One of the sad trends we continue to see in OSH centers around the use of respirators and facial hair. OSHA has stated more times that I can count on two hands that facial hair is NOT allowed in the face-to-mask seal area. In fact, personnel are NOT even permitted to be fit-tested if they have […]
The short answer is yes, but the fact that they have negotiated this deal for a company to begin using NH3 over R-22 is very telling. This month EPA settled a case in which the agreement required the company to replace R-22 with NH3 freezers on some fishing vessels. The company will implement enhanced leak detection
The US EPA has been providing hurricane response updates on a weekly basis and one small bit of data really stands out to me. Last week I posted that over 950 storage vessels were captured after they broke away from their process; however, it should be noted that NONE of these vessels involved an RMP
I am curious to know how other facilities manage this situation. Having been a FPE for several years in my career, I grew up learning that if there is one “sacred rule” regarding hot work it is that Hot Work is NEVER EVER done when the sprinkler system is out of service. It was one
The state and federal political climate is just crazy these days! We now have one of our original 13 colonies claiming they have a constitutional right to manage their state EPCRA program as they see fit and not how Federal EPA believes it should be managed and how their own 2015 Manual said it was to
We all grimace when we hear about an accident when a special part of the male anatomy is involved. Most would think it is a rare event, injuring one’s penis, yet when OSHA has enough accidents for this injury type to have it’s own “category” we should maybe pay attention…
On Oct. 11, 2012, a worker, 62, was killed at a tuna processing facility while he was loading a 35-foot-long Retort (see here for example of a retort). A co-worker, who mistakenly believed the worker was in the bathroom, filled the retort with 12,000 pounds of canned tuna and turned it on, according to a
The 2017 Ohio Fire Code has been validated by JCARR and will become effective on Dec. 15. The 2017 version of the Ohio Fire Code is essentially the International Code Council’s 2015 International Fire Code with the incorporation of certain relevant provisions of that code. Education opportunities on the new code will be available in spring 2018. Except as
An ammonia cylinder burst late Monday while being heated as part of preparations to restart the alkylation unit at a 86,000 barrel-per-day refinery, sources familiar with plant operations said on Tuesday. A company spokesman said the company responded to an incident at the refinery, in which there were neither injuries nor offsite impact. The refinery was
