Industrial Safety
The shocked incidenthappened on March 23, 2005, at BP Texas City Refinery’s octane-boosting isomerization (ISOM) unit. The blow-down unit was vented directly to the atmosphere. A nearby idling pick up truck, caused the explosion and fires through the unit and the surrounding areas, killing 15 people, destroying 13 trailers, and damaging 27 others, some were parked 479 feet away. Safety standard of BP had always been very high on my list until 2005. The first question I asked was: Why was the pick up truck not fitted with a spark arrester? The next question was : why were the trailers allowed to parked at an area where combustible gas could present?
If this sort of accident can happen to BP, just how safe are all the other engineering concerns?
Less than 50% of the industrial accidents in most countries are ever documented or reported in the local media. If an accident happens, the victim is normally the one to be blamed and for the temporary workers, the employers simply terminate their service. Often, it is only when the nature of the accident which can not be covered up, that the accident is covered by the media.
One resident engineer openly said that he did not want to see accident reports documented because he wanted to show the number of accidents in his yard as zero for the whole year. Quick surprisingly, he was able to cover up all the accidents. No wonder there were cases where the corpses of illegal foreign workers were reported.
The safety officer must report directly to a government body and not to the resident engineer (RE), because the RE can bias against the Safety officer since the RE may enjoy substantial benefits from the contractor like getting free lifts every day from house to office and vice versa. Other benefits are normally the payment of the house rents, the laundry bills and the bills from restaurant. At the moment, in many Asian countries most safety officers only appear on paper. They are actually people who are doing something else for the employers.
Majority of our Asian contractors still think of industrial safety as a burden and a waste of time and money. They must be educated to understand that industrial safety will actually increase their productivity and lower the production cost.
As the average education level of the workers grows higher, a day will come when many of these workers are able to sue the employers for damages like noise-induced hearing loss, loss of eye-sight etc. The subsequent compensation claims could be very high.
Non-compliance must be treated severely and the responsible parties heavily fined in terms of money or sent to jail for an appropriate duration. Otherwise, the Government can not protect its citizens from unscrupulous employers.
Stop work orders must be issued for any non-compliance audited. The construction yards or factories must be audited by the Government personnel at least once every two weeks. Containers which are meant for transporting cargoes must not be used as living quarters for the workers. Can you imagine how dangerous it could be for a 20-footer-container, 10 feet wide, and 8 feet high to be used as a quarter for 12 persons? During an emergency, how do the workers escape, since there is only one door? I saw only one electric fan and there were seven persons with lighted cigarettes in that container.
All engineering courses in universities must include industrial safety as a compulsory subject and all undergraduates must undergo three-month industrial training on Safety with local companies before they are allowed to graduate.
For the non-graduate, a ten year industrial experience and a Secondary School Education must be the minimum qualifications a candidate should have before he / she is allowed to take an industrial safety course and to receive an industrial safety certificate. The industrial safety course must run for one year with every Saturday as a compulsory attendance for the candidate. The pass marks for all the papers must be 80% or higher.
The construction industry must liaise more closely with the Government and the Government personnel must go more often to the yards to carry out more thorough checks. For example the local contractors use crawler cranes without safety certificates. But when the Government personnel went to the site office, the safety personnel were shown a bunch of certificates from somewhere else. If this sort of practice is allowed, then one certificate of fitness can be used for millions of equipment.
Safety cannot be learned in the classroom. Just like the best training for soccer is to go into the field and practise. Safety is best learned in the field. Of course the safety officer must be around to train the workers. It is his/her duty to assist the workers to identify the hazards, to take precautions, to prevent and to carry out the protection from those hazards.
The best trained workers are the ones having a good knowledge of the jobs, with good skills and experience. They are most valuable to the company because without them, the company will not survive.
Each new recruit must be informed of the company safety policies and he/she must be shown around the new surroundings. The places where written entry permits are required must be briefed and those places clearly indicated.
Please note the guys are not putting on the ear muffs, and the guy with white shirt is wearing clothes which are not safe for the rigs where combustible gas may present any moment.
Static electricity is responsible for an average of two serious fires or explosions every day worldwide. It can ignite all common flammable liquid vapours, gases, or airborne dusts. The amount of static electricity generated on your clothes depends on the material of those clothes. Materials like nylon, polyester, and acrylic should be avoided if you work in hazardous areas.
If this sort of accident can happen to BP, just how safe are all the other engineering concerns?
Less than 50% of the industrial accidents in most countries are ever documented or reported in the local media. If an accident happens, the victim is normally the one to be blamed and for the temporary workers, the employers simply terminate their service. Often, it is only when the nature of the accident which can not be covered up, that the accident is covered by the media.
One resident engineer openly said that he did not want to see accident reports documented because he wanted to show the number of accidents in his yard as zero for the whole year. Quick surprisingly, he was able to cover up all the accidents. No wonder there were cases where the corpses of illegal foreign workers were reported.
The safety officer must report directly to a government body and not to the resident engineer (RE), because the RE can bias against the Safety officer since the RE may enjoy substantial benefits from the contractor like getting free lifts every day from house to office and vice versa. Other benefits are normally the payment of the house rents, the laundry bills and the bills from restaurant. At the moment, in many Asian countries most safety officers only appear on paper. They are actually people who are doing something else for the employers.
Majority of our Asian contractors still think of industrial safety as a burden and a waste of time and money. They must be educated to understand that industrial safety will actually increase their productivity and lower the production cost.
As the average education level of the workers grows higher, a day will come when many of these workers are able to sue the employers for damages like noise-induced hearing loss, loss of eye-sight etc. The subsequent compensation claims could be very high.
Non-compliance must be treated severely and the responsible parties heavily fined in terms of money or sent to jail for an appropriate duration. Otherwise, the Government can not protect its citizens from unscrupulous employers.
Stop work orders must be issued for any non-compliance audited. The construction yards or factories must be audited by the Government personnel at least once every two weeks. Containers which are meant for transporting cargoes must not be used as living quarters for the workers. Can you imagine how dangerous it could be for a 20-footer-container, 10 feet wide, and 8 feet high to be used as a quarter for 12 persons? During an emergency, how do the workers escape, since there is only one door? I saw only one electric fan and there were seven persons with lighted cigarettes in that container.
All engineering courses in universities must include industrial safety as a compulsory subject and all undergraduates must undergo three-month industrial training on Safety with local companies before they are allowed to graduate.
For the non-graduate, a ten year industrial experience and a Secondary School Education must be the minimum qualifications a candidate should have before he / she is allowed to take an industrial safety course and to receive an industrial safety certificate. The industrial safety course must run for one year with every Saturday as a compulsory attendance for the candidate. The pass marks for all the papers must be 80% or higher.
The construction industry must liaise more closely with the Government and the Government personnel must go more often to the yards to carry out more thorough checks. For example the local contractors use crawler cranes without safety certificates. But when the Government personnel went to the site office, the safety personnel were shown a bunch of certificates from somewhere else. If this sort of practice is allowed, then one certificate of fitness can be used for millions of equipment.
Safety cannot be learned in the classroom. Just like the best training for soccer is to go into the field and practise. Safety is best learned in the field. Of course the safety officer must be around to train the workers. It is his/her duty to assist the workers to identify the hazards, to take precautions, to prevent and to carry out the protection from those hazards.
The best trained workers are the ones having a good knowledge of the jobs, with good skills and experience. They are most valuable to the company because without them, the company will not survive.
Each new recruit must be informed of the company safety policies and he/she must be shown around the new surroundings. The places where written entry permits are required must be briefed and those places clearly indicated.
Please note the guys are not putting on the ear muffs, and the guy with white shirt is wearing clothes which are not safe for the rigs where combustible gas may present any moment.
Static electricity is responsible for an average of two serious fires or explosions every day worldwide. It can ignite all common flammable liquid vapours, gases, or airborne dusts. The amount of static electricity generated on your clothes depends on the material of those clothes. Materials like nylon, polyester, and acrylic should be avoided if you work in hazardous areas.
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