CSB Emphasizes Existing Resources Available on Hot Work Safety

CSB Emphasizes Existing Resources Available on Hot Work Safety - General News - News | the U.S. Chemical Safety Board

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Basic safety guidelines while using gas cylinder

Air products has brought out a simple and effective safety bulletin on gas cylinders.
Read it in this link

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Taiwan gas pipeline blast

Close on the heels of the GAIL pipeline blast in Andhra Pradesh recently, comes news of a similar blast in an underground gas pipeline in Taiwans second largest city. The pipeline was passing through a busy road. See the video and 10 photos of the blast in this link. (Courtesy of Time magazine)


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Lessons from an air crash

The NTSB's investigation of an air crash at San Francisco airport during landing last year mentions that

"The board’s acting chairman, Chris Hart, warned that the accident underscores a problem that has long troubled aviation regulators around the globe — that increasingly complicated automated aircraft controls designed to improve safety are also creating new opportunities for error. 

The Asiana flight crew ‘‘over-relied on automated systems that they did not fully understand,’’ Hart said. 

‘‘In their efforts to compensate for the unreliability of human performance, the designers of automated control systems have unwittingly created opportunities for new error types that can be even more serious than those they were seeking to avoid,’’ he said. "

Read the article in this link. 

I am a firm believer of keeping it simple. Just because that vendors try to sell you a piece of "latest" technology, do not buy it unless you are convinced it will be useful for you. If the argument is that we need more automation systems as competency is going down, I would answer by saying, keep your systems simple so that your training programs become more effective!


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Operational Safety and Maintenance: Fear Ad Hoc Fixes | Chemical Processing

Operational Safety and Maintenance: Fear Ad Hoc Fixes | Chemical Processing



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

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??

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Pneumatic test accident

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


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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. 

 
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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 



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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. 


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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.


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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.

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