All these social media posts decrying the traditional Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) tools are so ridiculous! Most of the people posting such garbage are either academics or marketing people trying to sell the next “silver bullet” in OSH. Most importantly, very few have hands-on experience in developing, implementing, and managing safety and health on…...
I wrote an article last week about how many people did not get the memo about the ladder changes. I’ve done three startups in the past four years, and each one still had cages on its hundreds of fixed ladders. And they were not happy to be told that those were not the correct design…....
Today, OSHA updated its National Emphasis Program, which protects workers from outdoor and indoor heat-related hazards, to direct agency resources where they can make the biggest impact – focusing inspections and outreach in industries and workplaces where heat stress risks are most likely to occur. Originally issued in April 2022, the revised National Emphasis Program…...
A refinery has been fined more than $182,000 by WorkSafeBC after an incident that saw an employee’s clothing sprayed with hot oil. On Wednesday, April 8, WorkSafeBC put out a media release regarding the incident and a corresponding penalty of $182,282.38 levied against the refinery on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. A summary posted on the agency’s…...
Snapped this pic on a PSM-covered process. Can you see what it is? Yep, it’s a gauge; a Safety Critical gauge at that. But can you read the gauge? I took the pic at no zoom, so you can get a feel for the level of challenge in reading this “safety critical” gauge, which is…...
Snapped this pic this week and thought it would be a great pic to start a discussion about Car-Sealing valves in their OPEN position. And yes, Car Seals are for more than just Pressure Relief Systems. In the pic below, there are two (2) valves that are candidates for Car Seals; one (1) of the…...
At 2:45 p.m. on September 19, 2014, two employees, both 50, were replacing a valve in a process line that transported 70% caustic solution of sodium hydroxide (NAOH) from storage tanks to a loading rack. While they were removing the valve and a stopper plate that had been previously inserted into the line, the employees…...
NTSB UPDATE: Upon arrival, the driver discovered the DOT 407 aluminum cargo tank was leaking and contacted his company to report it. NTSB officials say approximately 20 minutes later, the cargo tank exploded, separating the back compartment from the remainder of the cargo tank. The blast killed the driver and sent a plant worker to…...
The company owns and operates an ammonia refrigeration system at its production facility, specializing in egg products and breakfast-style entrees. The Facility uses a two-stage, closed-loop, ammonia refrigeration system to refrigerate the food items. The ammonia refrigeration system at the Facility includes eleven compressors, fifteen evaporators, ten make-up air units, seven condensers, three heat exchangers,…...
Employee #1, a 33-year-old apprentice steamfitter, was a member of a 2-man crew installing a 6 in. diameter PVC heating pipeline linked with a school gymnasium under construction. Pressure testing the line’s integrity, including coupling connections, had begun at the specified air pressure of 150 psi. Shortly before 1:30 p.m. on August 29, 1991, Employee…...
We have seen this life-threatening failure at least once or twice in our work! Most facilities have NO IDEA of how close they were to killing an employee. Some claimed it’s “common sense”, but trust me, these fatalities happen more often than most think. Hence, OSHA has required the following since its 1998 revision of…...
Employee #1, a warehouse operator, dropped his safety glasses into the compartment of a railroad tank car that was being filled with aerosol. The aerosol was blown through a line by low-pressure nitrogen (N2) gas. After Employee #1 notified coworkers and his supervisor, the material flow was turned off, but NOT the gas. Wearing an…...
