Fire Safety Demonstration by South Beach Tow(extinguish the cigarette or...

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Some thoughts on culture / safety culture

One of the definitions on safety culture is "the way one works even when nobody's watching". If an organization functions truly the way even when there is no monitoring, as it functions under observation, then its culture is said to be good.

If everybody works safely without monitoring / reminding / without the need for display of posters, slogans, etc then really safety culture has been imbibed in their blood!!!.

It means, there is no need for safety department and can be disbanded as every employee has taken that role on himself.

A leader should not get blinded by reports from few lieutenants / spies (the spoilers who increase the distance between the leader and subordinates) in the organization to know what is happening. Everybody should be able to communicate to him so that he gets a fair idea of what is happening and how things are moving in the organization. Once such reporting is established, it aids in safety culture also.

DuPont Reaches $1.28 Million Settlement Over Toxic Gas Leaks -- Update - NASDAQ.com

DuPont Reaches $1.28 Million Settlement Over Toxic Gas Leaks -- Update - NASDAQ.com



Fines should be such that violations are not taken casually. Punishments are better than fines. This is applicable in all countries. Violators should not find benefit / profit in violation.

Everybody says safety first. But, do not explain the reasons for injuries/deaths and where they erred, unintentionally.

Success or failure - it is a team's achievement - with a rider!

Recently Indian cricket team lost the series to England. Those who praised the first win were the same to blame the losses also. However, success or failure depends directly on the collective performance of the team. And, the responsibility also rests with the team selection committee.

If the team members are hand picked without choice or concurrence of the team leader (Captain), then the committee is responsible for the outcome. The role of the captain is limited to running the show, as he can. If the captain is not capable, then a good team also can not perform.

This is also true for OHS management. You appoint some staff who are worthless and expect the result, it is only a daydream. For name sake, there will be X number of staff, but real performers may be scarce among the X.

Dust explosion kills more than 65 persons

In an incident of aluminum dust explosion, likely to have been caused by a flame lit, several persons died, many were injured with more than 80% burns. From the photograph, the roof of the building appears to have been damaged. The explosion sound could be heard at 2 km distance.

Ammonia reactor blast - 10 persons injured

As per news reports, a brine unit chiller with ammonia exploded on Saturday i.e 28.06.2014, leading to ammonia leak, injuring 10 persons with burns. As per some other reports, 11 persons got injured in the incident. Persons suffered suffocation, breathlessness and giddiness.
To clear the choking of brine in the chilling unit, steam was admitted which led to expansion of ammonia (anhydrous?) and pressure rise that causing explosion.
As per reports in some other news papers, use of steam instead of hot water led pressure rise. Hot water use limits the temperature compared to steam and may be this is one of the reasons for the incident.
Reports indicating fire extinguished rise questions of whether it is ammonia fire or any other fire.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/andhra_pradesh/11-Hurt-in-Pharma-Unit-Blast-3-Critical/2014/06/29/article2306006.ece

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/10-injured-in-blast-at-drug-unit/article6158709.ece

Safety department in the plant – boon or bane?

Governments made it mandatory to have a dedicated safety department in every plant/facility conforming to certain minimum conditions considered as hazardous. Generally, the role of the safety officer specified in the applicable legislations is to advice and assist the plant officials to carryout –

hazard identification, job hazard studies, accident investigation, procurement of safety devices, conduct of safety promotional campaigns, safety competitions, etc.

Further, it should also conduct monitoring inspections to evaluate safety performance, investigate select accidents/near misses, maintain records, etc.

However, when we hear/read from media about occurrence of accidents everyday at some plant or the other, it appears that the safety departments in these facilities are not effective by themselves or concerned plant managements are not heeding to their advice.

Having a separate safety department in every facility along with other departments like production, maintenance, quality, HR, administration, security, etc may be giving the impression to the other departments that safety in the work area is not their job(work/headache). And these departments may also be of the view that it is the safety department which should identify the hazardous conditions and ALSO to rectify them WITHOUT bothering them (i.e production, etc).

Such views are against the role specified by the legislations and clearly the importance of safety department is lost when such views are also supported by the top management. Clearly, safety department cannot go hand in glove situation with other departments, they confrontation is not the solution. Safety department should act tough with erring departments. If the role of safety department is limited by not listening to their advice, then the safety in the concerned facility is doomed and accidents will be just waiting to happen.

One should realize that safety is a line function i.e everybody in the organization should make it happen and not that of staff function i.e it is not the duty of safety department staff alone. If any plant management thinks it is staff function, then safety will not improve in that plant and the expenditure on safety department staff (salaries) is waste. May be they can only show to visitors that they are complying with legislations, they are spending so much, etc and make them scapegoats in case of any accident. This is true, as of late, filing cases on safety department officials along with other department officials is on the rise. It is easy to tell that the safety officer did not caution them about the hazards though clearly, it is the responsibility of the work area in-charge. 

The occurrence of accidents at work places that come to our notice through media, and the possible reasons as above sometimes lead to the conclusion that it is better to abolish the safety department by legislation and to make concerned plant management responsible for ensuring safety. Nobody should be designated as safety officer or person responsible for safety, even within each department as the results will be same.

The responsibilities of every department in-charge should include safety also, apart from other responsibilities. The issues to be discussed   in every review meeting should include all issues like, production, quality, safety, maintenance, developmental activities, projects, etc (need not be in that order, but all issues should be reviewed without fail).

Such procedure will make the in-charges to give equal time to all issues and ensure a safe work place for all.