Safety Info Posts

PRCS Fatality in tanker truck – one entrant and one would-be rescuer (H2S atm)

At 11:00 a.m. on June 8, 2021, Employee #1 washed the inside of a tanker to clear chemical residue from the inside of the tanker. At some point, Employee #1 lost consciousness and was found by Employee #2, who attempted to rescue Employee # 1 from the tanker. A coworker heard Employee #2 in distress…...

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PRCS Fatality – single entrant – NO LOTO (Inert atm w/ Argon Gas)

At 7:15 a.m. on June 18, 2021, an employee was working as a maintenance technician for a firm that provided maintenance and repair services for land-based and airborne gas turbine engines for civilian and military clients. He and other workers in the maintenance department were replacing metal bars at the bottom of a pit furnace,…...

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Simple LOCKOUT would have saved a life that day! (PRCS Fatality)

Anyone who works at a processing facility that has PRCSs with agitators will always fear this happening, yet this is a SIMPLE FAILURE of LOTO and should never happen.  I can probably count a dozen incidents where I have seen this happen with lesser consequences. At 11:15 a.m. on July 17, 2021, an employee was…...

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OSHA, old man winter, and outdoor exit routes

OSHA standards were usually written after a day like this! (emphasis by me) 1910.36(h) An OUTDOOR exit route is permitted. 1910.36(h)(1) The outdoor exit route must have guardrails to protect unenclosed sides if a fall hazard exists; 1910.36(h)(2) The outdoor exit route must be covered if snow or ice is likely to accumulate along the…...

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Where are HAZLOCs normally needed?

WA-OSHA standards were revised a number of years ago, so they are in “plain English.”  These are a GREAT SOURCE of information for anyone looking for a straight forward explanation of OSHA standard requirements.  One particular standard that I found helpful was its Hazardous Location (HAZLOC) explanations. These hazardous locations are classified as follows:… Membership...

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Accidents happen; it is a cold hard fact of this world. But how we respond to these accidents is what makes us different!

Another excellent video of how world-class people respond to a workplace tragedy.  We will all suffer such an event if we stay in this profession long enough.  But hopefully, you will be surrounded by real leaders who rise to the occasion and LEAD, as leadership is the ONLY way out of such a tragedy.  You…...

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Clarification on 24′ fixed ladder requirements (fall protection system vs. cage)

OSHA answers five (5) questions regarding the relatively new standard, 1910.28 Duty to have fall protection and falling object protection.  And I have to admit I found a couple of their answers interesting. Question 1: 29 CFR § 1910.28(b)(9) requires fixed ladders (installed on or after November 19, 2018) that are more than 24 feet…...

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Redemption – Clarification on powered-air purifying respirators (PAPR), their assigned protection factor, and Footnote 4

I have been validated!  I have received so many nasty grams from folks regarding my position on the ASSUMED PAPR Assigned Protection Factor of 1,000 which I wrote about in several postings going all the way back to 2015 of which this was my first attempt to educate and warn others of some flawed practices:…...

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Clarification on Group LOTO requirements

Seriously, in the year 2021/2022, we still have these questions asked of OSHA about a standard that has been in place since the mid-1980s. Scenario 1: Three (3) authorized employees are working on a pump. Each energy source is de-energized and locked out by an employee in plant operations. Then, the plant operations employee places…...

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Energy isolation requirements for pneumatically powered control valves

OSHA once again clarifies that locking out the air source to a pneumatically powered control valve is NOT locking the energy isolation device!  When I taught at ASSP Seminarfest several years ago, the most disputed point was this very practice.  I was very clear, which did not sit well with some attendees, that locking the…...

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What is safety?

This came from the International Civil Aviation Organization and was modified by yours truly for manufacturing facilities to adopt.  It may be the best wording I have seen for what Safety is supposed to be at the C-Suite level within organizations. Safety is… “the state in which the possibility of harm to persons or of…...

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TRIR shown to be no better at measuring outcomes than random roll of a dice (Video)

This is a MUST WATCH video and yes it is long, but it is a video every safety professional and even management personnel needs to watch.  For those still living in the world of Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) and you think that is just fine – WAKE THE HELL UP PEOPLE!  As they explain…...

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