I have seen a cost savings trend that is increasing risks in a big way. It may seem minor to those who do not understand risk, but using a pressure cylinder without it being inspected and tested at its prescribed frequency is a serious safety miss. Usually, these risks are controlled somewhat when the facility […]
So I posed the question to over 30,000 safety pros across my LinkedIn and Facebook groups and SAFTENG members, and as I suspected, there was a lively debate on this matter. I have received numerous requests to break down the evaluation like I have done for other “tricky” spaces that fall outside the traditional CS/PRCS
According to China’s Maritime Safety Administration (CMSA), the shipping container explosion aboard the box ship YM Mobility at Ningbo in 2024 was caused by thermal runaway in a cargo of organic peroxides. The container in question was a refrigerated shipping container filled with tert-butyl perbenzoate (TBPB), a common activator for making plastics like polyethylene and polyester. It
This edition of NFPA 660 was approved as an American National Standard on December 6, 2024. NFPA 660 was written by consolidating the requirements of NFPA 652, Standard on the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust; NFPA 61, Standard for the Prevention of Fires and Dust Explosions in Agricultural and Food Processing Facilities; NFPA 484, Standard for
The image below is just one I found on the internet, but it is a good representation of the ones I have seen and worked with. Today, during an audit, I was asked by the EHS pro, if I thought there large CNC machines were Confined Spaces/Permit-Required Confined Spaces. At first, I said I did
Recently, I shared the investigation results of the fatal LPG explosion in Hillsboro, OH. The cylinder had been overfilled, leading to its catastrophic failure, which then led to LPG gas finding an ignition source in the car repair garage and exploding. I took some flak for stating that I have seen overfilling of LPG cylinders
This may be helpful to some. Use in your training or written program.
The term “Highly Toxic” has been codified in the IFC as: A material which produces a lethal dose or lethal concentration which falls within any of the following categories: 1. A chemical that has a median lethal dose (LD50) of 50 milligrams or less per kilogram of body weight when administered orally to albino rats
I used this humorous video to open my casual analysis training. Every parent has been there, but our kids’ curiosity is great. It’s how they LEARN. Sure, they may not understand all they are hearing (the same goes for adults in accident investigations), but that curiosity is what we need when leading a causal analysis
At 11:05 a.m. on August 5, 2022, an employee, 59, was pressure testing a pressure vessel for leaks with compressed air when the air pressure became too high within the vessel. The lid of the vessel flew open and struck the employee in the arm, abdomen, chest, and head. The employee was taken to the
At 4:00 p.m. on April 14, 2023, an employee, 23, working for a structural sheet metal manufacturer, was performing hydrostatic testing on an air-conditioned heat exchanger. A plug failed under pressure, striking the employee. The employee was killed after being impaled in the chest by the plug.
