Lightning Hazards of flammable substances - EPA alert
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
December 11, 2014
Lightning Hazards - EPA alert
Lightning Hazards of flammable substances - EPA alert
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
December 8, 2014
Rupture hazard of pressure vessels - EPA Safety alert
Rupture hazard of pressure vessels - EPA Safety alert
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
December 6, 2014
Accident while working on control valve
OSHA has an incident about an employee loosing his end of a finger when performing calibration of a control valve. The incident teaches us the importance of hazard identification and risk assessment prior to performing a job.
Read about the incident in this link.
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
Read about the incident in this link.
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
December 3, 2014
30 years after Bhopal - lessons not learnt
30 years ago, on the night of December 2nd/3rd 1984, the Worlds worst industrial disaster took place.
In India and elsewhere around the World, catastrophic chemical plant incidents continue to occur. Memory is short. In the numerous incidents since Bhopal, many of the reasons are similar to those of the Bhopal disaster:
Even if you have a 40 element PSM system, there is no guarantee that a catastrophic accident will not occur. Is there a solution to this? One of the possible solutions is accountability at the highest level. By this I mean legal requirements that will make the entire board of chemical organizations accountable for a process incident that kills or maims people. This includes the Director, Finance and Director, HR too. The Sword of Damocles should surely work.
Our Prime Minister is doing a great job in encouraging "Make in India". I wish the slogan was "Make Safely in India" . We still do not have any PSM rule. We still do not have an independent incident investigating authority. The status of the chemical safety and security rating system whose draft was published last year is not known.
My thoughts are with the victims of Bhopal - dead and surviving...and I pray that another Bhopal does not occur.
Read my earlier posts on Bhopal:
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
In India and elsewhere around the World, catastrophic chemical plant incidents continue to occur. Memory is short. In the numerous incidents since Bhopal, many of the reasons are similar to those of the Bhopal disaster:
- cost cutting without properly analysing the effects on process safety
- poor competency
- poor asset integrity
- high attrition rate
- inadequate emergency response and planning
- inadequate implementation of facility siting
- not paying heed to audit reports and past incidents etc.
Even if you have a 40 element PSM system, there is no guarantee that a catastrophic accident will not occur. Is there a solution to this? One of the possible solutions is accountability at the highest level. By this I mean legal requirements that will make the entire board of chemical organizations accountable for a process incident that kills or maims people. This includes the Director, Finance and Director, HR too. The Sword of Damocles should surely work.
Our Prime Minister is doing a great job in encouraging "Make in India". I wish the slogan was "Make Safely in India" . We still do not have any PSM rule. We still do not have an independent incident investigating authority. The status of the chemical safety and security rating system whose draft was published last year is not known.
My thoughts are with the victims of Bhopal - dead and surviving...and I pray that another Bhopal does not occur.
Read my earlier posts on Bhopal:
See a presentation on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy by Vijita S
Aggarwal, Associate Professor, University School of Management Studies,GGS Indraprastha
University,Delhi, India in this link.
Read my older post comparing the Bhopal and the BP incident of 2005 in this
link
Read the then Police Chief’s account of the tragedy in this
link.
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
December 2, 2014
CSB Board Members Identify Modernization of Process Safety Management Regulations as the Agency’s Second 'Most Wanted Safety Improvement' - General News - News | the U.S. Chemical Safety Board
CSB Board Members Identify Modernization of Process Safety Management Regulations as the Agency’s Second 'Most Wanted Safety Improvement' - General News - News | the U.S. Chemical Safety Board
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
December 1, 2014
DuPont Says Plant Leaked 23,000 Pounds of Toxic Gas by Jim Malewitz, The Texas Tribune November 29, 2014
DuPont Says Plant Leaked 23,000 Pounds of Toxic Gas
by Jim Malewitz, The Texas Tribune
November 29, 2014
About 23,000 pounds of a flammable, foul-smelling toxic gas leaked from the DuPont chemical plant in La Porte where four workers died earlier this month, the company said Saturday.
That’s significantly more than the 100 pounds of methyl mercaptan that DuPont estimated had escaped the plant in its initial report, and was enough to asphyxiate the four workers and hospitalize another.
Companies are required to report all releases of at least 100 pounds of the gas to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. DuPont said it revised its initial estimate after determining how much gas was in the plant’s pipes and vessels before and after the tragedy.
“The release occurred inside a process building at the site’s Crop Protection unit and dissipated from openings in that structure over time,” the company said in a statement.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is still investigating the incident.
Methyl mercaptan can cause nausea, vomiting and fluid buildup in the lungs. Its rotten-egg smell wafted over La Porte for at least 24 hours after the accident, but county health officials said the leak posed little risk to the community because the gas rapidly degrades once released into the air. Even trace amounts carry the smell.
The plant, about 30 miles southeast of Houston, makes products like alcohol resins and a popular insecticide called Lannate.
In the past five years, the TCEQ has cited it at least two dozen times for violating state law. The plant has failed to perform routine safety inspections, keep equipment in proper working order and prevent unauthorized pollution leaks, according to violation notices issued by the agency. In a few instances, the agency demanded fines of a few thousand dollars from DuPont for more serious lapses.
But the unauthorized leaks of toxic chemicals are common in Texas. Thousands — and even millions — of pounds of toxic chemicals beyond what permits allow have spewed from the state's facilities, as The Texas Tribune has reported. Though many of those events were close calls that prompted evacuations at worst, some triggered deadly explosions that, in turn, caused even more gas to be released.
Since 2009, Texas chemical manufacturers have reported at least 19 other unauthorized releases of methyl mercaptan, according to state data. DuPont’s was the only methyl mercaptan release that killed or injured workers during that period.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/11/29/dupont-says-plant-leaked-23000-pounds-toxic-gas/.
by Jim Malewitz, The Texas Tribune
November 29, 2014
About 23,000 pounds of a flammable, foul-smelling toxic gas leaked from the DuPont chemical plant in La Porte where four workers died earlier this month, the company said Saturday.
That’s significantly more than the 100 pounds of methyl mercaptan that DuPont estimated had escaped the plant in its initial report, and was enough to asphyxiate the four workers and hospitalize another.
Companies are required to report all releases of at least 100 pounds of the gas to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. DuPont said it revised its initial estimate after determining how much gas was in the plant’s pipes and vessels before and after the tragedy.
“The release occurred inside a process building at the site’s Crop Protection unit and dissipated from openings in that structure over time,” the company said in a statement.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is still investigating the incident.
Methyl mercaptan can cause nausea, vomiting and fluid buildup in the lungs. Its rotten-egg smell wafted over La Porte for at least 24 hours after the accident, but county health officials said the leak posed little risk to the community because the gas rapidly degrades once released into the air. Even trace amounts carry the smell.
The plant, about 30 miles southeast of Houston, makes products like alcohol resins and a popular insecticide called Lannate.
In the past five years, the TCEQ has cited it at least two dozen times for violating state law. The plant has failed to perform routine safety inspections, keep equipment in proper working order and prevent unauthorized pollution leaks, according to violation notices issued by the agency. In a few instances, the agency demanded fines of a few thousand dollars from DuPont for more serious lapses.
But the unauthorized leaks of toxic chemicals are common in Texas. Thousands — and even millions — of pounds of toxic chemicals beyond what permits allow have spewed from the state's facilities, as The Texas Tribune has reported. Though many of those events were close calls that prompted evacuations at worst, some triggered deadly explosions that, in turn, caused even more gas to be released.
Since 2009, Texas chemical manufacturers have reported at least 19 other unauthorized releases of methyl mercaptan, according to state data. DuPont’s was the only methyl mercaptan release that killed or injured workers during that period.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2014/11/29/dupont-says-plant-leaked-23000-pounds-toxic-gas/.
November 28, 2014
USB sticks and security issues
In 2012, two power plants in the USA were affected by malware attacks, brought in by USB sticks. Read the article in this link.
Have you banned USB sticks in your plant?
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
Have you banned USB sticks in your plant?
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
November 27, 2014
OSHA announces new requirements
2014 - 09/11/2014 - OSHA announces new requirements for reporting severe injuries and updates list of industries exempt from record-keeping requirements
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
November 24, 2014
Refinery disaster report
Venezuelan Report: Refinery Disaster Caused by Intentional Manipulation of Gas Pump Bolts - courtesy of venezuelanalysis.com
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
November 22, 2014
Risk Management: Learn More from Near-Misses | Chemical Processing
Risk Management: Learn More from Near-Misses | Chemical Processing
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
November 18, 2014
Snake in the control room
In 1984, when I was shift in charge in an ammonia plant, the control room was ordinary building with three aluminium doors. Two doors were in front of the building and one at the back. The door at the back was near to a locker room. One day as an operator was changing his dress, he spotted a snake in the room. Immediately he raised an alarm (Basically he screamed his lungs out!!) and we managed to isolate the snake inside the room till help came and the snake was taken out. Imagine the plight if the snake had entered the main control room which was just a few feet away. Are you prepared for "snakes" in your control room? By this I mean are you ready with a plan in case the control room becomes uninhabitable due to some emergency? The emergency could be a fire, toxic gas ingress or anything else. Don't think it will not happen. Instead, be prepared.
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
November 16, 2014
DuPont Chemical leak kills 4 in Texas
http://guardianlv.com/2014/11/dupont-chemical-leak-kills-four-in-texas/
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
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