It seems these signs have grown horns and arisen from hell! We have all seen them, and most of us have had them in our workplaces from time to time. But are they evil? Are they an accurate indicator of injury data manipulation? Celebrating our successes in safety is IMPORTANT, and there is no […]
A Wisconsin company that supplies malt barley to major craft breweries, home breweries, and other spirit and food production in the Midwest has again been found exposing employees to dangerous workplace hazards by federal safety inspectors. OSHA has proposed penalties of $174,351 after inspectors identified two repeated and 14 serious safety and health violations after
MSA has a CBRN-certified Powered-Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) for first responders; however, this PAPR is NEVER to be worn for the initial entry into the Hot or Warm zones! This is not a SAFTENG requirement; this comes straight from OSHA’s (and EPA’s) HAZWOPER standard…
It is pretty standard practice to hook up a compressed gas cylinder to a process. In fact, many “blanket systems” on a small vessel will use a Nitrogen CG cylinder to provide the blanketing gas. However, it is even more common to find this setup done improperly. In this article, I will offer a RAGAGEP
This is NOT a fluff piece, as you may already know if you are a follower. I am just dismayed at all the rhetoric around safety these days. And yes, I realize I was spoiled rotten by the companies and men I worked for over my career as a safety pro in the chemical and
It is that time of year again… these heaters can become a serious hazard in the workplace. And each year I get emails asking for help in controlling their use. And as you know, I love to use safety standards that may not be legally applicable but provide excellent guidance to improve safety. For those
At 11:45 a.m. on May 16, 2022, an employee was preparing to pump fuel into a pump station at an oil and gas site. He was holding the fuel pump and walking towards the fuel tank, when he tripped and inadvertently squeezed the pump’s handle, releasing diesel fuel. When the diesel contacted the pump manifold,
At 12:00 a.m. on June 16, 2022, Employee #1 and a coworker were filling train cars with soybeans. Both employees entered the grain bin from the top entry door to investigate why the soybeans were not flowing through the bottom gates of the bin. While inside, Employee #1 was engulfed by the soybeans and the
At 10:30 a.m. on June 15, 2022, an employee was MIG welding nipples onto the top of a fuel tank truck. The purpose of the nipples was to facilitate a steam cleaning process for the tank, and the work was being performed in an indoor bay of a building. The employee was welding when the
On June 27, 2022, an employee was flushing a chlorine dioxide pump for maintenance. He inhaled the chlorine dioxide when it escaped. The employee was rushed to the hospital and later died.
Very unfortunate… we see a lot of accident investigations like this. Regardless of what you may see/read on LinkedIn, root cause analysis tools are a MUST have in any SMS, as well as having TRAINED/COMPETENT personnel using those tools. In my 30+ years, I have come to learn that the RCCA element of an SMS
If you can tell, I was at a flammable liquids processing facility last week for an introductory visit. It did not go well as we could not agree on basic compliance measures and RAGAGEP practices associated with PSM-covered and non-covered processes. One of the major pushbacks I got was their use of some ancient, non-nameplated
