We do a lot of work in flammable atmospheres so yes we have rather high standards for what “minimal compliance” looks like. We recently came across this situation while performing an assessment for a facility that has suffered from a flash fire months earlier. During our walk-thru of the area (they knew we were coming) we walked upon this situation. As I stopped and began to make a note, the unit manager asked if I saw something. As I began to point out the issue, the “safety person” (e.g. one of those “safety is common sense” type managers) chimed in and asked, “how do you know that pick-up point is obstructed”? Obviously, he saw the exact same thing I was seeing. Here is the picture of what was presented to us in our walk-thru and I ask you, is this ventilation pick up point:
A. Blocked
or
B. “It depends”
My response may surprise you…
NOTE: this will separate the real safety pros from those who are just masquerading in the profession!
This pick-up point is without a doubt obstructed. As an auditor or evaluator, it is my job to identify deviations from an acceptable design. It is the facility’s job to validate its DESIGN and PRACTICES. So when they asked me to prove this intake was “obstructed” I simply placed the burden on their “design basis”. We returned to the PSI room and looked up the ventilation design and found that the room had three (3) pick-up points, all 12″ off the floor (per code) and these pick-up points were to be 12″X 3″ openings with 3″ ductwork to the main ductwork.
The pallet boards were less than 0.5″ from the face of the pick-up point and accounting for the gap between the pallet slats, the face was AT LEAST 50% obstructed. In other words, it was BLOCKED per their own design basis.
But here is the bigger picture… if the “safety person” wants to play games with this type of observation, then it did not take us very long to come to the conclusion of how the situation came about that allowed for the flash fire to occur within this facility. This observation should have been an embarrassment, especially so soon after such an event. But instead the facility’s “safety leader” wanted to challenge the obvious. Is this what our profession has come to? A bunch of “mid-night lawyer want to be’s”?!?! We could have corrected this unsafe condition and put a plan in place to ensure more obstructions are not placed such that any of the three (3) pickup points are obstructed, instead, we waste valuable time playing the game too many now seem to call “safety”!