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

Feb 27, 2011

Fall of persons and objects

A news item  mentions about suicidal death of a young lady software engineer by jumping from the 4th floor of a multilevel car parking building. What is stunning is the injury to a contract labourer as the lady fell on him during the jump.
This reminds me of an incident heard from my colleague in which a snake held by a bird flying in the sky slipped and fell on a person on the road and the person died due to snake bite.
The reasons for accidents are generally attributed to as 88% from unsafe acts, 10% from unsafe conditions and 2% from others. This type of accidents i.e injury to contractor worker or death of person on the road due to snake bite come under this 2% category.
Though we say all accidents can be prevented, it is difficult to imagine what can be done in these situations to avoid accidents. In the first case, may be, if the sidewalls of the terrace or road inside the parking building are raised to a height of - say 5 ft or more, could have prevented the person from scaling the height and protected the persons down below. But, in the second case, I do not know what can be done.
Such situations, even if brought out by any safety person, would have been laughed off as 'nonsense' and the person will be snubbed for thinking too wild. May be the risk level is very low, but not ZERO. As long as any opportunity is available to save the persons, the investment is worth as nobody can get back the life. The person's life may be valued at some amount and is compensated but he is more valuable to his family members than the compensation and this should be kept in mind. Else, surely there can be chaos and society has to bear it.

Feb 24, 2011

Hydrofluoric acid hazard potential

There is an article on HF hazard potential which I could not believe about its extent. What I know is that, if HF comes in contact with skin, it can cause burns, nasal rupture if inhaled, punctures and penetrates through the bone. But, the article mentions about its distance of impact of 2 miles from the source when travels as a cloud.
HF is used a catalyst in refineries to make high octane gasoline, as mentioned in the article. The IDLH is 30 ppm and it was found at 2 miles distance when 1000 gal was released from tanker containing 5000 gal at a pressure and temperature as used in refineries. The HF travelled as vapour and mist and needed 40 parts of water for every part of HF to dilute it, though the officials doing the experiment thought that it will remain as a liquid and can be contained. The article also mentioned about use of an additive to make HF less dangerous by way reducing its ability to form vapour cloud.
Few years ago, I read an article in the internet, in which a college girl died because of HF. When she was doing experiment, few HF drops splashed on her lab coat. She washed it with water for sometime and continued her lab work. She was found dead by her neighbours, the next day. The reason mentioned is that the vapour from lab coat was inhaled by the girl and this lead to oedema.
In a book on Bhopal accident, I read that few years before, in the same plant a similar death occurred from phosgene splash on the body. Here, the lesson is that we should not be complacent and assume that by washing for a minutes, the chemical can be cleaned. Once some chemical splashes, we should takeout the clothing. This should be followed with water wash.
Normally, as a safety precaution, one should wash for at least 15 minutes once any chemical splashes/falls on the body. Even then, studies show that only about 95% of the chemical on the skin can be washed off. During my safety lectures, I tell my audience that during the beginning of every shift, atleast once, they should check for availability of water in emergency shower/eye wash fountain and allow the water to run for few minutes so that any dirt/rust collected can run off. Else, the damage from this dirty water may be more than that from the chemical splash.

Feb 23, 2011

OSHA 40 Years Old and Aging Fast

The link below is about OSHA and the views of a safety professional about its efforts in the field of safety. It also describes, how OSHA is losing its influence due to various factors.

http://www.thesafetybloke.com/osha-40-years-old-and-aging-fast/

Feb 22, 2011

Side stand for two wheelers - their hazards

It is reported yesterday that a person fell from his two wheeler on the road divider and died on the way to hospital. The person fell because he parked his two wheeler on side stand and while taking the vehicle, he forgot to lift the side stand back to its position. When he was driving the vehicle, he drove over a speed breaker which hit the side stand that was in downward position and caused imbalance leading to fall of the driver. This side stand for two-wheelers appears to be very dangerous. On few occasions, I myself forgot to lift the stand and only when it hit something on the road, I realized my mistake and put it back to its rest position. And I watched many vehicle drivers, driving the two wheelers with side stand in downward position and passersby tried to point out the hazard to drivers.
Though parking a two wheeler on side stand is common, easy and may be a style statement, vehicle manufacturers should review this because of the danger it creates. At least some audio alarm should be provided when the side stand is in downward position when the ignition is switched ON. Best is to remove the side stand so that it will be safe and will not add to hazard potential of two wheeler driving.

Emergency escape routes - not available during emergency

Recently, a fire incident was reported in the basement  of an office building in which three persons lost their lives. The reason for the death is not due to burns but because of asphyxiation. It is also reported that the fire fighters were unable to carryout rescue operations due to blocking of access and ventilation systems. About 10 years ago, a restaurant in Delhi airport also caught fire which started from the kitchen and people were unable to switchoff the exhaust (that spread the fire) as the switch was located at height and was not accessible.
Emergency accessories like manual call point, fire extinguishers, outward opening doors (emergency doors), stairs are those which we do not use day-to-day and it is seen in most of the establishments particularly in office buildings that these are blocked with junk items. The space under stairs is normally used as junkyard to keep mostly discarded chairs, tables, files, etc which are combustible. In basement areas, any fire involving these materials spreads fast due to natural draft and the same stairs which are required for fire fighting can't be used due to smoke coming up and due to poor visibility.
If fire fighters are equipped with fire resistant suits, self contained breathing apparatus and infra red cameras, only then they can approach the source to extinguish the fire. Else, they can become mute spectators. But, the building owners  and others find it easy to blame the fire fighters for not doing anything, though the reason is because of greediness and shortsightedness of the building owners to ensure free access, maintain the areas free from combustibles and keeping constant vigil in these areas.
Some establishments provide fire extinguishers only to satisfy municipal authorities but they can be found behind some tables, or they are used to hold personal belongings like shirts, bags, etc and make them invisible. Sand buckets are generally used by employees as spittoons. If any construction or minor civil works are to be done, then these sand buckets are used for taking water, concrete, etc. The valve of the fire hydrant in the building (if provided) will be normally blocked with chairs. Or, the hydrant may not be in charged condition. Or, there is no water in the sump meant for this fire hydrant system.
In some buildings, the doors to emergency stairs are locked and this defeats the basic purpose of providing alternate stairs for use during emergency.
Many times the reason for fire is attributed to short circuit. A factory inspector in Tamilnadu based on his personal experience said that actually this is not at all the reason and if people can't find the reason, then they say short circuit as the reason. If short circuit is the reason, then all electrical wiring should be checked every year for their healthiness as we check earth pit resistance and electrical continuity between the switch and the earth pit. It should be made mandatory and checking should be done by only by approved third parties. Insurance companies should insist on these checks before providing the insurance cover. All basement areas and important rooms should be provided with CCTV cameras for surveillance. All corridors should have fluorescent (radiant) markings in the direction of nearest exit so that even in case of power failure one can see the glowing signs and escape. Emergency lights should be provided in the corridors and along the escape routes to provide minimum illumination. These lights should be capable of functioning atleast 30 minutes so that rescue operations also can be conducted. For high rise buildings, these lights should function for more duration as assessed by the fire services or similar agency.

Some pictures are shown below where fire fighting accessories are blocked/misused.Such conditions can be avoided and fire safety awareness can be increased among all employees including those in administration and similar services to ensure availability and misuse. These photos were collected from various online safety resources and their effort to create safety awareness and ensure safe workplace is acknowledged.


Fire extinguishers as door stopper
FE in safe custody?
Unsafe storage of chemicals
Bocked emegency door


Emergency exit?

Feb 18, 2011

Safety implementation - We are as good (and bad) as those in developed countries

I read a blog post today where it is mentioned that i) many managers consider safety implementation as a nuisance, reduces productivity ii) enforcement agencies are short of man power, iii) long battles in courts to penalize, iv) penalties are considered as added cost to the product rather than a warning for not following safety, and so on. The situation is not different here also.
Let it be any country, whatever be the rules and penalties or punishments are, it is the commitment of the management and its support that ensures safety at the workplace and this in the long run reduces the cost of production. Very few understand this as bypassing safety shows immediate increase in output, but in the long run leads to accidents as a result of fall in safety standards and reduces the productivity. One must remember that what we see today is the result of efforts (constructive or destructive) made in the past. One must not be elated and relax when going is smooth (safe) and should be on constant vigil and be committed to improve safety.
The blog post and comments under suggested that penalties should be on the persons rather than on the organization to warn the erring persons to implement safety. Though, we say occupier (the one who got ultimate control over the day-to-day affairs of the organization) is responsible, long delays in punishing the culprits are allowing them to run the organization as per their wishes. In this regard, the blog post suggested need for having industrial courts to handle such cases and give verdict quickly. Along with person based penalties, awarding of punishments also will act as a deterrent for the people to run organizations only for profit and drive them to implement good safety practices.

Feb 17, 2011

NDTV Video of LPG Tanker explosion

There is a video of an LPG road tanker explosion occurred in Turkey. The video was captured in a cell phone camera. It shows the impact of pressure wave generated by the explosion in the form of fall of persons, light emitted during explosion, widespread damage to property and a crater in the road.
This reminds me of an incident where an LPG tanker toppled and fell on the road. Without understanding the hazard of explosion any time, passersby gathered around. Even the company officials took more than a day to put it on the road and tow away.
In another incident an ammonia tanker fell on the road. However, in this case, the road was blocked, the company officials promptly transferred the content to another vessel and cleared the area in a few hours.

Though everyone should be careful, it is the responsibility of the transporter and the manufacturer of the chemicals to ensure that transport containers are fit for road journey, the drivers know what to do in an emergency and are trained to handle the situation. Normally, the behavior of the public at large is to gather and watch. So, the driver of the vehicle, in an emergency, should caution and drive away the public to safe distance so that they are safe in case of any eventuality.

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