directly or witnessed can explain their experience in accidents with the noble cause of saving their colleagues from such accidents. Discussion of these in such seminars, plant meetings, etc creates an awareness about safety and can ignite our minds to take necessary corrective measures so that we can maintain a safe work place.

Most cited reason for fires - Short Circuit

Most of the times I read news papers on fire incidents, the reason told by the owner of the premises or security or fire service department or some one on the road is that it is SHORT CIRCUIT.
Every time I read such a statement and learned people say short circuit is the cause for fire and resultant loss of lives and property, following questions come to my mind.
1. Why not people have a look at electrical wiring / cabling in their building.
2. Why not authorities make it compulsory by way of legislations that electrical audits of buildings by authorized people shall be mandatory? After such audit, the certificate shall be filed along with property tax payment?
3. Such authorized persons must be held responsible once they certify that the building under audit, if declared safety from electrical short circuit hazard is safe, is subjected to fire by short circuit.
4. If the electrical cabling during audit is found to be not satisfactory, then, it should be repaired / replaced within specified period by the auditor (say one or two months). If not, then local town authorities should impose penalty and if not paid, then services like water, electricity, etc shall be disconnected.
5. The vendors of such poor quality cables, switches, etc should be punished by penalties and if repeated, then be imprisoned.
6. Similarly, those who do cabling works should be held responsible, if the fires are due to poor workmanship of such people.
7. Like in industries where it is mandatory to display line diagrams of cabling, same should be made mandatory even for all residential and commercial buildings.

What I feel sometimes is that the short circuit reason is only for showing some reason and claim insurance. Claims should not be settled until the cause is found after due investigation by certified agencies.

The fires caused not only damage the property under fire but also that of others nearby and these buidlings residents have to face hardship because of others, let it be intentional or unintentional.

Sometimes, when a fire incident is reported, it is also brought out that the same building was involved in fire a few years ago. This makes us to think that
i) either the person has learned from earlier incident or
ii) he is doing intentionally to coverup something.

It is therefore made it mandatory that all buildings shall be subjected to electrical and fire safety audits once in every 5 years or so and certificates shall be submitted to town authorities while paying property tax. Else, the property tax shall be increased to such an extent that people should go for audit rather than paying enormous amounts of property tax with penalties for not doing elctrical and fire safety audits.

Lab Safety

Safety is freedom the danger, risk, hazard, so is the meaning found in dictionaries. All of us are concerned about our wellbeing and of others, (mostly) known and (sometimes) unknown.

While doing an activity, consciously and / or unconsciously we keep assessing the dangers in that activity and we take appropriate measures for overcoming those dangers. However, to assess / know the hazards / dangers in a work, we should have knowledge about the nature of work, the materials to be handled both manually and mechanically, the work procedure, the skills required, the persons involved, etc. Apart from these, we also should know about the area at which the work is to be done, the surroundings, the layout, the type of help that will be available in case of emergency, the exit routes, the rules and regulations of the land, etc. So, it requires lot of information to carryout a work safely so that nobody will be exposed to the dangers before, during and after the work. We give lot of importance and attention on activities in plant operations, fabrication shops, workshops, transportation, etc.

However, little attention is paid to safety during various activities in laboratory. Laboratory is a place, where we do research on small scale to establish a process, analyse various materials to know the composition, etc. Laboratory plays an important role in the establishment and various chemicals are handled for which we may not know about the dangers in handling them. The dangers can be in the form of toxicity, fire or explosion. Similarly there are dangers due to electricity, which will be used for heating, mixing, ventilation, illumination, etc. Then, big laboratories will have associated workshops to meet their various requirements, because standard equipment may not be available in the market and therefore they have to be made to the requirement of the researcher or analyst. The dangers in workshop are due to material handling, electrical and from the machines like lathes, grinders, welding sets, cutting machines and cranes and hoists. When, we start thinking about safety in lab, slowly and progressively we start identifying hazards that are present in scaled up plants and we realize that we can’t ignore safety of the people working in laboratories.

This leads us to think big and draw up a safety plan for laboratory. So what is required?

1. A well planned layout for lab, with marked locations of rooms, equipment, office rooms, storage area, air handling units for supply and exhaust ventilation, transformers, power distribution boards (PDBs), emergency exits, fire extinguishers, first aid rooms, workshop, change rooms, etc.

2. Material safety data sheets (MSDS) of the chemicals to be handled, which are available in internet in web sites like www.ilo.org, etc or if not available consult with the supplier of the chemicals. MSDS gives information about physical and chemical properties, non-compatible reactions, transportation of chemicals, measures to be taken for safety during handling and in case of emergency, spillages, etc.
3. Types and quantities of various wastes generated, storage and handling and their disposal procedure.
4. Storage of chemicals at lab stores and in the lab.
5. Power distribution and their connections to the equipment, rooms, earthing connections of equipment, earth stations / pits, earth pit and grid resistance levels to be maintained, etc.
6. Location and routing of service systems like water, air, etc.
7. Off-gas exhaust system that includes piping / ducting, filters, scrubbers, exhaust fans, discharge location (so that exhaust does not become supply for other building’s ventilation system).
8. Drains, their routing, hazards in mixing of various drains to a common drain.
9. Availability of emergency power, water, ventilation for crucial equipment / rooms.
10.Gas cylinder bank storage, movement trolleys, piping / hoses including connection arrangement, pressure regulators, pressure relief valves, monitors / detectors, exhaust system for storage.
11.Mechanical material handling systems like hoists, cranes, pallet trucks, trolleys, safe working loads (SWL), etc.
12.Location of emergency showers and eye wash fountains, availability of water, their quality, maintenance.
13.Personal protective equipment (PPE) like nose masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, aprons, suits, hand gloves, shoes, helmets.
14.In Service Inspection (ISI) requirement for various equipment like furnaces, hoods, supply and exhaust system, PDBs, process and service piping, etc.
15.Maintenance and testing procedures for equipment, electrical systems, fire extinguishers, etc.
16.Minimum inventory of chemicals, essential spares for equipment, tools, etc.

The list goes on as one thinks of and this requires constant and continuous assessment of activities for hazards and based on the activities and hazards in it, appropriate corrective measures have to be taken to minimize the hazards to acceptable levels. Some of the corrective measures in the order of priority from first to last are,

Elimination – Stop use or preparation of chemical so that the hazard can be totally avoided.
Substitution – Find an alternate chemical or method by which the level of hazard can be reduced to acceptable levels.
Administrative – Devise and implement administrative controls so that safe handling can be ensured.
Training – Provide training and retraining to people so that they understand what they are doing, hazards in it and protective measures to be followed and what to do in case of any emergency.
PPE – Use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is the last line of defense and PPE as appropriate to the need is to be used correctly so that persons will be protected when all other lines of defense mechanisms fail.

Finally, an emergency plan should be available for meeting all possible situations, mock drills have to be conducted to ensure that every body understands what is their role and responsibility in an emergency and drawbacks found in mock drills are to be corrected so that a fool-proof emergency plan will be in place.

Finally, I want to remind all concerned about Murphy’s Law, which states, “If something can go wrong, it will and what is more, it will probably happen when we are least expecting it. It may also occur at the worst possible moment, when we are least able to react quickly and effectively because, we have our hands already full or our attention is elsewhere”.

And, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it - George Santayana”

For those who are interested in safety, a number of e-books are available at www.ebookee.com and www.esnips.com. Apart from these, accident investigation reports are available at www.csb.gov and www.hse.gov.uk.

Wish you all a safe lab experience.

Open borewells - fall of kids

Now a days, it is a regular phenomenon of reading / viewing the fall of innocent kids in open borewells. We also see, once a kid falls into a borewell, after it is brought into the attention by media, all agencies will come into action. For 8-10 inch borewell, a big well will be dug parallelly and a contact will be made to save the child. Proper closure of borewell, once dug, will cost a few hundred rupees. This responsibility should be squarely put on the person who digs it and after seeing so many incidents of fall of children into open borewells, it becomes necessary to even FENCE the closed borewell in a secured manner. If a borewell after drilling is not fitted with pumping arrangement immediately, then, it should not be taken up for drilling. Work should be completed in all respects and it is like playing with the lives of innocent children, IF the wells are not closed in a proper and secured manner. A lock and key arrangement should be made. If there is possibility of theft of lock, then, hand / motorised pump should be fitted immediately and the borewell should be put into use. Then only, I feel, we can avoid these recurring incidents of fall of children into thse wells.
Any person, who leaves the open borewells after drilling, should be put behind bars without bail. Then only people will realize the dangers posed by these open borewells.

Uneven floor - finger injury

A person was loading a gas cylinder on to the cylinder trolley, by rolling the cylinder in inclined position with one hand. While rolling the cylinder near the trolley, it slipped and fell on the hand. Before he could take off the hand, it fell and the person's finger came between the cylinder and the trolley. Though, the uneven surface was known to the people, not much attention was given for repairing it and this hazardous condition lead to finger injury. It is not possible always to predict what type injuries a hazard can cause. However, it is common sense to remove any hazard once it is idenfied.

If we don't respect the hazardous condition, then the hazard also will return the favour in the same manner. People spend more time and give justification for not attending the hazard rather than taking corrective action.