We are like this only........

Recently I was travelling on a highway which is notorious for accidents. The company car which had picked me up had 4 other employees in it. Only the driver and me (sitting in the rear seat) were wearing the seat belts. I finished my work in the company (which has many plants at various locations) and was travelling back with the corporate safety head of the company along with me. He was not wearing his seat belt!! The driver was rash but none objected till I told him to drive safely. Guess you know where the problem is!!
Why are we like this??

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Pneumatic test accident

The dangers of pneumatic testing is highlighted in this fatal accident.


Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

PROCESS SAFETY TRAINING SERVICES BROCHURE

To all my readers, please find the process safety training brochure listing out the various topics I provide training in this link. 

 
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Major fire in chemical factory in AP

A major fire in a chemical factory in Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh has been reported. The fire apparently began due to methanol catching fire. Read and see the video at NDTV in this link 



Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Bypassing overrides and the metro incident

The recent incident in the Delhi metro where the train travelled some distance with the doors open has a parallel to process safety. Apparently, problems were observed by the driver with the door closing system and he requested permission to override it and operate it manually. After getting the permission, he apparently did operate the doors manually in a few stations, but forgot to do so at one.

When you authorise trip or override bypasses due to a malfunction, the sense of vulnerability must increase ten fold with close supervision to prevent human error remember WHERE HUMAN, THERE ERROR!

Read the article mentioning the incident in this link. 


Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Controlling a chemical plant by thought

 Engineers are perfecting the art of flying a plane just by using a pilots thoughts. This research has progressed rapidly and the article in this link explains the status.
Is it possible that a few years down the line, we may be controlling plants through the DCS operator thoughts? If they perfect the art of flying a plane just by thoughts, then I am sure the technology will filter down.


Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Explosion in chemical plant injures one

 News reports in the USA indicate an explosion occurred in a chemical plant, injuring one. "A broken process line produced a chemical reaction, causing a small explosion in the chemical production area" is the statement made by plant official in this link. 

 While I am not commenting about the cause of this incident which is under investigation, how good is your asset integrity program? A good asset integrity program should ensure that you do not have failures like broken lines etc.

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Contamination in pipelines can cause disasters

In 2009, a commercial jet liner had to declare an emergency and land at Hong Kong airport after its engines lost thrust due to contaminated fuel. The reasons for the contamination was because of salt water in the fuel which was loaded in the previous airport. The underground fueling system at that airport was being extended. During the commissioning, salt water in a new pipe entered the main fuel lines as the clearing procedures were inadequate. This caused the thrust problems in the engines. In our chemical process industry, we often line up equipment after repair/hydrotest. Any remnants of water could cause a catastrophic incident later. Make sure your commissioning and start up procedures address this.


Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

People, Processes And Problems: Better Understanding The Three P’s Of Manufacturing

People, Processes And Problems: Better Understanding The Three P’s Of Manufacturing

Thanks to Balachander Rao, my chemical engineering classmate for sending this insightful article.

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

GAIL officials’ negligence led to pipeline blast: expert - The Hindu

GAIL officials’ negligence led to pipeline blast: expert - The Hindu

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Deadly reaction of lime sulphur with NPK solution

An incident where a farm worker was exposed to Hydrogen Sulphide due to mixing of Lime sulphur (mixture of calcium polysulfides formed by reacting calcium hydroxide with sulphur) with NPK solution is highlighted in this link.

MSDS of lime sulphur is given in this link where it mentions acidic materials or dilution with water will cause the release of hydrogen sulfide.



Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Article on flange leaks

Even though this article is 9 years old, the causes of flange leaks remain the same. Worth reading in this link.
PS: This is for information only.

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Responsible Care - reinforcing public opinion

The Indian Chemical Council is promoting Responsible Care and trying to motivate organisations into obtaining the RC logo it awards. This is a good initiative but the public needs to have faith in the process. The public are always sceptical of any self regulation by an industry body as they feel that it will be compromised. I have a few suggestions to the ICC to help to make RC more acceptable by the public:

1. The logo should be awarded with the condition that it will be withdrawn if a fatal or reportable accident occurs after awarding the logo. The company then has to go through the whole process for obtaining the logo. ICC must not only publicise the list of companies that have been awarded the logo, but also publicise the names of companies for which the logo has been withdrawn.
2. The best practices of every company that has been awarded the logo should be publicly displayed in ICC website for anyone to emulate.
3. One of the conditions of awarding the logo should be contribution to a fund to improve safety in the SME sector of chemical industries, including fireworks industries. The contribution could be fixed as a percentage of turnover.The improvement of safety in the SME sector of chemical industries should be taken up by ICC themselves and this must be publicised.


Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"

Hydrogen safety in the sulphuric acid industry

Good article - hydrogen safety in the sulphuric acid industry

Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"