After more than 18 months of working with communities, workers and industry leaders, the state’s Interagency Working Group on Refinery Safety (Working Group) today released its final report outlining recommendations to improve public and worker safety at and near the state’s oil refineries. A task force has already begun overseeing implementation of many recommendations and will continue...

In August 2013, a 32-year-old machine helper entered a large wire mesh manufacturing machine to retrieve a fallen metal bar, and he was struck and killed by a part that feeds the wire into the machine’s welding area. The light curtain that would have automatically turned the machine off before he entered the danger zone had been disabled. Proper operation of the machine’s guards, a basic...

I want to encourage you to ask around and maybe even go as far as auditing around this learning opportunity to assess if this is going on at your facility.  If your process involves doing preventive maintenance on flame arrestors and/or conservation vents, what controls are in place for this “routine work”?  What kind of controls are they utilizing to prevent their exposure to...

Back in September 2013 (Members CLICK HERE) I updated you on the fact that LANDVIEW was going away and how this would impact us this year when it comes time to make our 5-year update.  Now for those of you who are using ALOHA/MARPLOT to plot your Off-Site Consequence Analysis you can get your 2010 census population data out of MARPLOT.  But if you are not a user of MARPLOT, there is...

 Although this “guidance” is provided by Ohio EPA and is meant for ONLY facilities located in the state of Ohio, this guidance is an EXCELLENT breakdown of how a facility should view “co-located” containers of their Extremely Hazardous Substances to determine if their “co-located containers/vessels” are actually a “process” that would fall under...

EPA announced that a food processing facility has agreed to pay a $19,049 penalty for failing to properly report an ammonia release at its facility.  According to EPA, the facility released at least 450 pounds of anhydrous ammonia to the air on September 12, 2012. Employees were evacuated and the local Fire Department responded to a 911 call, determined that no action was needed and...

  MANY THANKS to my NEWEST and RENEWING Partners in Safety since 2006 since 2014 returning partner from 2012 since 2014   2014 Fatality Tracker Electrical 6 (2013 = 32) (2012 = 68) Forklift/Manlift 7 (2013=62) (2012 = 52) Mining* 5 2013=87*) (2012 = 92*) *no longer includes China accidents Explosions 23 (2013=194) (2012 = 241) Cranes 3 (2013=51) (2012 = 52) Falls 14 (2013=106) (2012 = 99)...

The ACGIH® Board of Directors ratified the 2014 Threshold Limit Values (TLVs®) for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents and Biological Exposure Indices (BEIs®) on December 13 and 19, 2013 and on January 27, 2014. The Board also approved recommendations for additions to the Notice of Intended Changes (NIC). For a listing of the substances that were acted upon, click...