A 38-year-old male employee was overexposed to hydrogen sulfide (or possibly an oxygen-deficient atmosphere) while inside a manhole. A second employee tried to rescue the victim but was also overcome. The second employee was rescued by an employee of the Waste Water Treatment facility. The two-man crew had been hired by the Waste Water Treatment […]
If you have attended any of my Process Safety, HAZMAT/ER, or PRCS courses over the years, you will certainly recognize this hazard evaluation methodology. I learned this method even before I learned the Process Hazards Analysis (PHA) methods. The method I will discuss in this post is one that we should all use when a
To be blunt, the 2021 IFC does NOT require fire extinguishers on PITs (e.g., forklifts). The revision to the 2021 IFC merely gives storage (S) occupancies a NEW option for providing fire extinguishers. The new option is that when the S occupancy can meet certain requirements (as shown and explained below) they can put fire
Scenario: A piece of equipment has twelve (12) energy sources, which must be isolated to get the piece of equipment down to a zero energy state (ZES). I have a task that will expose me to ONLY 1 of these 12 energy sources – can I just lockout the one (1) source or must I
In many PSM/RMP covered facilities we have two different ASME B31 sections applying to different piping and in our work we see a lot of facilities asking… Why does it matter which ASME B31 section I apply to my piping circuits? For example, the plant has an industrial boiler and in that application, they correctly
An incident involving PLASTIC sulphuric acid piping at a gas plant. Two workers were operating valves on a 1″ polyvinyl chloride (PVC) drain line so they could transfer sulphuric acid from a storage tank. They were following a written procedure, had held a tailgate meeting to discuss the hazards and emergency procedures, and had all
In response to the tragic 2017 incident in which several people were killed by exposure to ammonia at an ice arena in Fernie, British Columbia, ABSA is now extending the scope of the plant registry to include ammonia refrigeration plants and they just published new guidance and establishes requirements for the ammonia-bearing refrigeration systems operating
This is a MUST read for those of us in the process safety arena… OPEN to everyone as this is from ABSA – the pressure equipment safety authority
Here is a listing of just some of the Loss of Primary Containment (LOPC) events involving pressure equipment unsafe conditions, accidents, and fires that have been reported to and investigated by ABSA. This information is provided to make people aware of the general nature of pressure equipment unsafe conditions, accidents, and fires. The intent is to
All of these news outlets claiming the CDC is recommending “double masking” is the media, once again, not knowing their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to respiratory protection. In fact, yesterday the CDC announced they have begun a study to determine if double masking is more effective and by how
In May 2020 I wrote Part I – General Requirements after OSHA issued two willful and three serious violations totaling $122,602 to a sperm bank for bulls (cattle) after an employee was asphyxiated while filling freezers with Liquid Nitrogen. And back in 2017, we saw another sperm bank, this one for humans, have a Nitrogen
