The main elements of a safety culture and their various interactions are previewed below. Each subcomponent will be discussed more fully below: … HomeRead More »

Approaches to health and safety vary considerably at all levels of management. As we will see, the Human Factors approach wins hands-down. … HomeRead More »

Human Reliability Assessments (HRA) start by analyzing operations proactively, looking at the types of potential human error and the probability of these happening. An organization must understand what effect such risk will have on safety. It needs to understand how to control or reduce human error so it’s As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). To assess the potential human errors within the organization...

I have mentioned the former plant managers that I was so privileged to have had to opportunity to work for these pioneers in safety.  These were Chemical Engineers, but they were safety geniuses before their time.  In 1996, I went to work for Dale Fannin, and I had no idea what I was in for.  In two years, he taught me more about Safety Metrics than I have learned in the 20 years since. ...

INTRODUCTION Recent inspection programs for metallic pressure containment vessels and tanks have revealed cracking and damage in a considerable number of the vessels inspected. Safety and hazard evaluations of pressure vessels, as also presented in OSHA Instruction PUB 8-1.5, need to consider the consequences of a leakage or a rupture failure of a vessel.  Two consequences result from a complete...

Twas the night before Christmas,  when all through the house   Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.   When down through the chimney, all covered with soot Came the “Spirit of Fire,” an ugly galoot. His eyes glowed like embers; his features were stern  As he looked all around him for something to burn.  What he saw made him grumble-his anger grew higher  For there...

 

On Tuesday, April 8, 1997, at approximately 8:59 a.m., a 5,700-gallon hydrochloric acid (HCl) storage tank ruptured during filling. The failure of the HCl tank caused a significant portion of its liquid contents (which totaled about 4,800 gallons of 31% HCl) to suddenly surge over the secondary containment. The force of the liquid also caused a break in the secondary containment wall. Witnesses described...

The use of risk controls or barriers to protect the people from hazards is a core principle of safety. Barriers are employed to serve two purposes: to prevent the release of hazardous energy and to mitigate harm in the event hazardous energy is released Energy is defined broadly as used here and includes multiple forms, for example:  Kinetic, biological, acoustical, chemical, electrical, mechanical,...

Safety Management Systems (SMS) was developed to integrate safety as part of an organization’s management of safety performance. The benefits of process-based management systems are a well-established component of quality performance. As organizations and the technologies they employ became more complex and diverse, and the rate of change in the pace of societal expectations, technical innovations,...

An organizational event-causal story developed by James Reason starts with the organizational factors: Strategic decisions, Generic organizational processes – forecasting, budgeting, allocating resources, planning, scheduling, communicating, managing, auditing, etc. These processes are colored and shaped by the corporate culture, unspoken attitudes, and unwritten rules concerning how the organization...