A Better MSDS Filing with MSDS Binders

You may handle hundreds of Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) inside your chemical plant. This is as the consequence of using hundreds of hazardous chemicals for the production process. All the MSDS should be managed properly; otherwise you and your workers could be in danger when handling these hazardous chemicals.

Proper management of MSDS means making those MSDS available at the points of use. They are usually used in areas of incoming inspection, production, warehouse, laboratory, etc. And the existence of MSDS binders could greatly help creating proper management of MSDS. Read the rest of this entry »

Tips for Better Lab Safety Supplies Management

Success in managing lab safety supplies will directly affect the performance of safety in laboratory operation as a whole. Laboratory, which contains various hazardous chemicals, pressurized gases, flammable gases and electrical energy, if not properly managed, could present harmful working condition to workers.

Better lab safety supplies management will not only ensure the availability of safety supplies, but also could ensure all workers who work inside the laboratory are protected from potential hazards.

Read the simple tips below for having better lab safety supplies management within your chemical plant. Read the rest of this entry »

Hydro Testing Signage: Reminds Workers About High Pressure Testing Hazard

Hydrostatic pressure test or hydro testing is a hazardous operation. It has to be treated properly to prevent worker from injury and equipment damage due to high pressure hazard. The risk of hydro testing inclines as the equipment to be tested is used equipment, which had has long lifetime.

There many high pressure hazard control methods available. One of them is hydro testing signage. Hydro testing signage helps workers to always aware about the hazard of hydro testing. When hydro testing signage is used properly, it could prevent workers from injury or equipment damage. Read the rest of this entry »

Accident at Work: the Bayer CropScience Explosion August 2008

Yesterday, the US Chemical Safety Board released accident at work report on Bayer CropScience Explosion in August 2008, which caused two people died and injured eight others. According to CBS report, the main cause of the explosion was the intentional overriding of an interlock system that was designed to prevent adding methomyl process residue into the residue treater vessel before filling the vessel with clean solvent and heating it to minimum safe operating temperature.

The explosion occurred during start up process of the methomyl unit. CSB found that the start up was performed before valve lineups, equipment checking, safety review of pre-start up and computer calibration was complete. Read the rest of this entry »

Machine Safety Guards – Brief Review

Machine safety guards are hazard controls against machines hazards. Machine-related hazards can be appeared during machine installation, operation and maintenance. Machine safety guards are designed to prevent human injury and death as well as equipment damages from these hazards.

Ideally, machine safety guards should be able to eliminate potential hazards from the machine. Otherwise, another hazard control method has to be applied to reduce the hazard level into an accepted level. Selection of hazard control methods should always be referred to hazard control hierarchy.

Machine safety guards are usually designed by the machine’s manufacturer. And the safety precaution related with machine installation, operation and maintenance are mentioned in manufacturer’s manual. However, there may be some potential hazards that appear after the machine installed at plant site, which have not been included in the safety manual. Read the rest of this entry »

What to do when Chemical Plant Accidents Happen

One of the causes of chemical plant accidents is the failure of management to educate its workers on how to protect themselves from hazardous substances that are present in the workplace. Accident prevention measures must be in place to avoid occurrence of industrial accidents.

Manufacturing plants that produce cobalt metal and cobalt powder are required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to provide their workers with good quality of personal protective garments and gears to protect them from contacting cobalt metal dust and fume while working. Workers should be informed about the relevance of wearing the protective clothes and equipments by emphasizing that their health and safety are dependent on how they protect their bodies when at work. The management of manufacturing plants should impose sanctions whenever an employee fail or refuse to wear the required clothes and equipments. If management will not impose strictly this particular requirement there will be workers who will attempt to disobey thereby making them prone to chemical plant accidents.

Workers in cobalt producing plants must observe proper hygiene at all times to avoid chemical plant accidents. They are required to wash their faces, hands and arms with soap and water before eating or smoking, before using lavatories or before taking medicine. Workers are not allowed to eat, drink, smoke, take medicine in a place where processing of cobalt metals take place.

A person who accidentally inhales cobalt dusts can become sick because when the dusts enter his lung, they can block the air from entering the lung so the affected person can feel shortness of breath. Cobalt dusts cause coughing and excessive production of mucus or phlegm. Results of chemical accident investigations revealed that continuous exposure to cobalt dusts can prevent a person’s lung to function normally which can lead to interstitial lung disease. More serious effects brought by cobalt dust inhalation are heart attack and thyroid disorders. Also when a person’s skin has a contact with cobalt substance, he is likely to suffer dermatitis. Irritation can be present in areas where parts of the skin rub each other. Further, an accidental intake of cobalt substance can poison a person that can lead to polycythemia and hyperplasia, in which both conditions can primarily affect a person’s bone marrow.

If a manufacturing plant stores other substances particularly strong oxidizing agents, they should be stored separately from cobalt substances to avoid serious or fatal chemical plant accidents. A spontaneous fire may occur when cobalt substance fuses with bromide pentaflouride. If worse comes to worst, explosion may take place. Fire and explosion will not only destroy lives and properties but also the environment. News about latest accidents involving fire pinpointed cobalt powder and fumes to have contributed to large fires that occurred in the USA.

To protect their workers, chemical plants should always follow the recommendations of a government regulatory body like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and adhere to the saying that “an ounce of prevention is equal to a pound of cure”.

H2S Monitor, The Key Factor To Controlling H2S Hazards in The Workplace

What was happened at Tianyuan Manganese Corp in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui (23/12) has reminded me the H2S hazard and the importance of H2S monitor. In that accident at work, according to initial accident investigation three people were died which was caused by H2S gas poisoning. H2S was released when employees was mixing manganese carbonate and sulphuric acid at the plant site.

H2S or hydrogen sulfide has specific odor like rotten egg at the concentration of below 1 ppm in air. However, its odor can not be used as H2S detection method. A reliable and continuous H2S monitor or H2S detection device is exactly required to avoid H2S poisoning. Read the rest of this entry »