The business benefits to be obtained from employee engagement are huge. Studies have shown that (a) where employee engagement was low, companies had 62% more safety incidents (Harter, Schmidt, Killham, & Asplund, 2006); and (b) where employee engagement was high, engaged employees were five times less likely to experience a safety incident, and seven times less likely to have a lost-time safety...

An internal failure of a heat exchanger caused ammonia gas to leak through and absorb into the circulating liquid brine for the underfloor loop. The ammonia within the liquid brine spilled out of the expansion tank, pooling within an open sump in the mechanical room. The heat exchanger needed to be replaced as it was not repairable. The failure of the exchanger was internal between the ammonia hot...

Let’s have a little fun while we challenge your knowledge of human factors.  Which speed control sign is most effective, and which would be the least effective? NOTE: If you have attended one of my safety training courses where I use this in the HF training, don’t ruin it for others

Respondent owns and operates an ammonia refrigeration system at its ice cream novelty manufacturing facility, which maintained a maximum inventory of the regulated toxic substance anhydrous ammonia at the Facility, exceeding the threshold quantity of 10,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia. The ammonia refrigeration system at the Facility services 3 freezer rooms and consists of 12 compressors (including...

 

Facilitating Process Hazard(s) Analysis (PHA) is one of my favorite process safety skills.  From having the honor to be the author of Part II in the CCPS’s Hazard Evaluation Techniques (3rd Edition) to working with several software companies on the development of their PHA products, there is nothing better than facilitating an actual PHA with a talented team of Engineers, EHS professionals,...

On March 1, 2024, a miner died after a metal slurry pipe struck him. The miner was removing the last bolt connecting two metal slurry pipes when the pipe broke free and swung in his direction. Best Practices • Prevent miners from positioning themselves in a manner that will expose them to hazards while performing a task. • Examine work areas before and during the shift for hazards. • Ensure that blocking...

This is me doing a Process Hazards Analysis (PHA) with my non-American clients who use the metric system!Go ahead and laugh – but know the struggle is real.? ?  

An Oklahoma City employer’s failure to follow federal safety procedures left a 30-year-old worker suffering fatal asphyxiation as they tried to make repairs inside a water tank at a McClain County well site in September 2023.  Responding to the report of a fatality in Purcell, OSHA investigators determined the worker had entered a permit-required confined space to fix a leaking bulkhead valve...

We hear it often… “Who would turn the machine on while I’m working on it?”  It happens more often than most think.   Employee # 1 and Coworker #1, Coworker #2, and Coworker #3 were cleaning two (2) concrete mixers. Employee #1 was paired with Coworker #1 to clean out a mixer. Employee #1 entered Mixer #1 and began chipping out the concrete build-up while Coworker #1...

A former client had an amputation accident, and an OSHA inspection followed, with several citations following that.  We were hired to help the company digest all that OSHA found wrong, and there was plenty that OSHA found, but there was even more that OSHA did not see or address with its inspection or citations. The client wanted help with the “abatement plans” to close out the OSHA...