At 3:35 p.m. on December 27, 2022, an employee was knocking gypsum dust off the interior walls of the end saw baghouse hopper. The baghouse was a large steel structure, 40 feet in height, with inward converging walls that led to two screw-augers that moved gypsum dust to the center of the hopper. The dust…...
At 4:30 a.m. on January 11, 2023, an employee attended a Permit Confined Space Entry Rescue Training. The employee entered the manway and began to descend into a vessel. Approximately halfway into the entry, he realized he could not fit in and began to extract himself. He was distressed and lost consciousness. His coworkers attempted…...
At 11:00 a.m. on May 23, 2019, an employee removed a regulator from a chlorine gas cylinder to perform yearly maintenance and repacking. When the employee attempted the close the shutoff valve, the valve malfunctioned and stopped turning while still slightly open without the employee’s knowledge. When the employee removed the regulator, chlorine gas escaped…....
Two workers were injured on an offshore platform while installing a skillet, the steel circular joining plate inside a section of piping. The incident occurred while the workers were on scaffolding and unbolting a 10-inch flange (Figure 1). After determining the skillet was the wrong size, the supervisor instructed a third worker to join the…...
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is a pretty common backup power supply in industrial settings where “power failure” can lead to the loss of control systems, emergencyshutdown systems, and emergency mitigation systems. But like ALL SAFEGUARDS we take credit for in our Hazard Analyzes, these UPS must be in our mechanical integrity program for testing/validation regularly…...
As we have discussed before, all drivers (including all parts of the world) can recognize the universal symbol for STOP. It is a RED OCTAGON-shaped sign LOCATED on the side of the road at the SAME height in all locations. Granted, the sign may be on different sides of the road, based on the country…...
As we work on a project for a client, I am reminded of the stark contrast in HF expectations across industries. Having grown up in the chemical industries managing PSM/RMP-covered processes, Human Factors (HF) has been “a thing” since 1992. HF was very much a steep learning curve and still is for many. I spent…...
The assessment checklist below was developed by Dr. James Reason and presented at the 2000 Safety Conference. In Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents, Dr. Reason argues that three (3) elements are vital for driving a company’s safety performance, all of them the purview of top managers: commitment, competence and cognizance The three Cs. But…...
“Despite efforts to improve safety, several hundred accidents happen every year, and most such crashes are blamed on human error or outdated signaling equipment.” Active Failures vs. Latent Organizational Failures These conflicts are always in the spotlight after tragedies. It took me many years working for some great leaders who always challenged me to look…...
The establishment of a positive culture of safety within an organization is dependent on the following:… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...
I came across these nine bullets from an SMS for a UK government agency. It may be the best-summarized listing of the behaviors and language we should see from the top executives within our organizations. I realize that one of the references talks about “prioritizing safety”; and although I am not a fan of that…...
They are NOT there to perform a causal analysis. They are there simply to determine if one or more of its standards were violated. And in some cases, they may even issue citations that had zero to do with the event that brought them on-site. So addressing OSHA’s citations is NOT the sole path forward…...
