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

Apr 29, 2014

Explosive effect of accidents in the chemical industry

An article about chemical accidents

http://www.icis.com/Articles/2010/03/29/9345517/the-explosive-effect-of-accidents-in-the-chemical-industry.html

Blast during dismantling of a chemical boiler - 3 persons die due to burns

Three persons died in a blast that occurred during the dismantling of a chemical boiler in a scrap godown. The contents of the boiler are not known. However, this incident is a lesson that any vessel before sold as a scrap should be cleaned thoroughly to ensure that it is free from chemicals. The incident might have happened during gas cutting of the vessel with trapped chemicals generating hot gases or undergoing runaway reaction and with improper venting. Provision for venting should be available to avoid pressure rise.




http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thane/Three-killed-in-Thane-boiler-blast/articleshow/33677572.cms


Apr 27, 2014

Plant shutdown after reaching the target

I am surprised to read a old news item (see the link below) on the above title. The title of the news item is about an accident causing burn injuries to seven persons. In the last para of the news article, it is stated that the unit was shutdown after the target was reached.
Normally, operations will be continued as any excess production too will add to balance sheet. If it is to meet CFO (consent for operation) / factory licence conditions or any other reason is not known.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Chennai/7-injured-in-naphtha-leak-at-Manali-ammonia-plant/articleshow/33631036.cms

Apr 26, 2014

Effectiveness of safety programme - management support

Appointment of safety officers is a mandatory requirement. When cost cutting is the mantra (rule) everywhere particularly when the company is not getting profits, how do a safety department head feels, if the management asks HR to take action for recruitment more personnel for safety department, that too, without any proposal from safety head.
It really shows the commitment of the management and this should motivate to do more. Doing routine inspections is one of the jobs. But, updating one's knowledge and foreseeing the hazards ahead and able to explain and convince the plant personnel is really the challenge for a safety officer. And, imagine if you can delegate routine inspections and is able to get time to study the processes in detail and analyze for hazards, what else is required. Definitely, this will give job satisfaction because your job is different from day-to-day jobs and you are doing special work. It will also make you an expert over a period of time and you can make your company a role model in the industry.
I always feel that the factories rules specifying one safety officer for every 1000 workers or so is insufficient even to do routine inspections for safety unless everybody in the shopfloor is committed to work safely. Otherwise, it will be like, catch me if you can, situation.
After certain age, even health will not permit a person to walk around throughout the day and his effectiveness in implementing safety will diminish.
Apart from safety inspections and pep talks in some companies, safety officer will also look after fire and environment duties, procure personal protective equipment, buy instruments, coordinate with different agencies like local authorities, factories department, pollution control board, explosives department, etc which will be taxing as he has to go their offices which can be far off and such works will reduce his attention on safety implementation.
I feel that there should be separate department for each of safety, environment, fire and welfare activities. And, one safety supervisor/officer should be available for every 10,000 square meters of shopfloor area or 250 employees (including contractors), whichever is less.
No  person should be allowed to enter shopfloor for any new work without safety briefing and work related training. Retraining should be provided atleast once in a year if the job is same. Class room training away from work area is preferable. Else, they will be called in between the training programme for any of the so called urgent works. Training programme should not pack many topics and should have one or two topics per day with theory, case studies, videos and evaluation/assessment. Participants too should be given sometime, say 45-60 minutes to speak on their experiences. Audience should be limited to 25-30. More participants means reduced attention from the faculty, less time available for the participants to interact and occasional arguments spoiling the course proceedings.

Apr 13, 2014

Easy to blame others for fires in our premises - what about our preparedness?

Today I read in a news paper that fire services reached late to the site of fire by which some property damage already took place. Such reasons we hear or read regularly without thinking what is that we have done to protect our property or persons before expecting others' help.

Did we keep our premises free from hazards?
Whether the house keeping in our site is well maintained?
Whether the shop floors are free from obstructions?
Whether the approach roads are free from mindless parking vehicles?
Whether we adhered minimum requirements of maintaining water storage, fire detection and control system?
Whether the persons in the building / plant are trained in basic fire fighting?
Do we have regular surveillance checks to see that the premises are safe for residing or working?

Instead of keeping our house right i.e free from hazards, we blame late arrival of fire department. For them to reach the place of incident, they have to come through congested roads. We construct our buildings without proper place for vehicle parking and we think public roads are our parking areas. Some of those who have parking space for residents do not allow visitors to park inside the premises. Big notice board will be displayed reading "NO PARKING FOR OUTSIDERS/VISITORS". Then why do allow visitors at all? All such premises and those parking vehicles on public roads should be penalized heavily. This will also be a good source of income for the local authorities. To avoid corruption / bribes, local authorities can share a percentage of such income generated with the employees making efforts to identify such lapses and collecting the amounts.

For most of the fires, short circuit is a stated reason making them electrical fires. But, why such short circuit takes place. The reason is overload, absence of surge protectors, use of poor quality wiring or not replacing the old wiring. It is stated that even in residential buildings, electrical wiring needs replacement after 15 years. Atleast, we should get the electrical systems checked regularly not for anybody else, but for our own safety.

Municipal authorities / factories department should make it compulsory for periodical checking by specifying the period also say once in five years every time after first 15 years of life. Like building inspectors authorized for checking, they should authorize experienced and qualified persons/institutions for such checks without which permissions should be withdrawn and power/water supply / sanitation services.

These data should be digitized so that defaulters can be easily found on the next day of due date and action can be taken.
Data entry of checks should be done by authorized inspectors and for any incidents, such inspectors/agencies should be made responsible.


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