Does your business allow workers to carry their personal lighters in their pockets? In my word of Flammable Liquids and Gases (FLAGs) and HAZ MATs we never allowed people to have lighters on them while on our property – some companies do not even allow them in parking lots. In most of my plants, our smoking areas had electrical lighters (like the push-in/pop-out style in cars); pipe smokers always complained! ? In many plants even made truck drivers and delivery personnel surrender their’s at the gate and pick them up as they exit. But I am wondering how this is viewed outside the petro-chem industries and PSM/RMP sectors.
Do most facilities PROHIBIT employees and contractors from having a lighter in their pocket while they work? Especially operators and maintenance personnel who work in areas with flammables? I came across this incident in the OSHA Database and thought… this guy has my kind of luck (i.e. bad luck). But it made me think about those businesses that still allow smoking and may allow their employees to perform hotwork with a lighter in their pocket… stranger things have happened!
On March 28, 2014, Employee #1, working at a construction company’s job site, was engaged in exterior carpentry. He was using a cutting torch. A spark from the torch fell into the worker’s front pocket. The worker had a butane lighter in his pocket. The spark caused the lighter to explode, and the worker sustained severe burns. Emergency services were called. Either at the job site or subsequently, at the hospital, the worker died from his burns.