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Russian BLEVE @ Gas Station (10/2024 Videos)
A BLEVE at a gas station in Russia killed at least four (4) people. Several excellent videos have been shared with our membership and me. Membership Content
Quality Assurance Risk-based approach in a Safety Process/SMS
A risk-based approach means focusing assurance efforts on the activities and controls that give rise to the most significant safety risks that may impact the successful delivery of the Organization’s objectives. It can also include focusing assurance in areas where the most benefit will be derived from the effort. This means a high-level prioritization approach to identifying, assessing, reporting, and assuring the effectiveness of an organization’s safety management. Assurance methods Organizations must demonstrate and ensure that their Safety Process/SMS aligns with risk tolerance. An organization’s assurance process should provide an objective examination of evidence that demonstrates an independent, objective assessment of risk management and control or governance processes. A range of assurance methods can be used to provide confidence in the Safety Process/SMS. Below are some examples of different assurance methods. Culture of reporting and LEARNING from our mistakes
An organization that listens to and learns from its people is constantly improving and understands that mistakes, errors in judgment, and the need to adapt are normal. Organizations should listen to and support their personnel by promoting a culture that:
When an organization is listening and learning in relation to safety, the following are true: Safety Management 101 - Tips for Sr Management
Here are some FREE and straightforward Safety Management 101 items for your organization's senior management. These could be applied to a facility's senior management or at a corporate level.
1) Organizations MUST commit sufficient resources to identify and provide the minimum personnel levels (NOT just safety teams) to manage and address the risks they face. These resources include personnel, infrastructure, equipment, technology, and finances. 2) Consideration of resources should consist of the identification of the short-, medium-, and longer-term requirements, such as those required for the operation and maintenance of new infrastructure, equipment, and processes to drive continual improvement. Culture can be best understood as... "the way we do things around here"
The HSE Advisory Committee's definition of safety culture is: Nine well crafted directives for Leadership to OWN safety
Leadership should demonstrate a commitment to safety within their organization by setting a clear tone from the top, promoting the vision for safety, and by: [My] Safety Thought of the Week... Lagging Indicators and Confirmation Bias
Why do "lagging indicators" remain such a popular means of gauging/measuring the success of the safety effort? We should measure the results and that these lagging indicators can/do play a role in measuring our success in all functions within a business. However, as I would like to point out to C-Suite executives, the company does not simply count "bounced checks" to measure its financial health. An extensive financial management system with dozens of "leading indicators" and audits to verify that data ensures the business does not "bounce checks." Although the business's financial health is critical to the company's and its employees' success, I have yet to hear a business state that "our financial health is our top priority." Yet many organizations emphasize their injury rates to validate their safety efforts, often with little to no effort to verify whether those rates are accurate or legitimate or how they were achieved. This leads me to mention "confirmation bias" when the reliance on lagging indicators is the single measure of success within safety. All of us struggle with "confirmation bias." The human way of thinking and justifying our decisions leads to our actions (or lack of actions, as is the case in industrial safety). What is "confirmation bias?" (Source: Britannica) Confirmation bias is the tendency to process information by looking for or interpreting information that is consistent with their existing beliefs. This biased approach to decision-making is largely unintentional, and it results in a person ignoring information that is inconsistent with their beliefs. These beliefs can include a person’s expectations in a given situation and their predictions about a particular outcome. People are especially likely to process information to support their own beliefs when an issue is highly important or self-relevant. New Hazard - Static Discharge from Isolation Tag (CCPS)
I was raised in process safety, with a focus on flammables, and I was taught that one thing you just don't allow into your flammable process is plastics! But even I was unaware of how much plastic I had always overlooked, which was right under my nose, such as my LOTO tags. New Hazard - Static Discharge from Isolation Tag CCPS was recently (January 2023) made aware of a newly identified hazard regarding the ability of plastic or coated isolation tags to hold a sufficient static charge to act as an ignition source for flammable gases—even if the tags have an antistatic coating. These tags are readily available in the marketplace and are typically used with LOTO label printers. The tags were evaluated for surface resistivity and charge transfer following IEC test methods. They were found to pose an ignition hazard for Zones 0, 1, 2, and Gas Groups IIA, 118, and Zone IIC. The tag size was reduced to an area of 11 in2 (71 cm2) and was still found to be an ignition hazard in all of Zone O and Gas Group IIC for Zones 1 and 2. CCPS recommends that operating companies ensure that isolation tags used in hazardous areas are incapable of holding and discharging an electrostatic charge that would enable them to serve as an ignition source. Stored energy can be LETHAL
On November 3, 2020, at 1:15 p.m., Employee #1, 55, employed by an HVAC company, was working at a customer's commercial facility. He was removing a coupler and blind from the intake header of an air dryer. The employee did not first relieve the air pressure from the header. When he loosened the coupler bolts, the coupler and blind were propelled off the header by the pressure release. The flying parts struck employee #1. Employee #1 sustained blunt force traumatic injuries and was killed. Pressure Test Gone Bad (HVAC unit)
On November 1, 2022, at 12:45 p.m., an employee, 30, was installing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment at a residential building. When the employee was pressure testing a pipe fitting, an object flew off the HVAC unit and struck the employee in the face and head. The employee was killed by blunt force trauma. |
Partner Organizations
I am proud to announce that The Chlorine Institute and SAFTENG have extended our"Partners in Safety" agreement for another year (2024) CI Members, send me an e-mail to request your FREE SAFTENG membership
Member Associations
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