Coveralls become oil-contaminated very rapidly in many work situations, particularly offshore, in some cases within one day. From time to time, there are significant hydrocarbon fires offshore (eg on the Rough Platform). There is evidence that frequent washing reduces the fire retardant properties of some materials, thereby increasing personal risk to persons and compromising their safety in a fire....

In the chemical industry, we had things a bit easier when it came to defining our process battery limits and this made it easy for us to define who was a PSM/RMP contractor.  But things are not so easy in facilities where the PSM process is a small and not core to the business.  We see this in flammable liquid processes and ammonia refrigeration processes, where the Highly Hazardous Chemical...

MANY THANKS to my NEW & RENEWING “Partners in Safety”for their support! Polyone since 7/11, S-Con, Inc since 7/11, Michels Corporation since 7/11, Fluor-B&W Portsmouth since 6/2011, and Suzlon since 2009 2011 Fatality Tracker  Electrical  46  (2010 = 90) (2009 = 100) Forklift/Manlift Mobile Equipment 56 (2010 = 110) (2009=88) Mining 145 (2010...

The following factors are critical to any SMS’s sucess. The SMS:• must be comprehensive and integrated with respect to the adopted control measures• must be implemented in practice and used as the primary means of ensuring safe operation• should be consistent with the understanding of risk gained from the Safety Assessment• should have sufficient focus on major incident safety, from planning...

My line of work brings me into contact with a lot of hazardous locations.  Some weeks I feel I should just sleep in my FR coveralls!  But each month we find errors in hazardous location classifications that could have disastrous results.  This article is an attempt to bring to light some of the common errors we have come across: 1) Be able to state what Recognized and Generally Accepted...

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MANY THANKS to my NEW & RENEWING “Partners in Safety”for their support! Polyone since 7/11, S-Con, Inc since 7/11, Michels Corporation since 7/11, Fluor-B&W Portsmouth since 6/2011, and Suzlon since 2009 2011 Fatality Tracker  Electrical  45  (2010 = 90)  (2009 = 100)  Forklift/Manlift  Mobile Equipment   55  (2010...

A large metropolitan zoo maintenance employee may have disabled a warning light on a small train that derailed in 2009, sending 22 people to the hospital.  The records are part of the evidence to be used in a February 2012 trial in which plaintiffs claim the zoo was negligent in its maintenance and operation of the train.  According to records, a maintenance worker saw a co-worker remove...

Incident prevention represents the hallmark of our safety program. It is the primary reason why we emphasize adequate job planning, risk assessment, awareness and supervision. While we intend to become adept and masters of prevention, there are times when we may need to risk response to an incident situation and over response effectiveness may be such, that we create further problems if we are not...

Why do some companies succeed in safety and other’s do not? Is it due to the high tech brand new equipment they bought? … HomeRead More »

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