Top 50 Risk Management Blogs

Listed below is the link on top 50 risk management blogs of which I follow the 7th blog i.e Risk and Safety Blog that gives some ideas of risk assessment and an understanding of the risk.

http://www.mastersinriskmanagement.org/top-50-risk-management-blogs.html#7

Recurrence of accidents - lack of safety culture

We read a number of industrial and road accidents in news papers. It appears that we never learn and never want to learn also. In factories, we do not follow even the well laid out rules of various statutes and established procedures and on the road, we do not respect the others on the road. We are in hurry always and we do not want to start a bit early. Even if the other person on the road is wrong, if we avoid showing our road rage, we can avoid many of the accidents.

In the factory, regular monitoring of operating parameters, keeping an ear for the noises from the machines,motors, agitators, equipment; monitoring process and storage inventories; leaving the aisles free from obstructions, interacting with shop floor employees, self discipline by employees, etc can reduce accidents. But, most of the supervisors and engineers appear to be stuck to the tables. When there is no monitoring, then it leads to bypassing of procedures, wrong reporting and complacency. This also gives a wrong signal to new recruits.

Most of the plant layouts also appear to be congested. We put more and more equipment in the same area  and whatever planned during initial setup with sufficient space will not be seen after future capacity additions. This congestion also leads to unsafe conditions and can endanger the lives of employees in emergency.

If the rot is not attended in the beginning stage, then even the best management expert can't do anything. When we compromise the above safety issues for the fear of unrest, union problems, unrealistic production goals, then so be it and see the deterioration of safety culture and one day, you may close the shop temporarily for a few months or permanently.

Fatality at a Zirconium-Titanium Facility

It is reported that two persons died in a facility that handles zirconium-Titanium. Read the information from the link here. The incident occurred during packing of titanium powder into bricks. Federal Investigators Seek Cause Of Fatal Hancock Co. Blast - News Story - WTOV Steubenville. CSB in a statement stated that it is deploying 4-member investigating team. Internet search shows some accidents/injuries during the handling of pyrophoric materials, in which some useful information can be found in these links. LINK1, LINK2. 

1. Zirconium, titanium, thorium and other metal fires have great potential to cause injuries and fatalities as the thermal radiation can initiate fires in the surrounding areas. They can easily ignite and explode when subjected to friction/impact. It is well known that explosions be devastating in confined spaces. 
2. In combination with insufficient water, the metal fires can grow bigger due to release of hydrogen and can also cause sputtering leading to flying of burning splinters all around (some times to a few hundred meters distance - source: internet search) and cause secondary fires.
3. The zirconium fires are intense and bright and can cause retinal damage when viewed with naked eye. The fire once initiated can reach great heights in no time depending upon the quantity of material involved and size, when turnings are involved. It is reported extensively in literature and NFPA that metal powder/dust can cause dust explosion and friction is sufficient to initiate this.
4. TEC powder in portable extinguishers is effective only for small fires and big fires can be extinguished only by application of large quantities of water from all directions by experienced fire fighters. Further, continuous watch for at least a day is required after extinguishing as it is likely that the material under the heap can keep burning for a long time.
5. As per the safety advice mentioned in MSDS/NFPA, and as it is with any chemical, lesser the inventory, the more safer it is. We can't sit assuming that everything is safe when we are only storing and not handling / processing, which proved very costly during the famous Bhopal accident.
6. Pyrophoric materials need very little energy to catch fire / explode and it is stated that the static charge accumulated on a person is sufficient to initiate fire of this dust/powder. For a safe work place, it is recommended to use antistatic apparel, provide earthing to discharge static charge on the equipment/containers, flameproof/explosion proof electrical fittings, maintain at least 60% humidity, etc in the work area.
7. The powder generated should be incinerated every shift / day (depending upon the quantity) under controlled conditions so that the material can be rendered safe and can be disposed off as landfill.

Training and its effectiveness

Training the employees for skills is a major task for any organization. And imparting skills to do the work safely is much more bigger task. Generally, class room safety training provides only basics, do's and dont's, SOPs, etc along with case studies. But, for the person to work safely, on the job training i.e. shopfloor training can be effective rather than class room training. And the person under on-the-job training requires proper guidance and supervision till he understands the implications and is moulded. This type of training may be costly for the managements as the number of persons trained under one instructor will be limited to a few at any given time. If the number of trainees increases, then the amount of time and attention by the instructor on each of the trainee will be reduced.

Though, nobody is interested in getting involved in accidents, still the occurrence of accidents indicate about the lack of knowledge and may be complacency developed over a period of time. With the on-the-job training and subsequently effective supervision can lead to accident-free workplace.

New EPA tool to assess safety of chemicals

The LINK does not give much information other than reporting the development. However, we can keep checking the EPA website for latest news and its applicability to chemicals in our work place.

Bhopal Accident - One more year passed!

Another year passed to count on Bhopal accident. After the Bhopal accident, we can recount the accidents at HPCL, Vizag and IOCL, Jaipur where human lives are lost in double digit. We do not know, how many are going to happen at any time. We may think that we are doing pretty well on safety matters, but it is the luck and time factor rather than our safety alertness that accidents of great magnitude did not happen.

All of us know what to do to avert an accident, but complacency and wrong priorities make us to delay immediate actions for improving safety at workplace.

In the West, well established industrial organizations saw occurrence of accidents, though there safety record is at its best till the occurrence of the accident.

Though, incentives do not lead to permanent safety solutions, still we can offer significant incentives to employees who point out hazards and those responsible for allowing those hazards should be punished parallelly.

Too much freedom and associated inaction should not be tolerated in any hazard installation and wrong doers should be handled severely.

The Safety Officer's Perspective - Fire Engineering

Please go through the following link.