Dust explosion in grain elevator - 3 dead, 3 missing

An apparently dust explosion in a grain elevator in US caused 3 deaths and many unconfirmed injuries. 3 persons are missing. The blast effect could be felt upto 4 miles from the place of the incident. The incident occurred while loading corn into a train.The full story is available here.

Drinking water or chemical in a water bottle?

Today in a local daily, I read a person died two days after drinking sanitary fluid phenyl, assuming it as fruit juice. Earlier, I heard from a friend about his relative drinking hydro chloric acid (HCl) in a bottle assuming it as water and developing blisters in the mouth. Before that, I heard another incident of a boy taking water from a jug placed on a water cooler, that was used earlier for phenyl and had symptoms of stomach burning for few days.  There were many lab incidents due to the use of a chemical that is not same as the label on the bottle.
All above incidents stress on importance of proper labeling, safe procedure for handling of chemicals, proper hygienic practices and supervision. Otherwise, such incidents keep recurring at regular intervals.

Can Disobeying a Safety Rule Be Safer than Obeying It?

Can Disobeying a Safety Rule Be Safer than Obeying It?

LINK

The dos and don'ts of weight loss - Yahoo! Lifestyle India

Now-a-days, I am concerned about over weight and its impact on working styles. Found an article in yahoo. The link is given below.

The dos and don'ts of weight loss - Yahoo! Lifestyle India

LINK

To Prevent Accidents, We Must Change Attitudes

We develop attitudes over a period of time due to our past experience and as the experience repeats, beliefs are reaffirmed. Attitudes also develop due to influence from others. Wrong attitudes are due to wrong advice and changing these attitudes requires a lot of effort. It requires teaching with examples, being a role model, and may be some admonishing at the end. The article at the following link dwells upon changing the attitudes for accident prevention.

To Prevent Accidents, We Must Change Attitudes

LINK

There are no exceptions. Follow the Rules, even if it is an emergency

In an incident, a coworker was assisting a crane operator in lifting the injured, by standing on a steel structure without a safety belt or any other protective gear. The employer was charged by OSHA for the violation.
This is an emergency case. But, many times, showing some reason or the other as emergency or important, people wilfully disobey the rules trading for short term gains. Even the experienced and senior colleagues preach such practices citing the urgent requirement. Funnily, the activities which were not attended for weeks will become suddenly urgent on the day they propose to take up and do not follow any safety procedure because they do not have time at that moment.
The example in the link below will serve as an eye opener to those who take chance by not following safety.
Lessons from a California Case

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Safety incentives: Boon or bane?

Any incentive to employee towards safety programme implementation will help only in the beginning. Later on, they demand more and more which becomes a vicious circle and is like opening so called Pandora's box. If you try increase the standards after attaining and maintaining certain level, you will face resistance from the employees. In fact, as the article says, they may hide the issues and do not report, not only for getting the incentive, but that they may be rebuked by colleagues, if the person is involved/reported accident/near miss and deprived others of the incentives.

http://safetydailyadvisor.blr.com/archive/2011/10/17/safety_management_incentives_pros_cons.aspx#comments?Source=SDF&effort=13