Too many safety professionals still to this day think that to reclassify a Permit-Required Confined Space (PRCS) is simply to lock out all the energy sources that made the space a PRCS. In August of last year, I posted a story where I asked the 30,000 members of the SAFTENG network if an enclosed palletizer […]
“Minor” LOPC events that are allowed to continue over a weekend can be a COSTLY MISTAKE! Any LOPC event MUST be reported ASAP to that it can be addressed, regardless of how “minor” it may be considered! We have to keep our HHC/EHS’s in their PRIMARY CONTAINMENT and when we have a failure that lets
OSHA has cited a refinery for serious violations of safety and health hazards related to process safety management (PSM) following a fire and subsequent explosions at the company’s Refinery Complex in June 2019. The company faces $132,600 in penalties. OSHA’s inspection found deficiencies in the refinery’s PSM program, including failing to establish or implement written
Opening a Natural Gas Condensate line with a battery-operated drill inside a compressor building is ASKING for trouble. Basic HAZLOC work practices include using INTRINSICALLY SAFE tools that are APPROVED for the HAZLOC, which has been an OSHA requirement since 1981… 1910.307(c) Electrical installations. Equipment, wiring methods, and installations of equipment in hazardous (classified) locations
Respondent is the owner and operator of a facility that had greater than 10,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia in a process at each of its facilities. From the time Respondent first had onsite greater than 10,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia in a process, Respondent was subject to the requirements of 40 C.F.R. Part 68 because
Respondent owns a chemical supply outlet where chlorine was present in a process above the 2,500 pounds TQ, and sulfur dioxide was in a present in a process above the 5,000 pounds TQ from at least March 16, 2010. Respondent has two (2) program 3 processes: a chlorine cylinder storage process, and a sulfur dioxide
Remember that project where we installed new XXXXXXX and to save money we did not remove the old XXXXX and just piped around it? We always thought that the old piping and valves were not a hazard, well think again… On May 20, 2019, an offshore oil and gas worker was conducting daily rounds, which
One part of managing flammable liquids is minimizing fuel load in the event there is a fire. Both state codes and OSHA utilize what is called “maximum allowable quantity per control area“. This practice is based on the “degree of hazard” or as OSHA calls them today “Hazard Category” of the flammable liquid or gas
If you’re in the ammonia fertilizer business in the State of Georgia (GA) this may be of interest to you. Although I should point out that the Code language did NOT exclude ammonia held as a refrigerant. On November 25, 2019, the Administrative Procedure Division of the Office of the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner
Over the past decade, we saw a huge swing away from safety being a technical field to one that is more hugs and kisses. Last year, we even saw the number one organization for safety professionals change their name from Safety Engineers to Safety Professionals. Along with the name change came a change to topics
At 2:00 p.m. on May 20, 2014, Employee #1 was in a tank railcar confined space containing residual sweet crude oil without prior entry assessment and without wearing a harness with stand-by extraction equipment. While Employee #1 was shoveling crude oil inside a permit-required confined space tank railcar. Employee #1 was wearing a full-face supplied-air
At approximately 10:40 a.m. on April 2, 2019, the housing of a three-inch Y-strainer of an isobutylene line that fed into reactor K8 ruptured and isobutylene was released, forming a vapor cloud. Three employees responded to mitigate the isobutylene vapor in the reactor area.
