Every year, approximately 30 million people in the United States are occupationally exposed to hazardous noise. Noise-related hearing loss has been listed as one of the most prevalent occupational health concerns in the United States for more than 25 years. Thousands of workers in a variety of industries suffer from preventable hearing loss due to high workplace noise levels every year. Since 2004,...

OSHA has cited a processor of chicken, beef and pork for repeat and serious violations of workplace safety standards following an inspection at a NY manufacturing plant. The proposed fines total of $121,720. The inspection, which began on May 15, was conducted under OSHA’s Site Specific Targeting Program, which directs enforcement resources to high-hazard workplaces with the highest rates of...

Do you have the right information to enable you to make business decisions that improve the control of major hazard risks? … HomeRead More »

WARNING!!!  This video WILL be upsetting to ALL viewers, but it needs to be shown.  It is NOT graphic (e.g. no blood or guts) but it does show a young man loosing his arm in the lathe.  

Revision 16 of this pamphlet includes the addition of a section on fully-lined valves (4.1.9), a more robust section on liquid expansion chambers (5.5), recommendations on plastic pipe selections and discussion on gas permeability under vacuum (9), a caution on pneumatic testing (11.2.2), updated guidance on hydrostatic testing (appendix A, 2.3.1), and addition of a definition of deformation pressure...

What’s changed in MARPLOT 4.2.4? Recently, the Get Address feature broke in all MARPLOT 4.x versions, because the Google web service that MARPLOT was using was discontinued. The MARPLOT 4.2.4 release fixes the Get Address feature, which now uses a newer version of Google’s Reverse Geocoding tool to find the address at a click point. No other changes have been made in this release. A new...

This is an interesting citation, one that to me appears OSHA was not happy with this employer.  As I read this decision, I was shocked that OSHA would have issued a citation, much less a Serious, in this situation.  If all employers did 1/4 of what Cargill does at this facility for PRCS entry then there would be MUCH LESS tragedies in PRCSs!  I usually do not mention company names in...

Many have never seen a large and sudden release of anhydrous ammonia (NH3).  Most who work with Ammonia have seen the Seward, IL ammonia release videos; however, these two videos do not put the release into perspective as to the large area which is impacted by these catastrophic releases.  The Texas Air Control Board took this picture from its offices at 5555 West Loop South on May 11, 1976,...

One area that is often overlooked or not applied during process hazards analysis (PHA) is a review of previous incidents.  This is often not done as the process has no reported incidents in the past five years.  We can discuss/challenge that “phenomenon” in a later posting, but I wanted to offer this bit of advice… … HomeRead More »

With the release of the CSB accident report involving the catastrophic failure of an ASME pressure vessel and me posting it this afternoon, I am already getting e-mails (5 and counting within the first two hours) claiming the incident is “1 in a million” and that I am scaring people for no sound reason.  Really?  How often do we think accidents involving a pressure vessel occurs?...

This accident occurred December 7, 2009, with a violent rupture of an ASME pressure vessel.  The video contains an animation which depicts the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) that accumulated over time in the walls of a pressure vessel where synthetic quartz crystals were manufactured under extremely high pressures and temperatures.  The incident had many failures and is a case study on PRESSURE...