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September 25, 2016
Shell safety chief urges industry not to get bogged down by KPI's
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September 23, 2016
China averaged 29 chemical accidents per month so far this year - Greenpeace
China averaged 29 chemical accidents per month so far this year - Greenpeace: Beijing, 21 September, 2016 - 232 chemical-related accidents occurred in China from January to August 2016, an average of 29 per month, according to Greenpeace East Asia’s ‘Chemical Accident Counter’. The accidents caused 199 deaths and 400 injuries. The findings demonstrate the lax management of China’s chemicals industry, the world’s largest. In addition, preliminary findings from Greenpeace East Asia’s chemicals industry distribution mapping shows a worrying correlation of facility location and population density, as well as proximity to ecologically sensitive areas. Greenpeace calls on the Chinese government to radically overhaul the current chemicals management system and introduce greater transparency.
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
September 21, 2016
Bomb Squad: How Cops Safely Move Explosives
Bomb Squad: How Cops Safely Move Explosives
Interesting fact about ""Total containment
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Interesting fact about ""Total containment
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
September 19, 2016
Project Profile: Blast Resistant Central Control Facility | SSOE Group
Project Profile: Blast Resistant Central Control Facility | SSOE Group
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"
September 16, 2016
How many people die at US oil refineries each year? - EHS today
An article published in 2015 in EHS today gives the number and reasons for accidents in US refineries till 2015. An interesting statistic from the article is "At least 64 people died at refineries in the 10 years before the BP
explosion. At least 58 people have died since March 23, 2005". Read the article in this link.
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
September 13, 2016
Ball valve wrongly fixed causes an incident
A propane gas release took place during the opening of a flange on the downstream side
of a ball valve on a propane pipeline.The ball valve was installed in the wrong direction, so
that the cavity vent released the flow to the down stream side rather
than to upstream side as intended. The incident occurred when vapor was
released when the flange bolts on the downstream side of the ball valve were loosened. Personnel
arrested and stopped the release of propane vapor after tightening the
flange with full bunker gear and self contained breathing apparatus.
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
September 9, 2016
Ammonia tanker accident 1976- lessons to learn
Ammonia tanker accident 1976- lessons to learn
http://abc13.com/news/a-look-back-40-years-after-the-worst-accident-in-houston-history/1332062/
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http://abc13.com/news/a-look-back-40-years-after-the-worst-accident-in-houston-history/1332062/
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September 7, 2016
Accident in Sewage Treatment plant
Employee #1, the lead operator of a sewage treatment plant, noticed that the residual levels had dropped in the tanks, and he decided to add more ammonium hydroxide to increase the residual levels. Employee #1 removed the camlock fitting and line from an empty 335 gallon tote and installed it to a full 335 gallon tote containing ammonium hydroxide solution. While installing the camlock fitting and line onto the full tote, he failed to secure the camlock fitting latches into the valve coupling grooves.
As Employee #1 turned the valve to the open position, the camlock fitting and line sprung off the coupling and sprayed ammonium hydroxide onto his upper legs and groin area. Employee #1 immediately turned off the valve and secured the camlock fitting latches into the coupling grooves. He then went to the emergency eyewash/shower, approximately 120 feet away, to rinse off the ammonium hydroxide. Employee #1 rinsed for approximately 15 minutes, but did not take off his clothing.
He then drove a golf cart to the administrative building, to notify management of the accident. Management summoned emergency medical services at approximately 9:45 a.m. and rinsed Employee #1 with an emergency eyewash/shower, located in the administrative building, until the ambulance arrived. Employee #1 was transferred to the hospital via ambulance at approximately 10:00 a.m. He was hospitalized for two days for treatment of chemical burns to his upper legs and groin areas.
The use of ammonium hydroxide to control residual levels in tanks was a new process at the facility. No written procedures or hazard assessments were completed for the assigned task. Employee #1 was wearing safety glasses but no other form of PPE during the accident. Employee #1 said he was in a hurry and normally would have worn rubber gloves and a respirator while transferring the camlock and line from one tote to another.
Source: Fire Analysis and Research Division,National Fire Protection Association
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
September 4, 2016
Insulation Integrity
Mechanical repair of insulation is important
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
September 1, 2016
Emergency response to a fire in a Motor spirit tank in a refinery
Read about a response to a fire in a Motor spirit tank in a refinery in this link.What lessons can you learn?
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
August 29, 2016
Investigation report on Ammonia gas leak
A few posts back, I had written about the ammonia gas leak in a Bangladesh DAP plant that affected many. The district administration's investigation has determined the following:
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- The company constructed the 500-tonnes reserve tank in 2006.The tank was filled with 250 tonnes of ammonia gas when it collapsed on the night of Aug 22.
- Tank was maintained by unskilled staff. Five essential safety equipment, that were needed to prevent the tank’s collapse, had been out of commission for a long time.“The two pressure gauges of the tank were out of order long before the accident took place. Both the pressure transmitters of the reserve tank were inoperative. The condenser, safety valves and pressure vent were also out of order,” said the investigator.
- The factory’s operation department had informed the maintenance department about the faults but they did not pay heed
- The gas spread far and wide so rapidly because the fire hydrant system of the fertliser factory did not work after the accident.”
Read the article on the investigation in this link.
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August 28, 2016
Molten sulphur tank explosion in refinery in USA
News reports coming in of a molten sulphur tank explosion in a refinery in USA . No one was injured. Read about the incident and see the video in this link
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
August 27, 2016
Confined space incident during rubber lining of a tank
Two workers who were involved in the rubber lining of a metallic tank located in a university campus died as a result of the confined space becoming full of chemical vapours. Basic precautions were not taken. The government appointed a fact finding team whose report you can read in this link.
Read another article on the safety of unorganised labourers in this link.
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Read another article on the safety of unorganised labourers in this link.
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
August 26, 2016
Containing the contents - Chernobyl
The massive effort to provide a containment for the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactors is worth a read. Funded by the G7 countries along with contributions fom many countries, the USD 1.7 billion effort is to construct " A New Safe Confinement that is 110 metres high and 165 metres long, and has a span of 260 metres and a lifetime of a minimum of 100 years. When completed, the New Safe Confinement will prevent the release of contaminated material from the present shelter and at the same time protect the structure from external impacts such as extreme weather.The new structure will be an extraordinary landmark, tall enough to house London’s St Paul’s or Paris’ Notre Dame cathedrals, To minimise the risk of workers’ exposure to radiation, it has been assembled in the vicinity of the site and will be slid into position before the end of 2016.The arch-shaped structure will weigh more than 30,000 tons. Its frame is a huge lattice construction of tubular steel members, supported by two longitudinal concrete beams.It will provide a safe working environment equipped with heavy duty cranes for the future dismantling of the shelter and waste management after the completion of the NSC.It will be strong enough to withstand a tornado and its sophisticated ventilation system will eliminate the risk of corrosion, ensuring that there is no need to replace the coating and expose workers to radiation during the structure’s lifetime."
Read more about it in the EBRD website in this link.
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Read more about it in the EBRD website in this link.
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
August 25, 2016
Training tackles memory distortion to improve process safety
Training tackles memory distortion to improve process safety
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"
August 23, 2016
Ammonia leak from DAP plant affects many in Bangladesh
An ammonia leak from a DAP plant in Bangladesh has reportedly affected many people. Reports indicate that the DAP plant was located near a urea complex and the capacity of the tank that leaked was 500 MT.
Read the article in this link
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Read the article in this link
Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
August 21, 2016
Inappropriate maintenance practices and fire protection lead to excavator fire
Inappropriate maintenance practices and fire protection lead to excavator fire
For plants which operate payloaders and other heavy equipment, ensure this is not repeated in your facility.
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August 19, 2016
Interesting human factors incident
Interesting incident about a plane descending 4000 feet as a camera carried by the pilot got wedged between the seat and yoke in this link
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
August 18, 2016
Fatalities during manual tank gauging
An innocuous looking task such as tank gauging has claimed the life of 9 people in the oil and gas sector as per OSHA. Read the safety alert in this link and share it with your personnel who gauge such tanks.
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
August 16, 2016
China power plant blast
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August 15, 2016
Big fire in refinery
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August 14, 2016
How 300 people escaped a fiery crash landing
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August 12, 2016
California announces major regulatory proposal to improve safety at oil refineries
California announces major regulatory proposal to improve safety at oil refineries
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August 8, 2016
Houston Chronicle- chemical breakdown
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/texas/chemical-breakdown/
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
August 6, 2016
eurasiareview - open letter to president obama-catastrophic risk demands action behind talk/
Ralph Nader: Open Letter To President Obama – Domestic Catastrophic Risk Demands Action Behind Talk
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
August 5, 2016
Redefining visualisation - the story of a control room
Redefining visualisation - the story of a control room
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Contribute to the surviving victims of Bhopal by buying my book "Practical Process Safety Management"
August 2, 2016
Mobile phone usage in chemical plants
I am reproducing a good discussion in a process safety forum in Linkedin (Process safety management) here:
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Mobile Phone usage in restricted area inside control building
Shankar Bhosale
Saudi Aramco Total Refinery and Petrochemical Company
http://www.exponent.com/files/Uploads/Documents/CellPhoneReport.pdf
Also, you can find a very good explanation of minimum ignition energy (MIE) in the CCPS text "Guidelines for Determining the Probability of Ignition of a Released Flammable Mass". Although in this case it was generally agreed that cell phones present an extremely low risk as an ignition source, the company decided it was not worth the risk and upheld the rule to ban cell phone use in the plant.
In addition to the potential ignition source issues, the question of distractions always arises. Yet, at the same time, most organizations have so integrated cell phone use into their daily business that lack of access is a definite reduction in efficiency. The impossible (or at least very difficult) issue to address is how to allow normal company business while excluding needless distractions. Most organizations have some restrictions in place at least on paper.
1. distracter for operations: can you imagine an operator control panel working and talking on the phone at the same time? ¿Differentiating between sounds alarm signals and tones phone?
Simply because of the sensitivity of the operations control room, should minimize the factors which could cause distraction operators control panel. This is the main reason for the restriction.
2. Possibly the emission of signals or other cellular radios, instruments may alter operating wirelessly, which generate false signals and the problems that we know that these can generate.
3. The cell phone is not a certified electronic equipment for hazardous areas and remember that by the characteristics of the control room, they can be exposed to flammable gases and vapors, and cell element could be the initiator of an explosion or fire.
Happy day.
In unrated control rooms or break rooms - There are numerous other unrated electrical devices in these rooms, so they do not create an increased ignition risk. It is a management issue to make sure employees are not using them excessively, and that they do not carry them outside into the classified area.