Posts Tagged ‘ safety talks ’

Scaffold Accident Statistic – The Unspoken Warning

Scaffold accident or scaffolding accident may be seen as the secondary hazard in chemical plant. It could be understood because the use of scaffold is less frequent in operating or existing chemical plant. Scaffold is probably used if there is a construction work done in the plant site.

scaffolding-accidentIn addition, scaffold accident has higher probability to happen due to scaffold users are construction workers or construction labors who may have received inadequate safety training.

Scaffold usage could cause various accidents at work. Fall accident may become the major work accident related to scaffold operation. It could cause fatal injuries and deaths. So that’s why safety precautions on such accident at work should be given in high priority. (more…)

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Hazard Control Methods

hazard-contols In the previous post, we had talked about hazard control hierarchy. Now we are going to talk about each hazard control method in more detail and show up examples of their implementation.

Hazard Elimination

Hazard elimination is the process of removing the hazards completely from the workplaces. The hazards are not present anymore. That’s why hazard elimination is the most effective method in controlling hazard. Whenever possible use this method to control hazards.

An example of hazard elimination is to design a low-temperature and pressure reaction conditions instead of the high-temperature and pressure condition. High temperature hazard is completely removed and over-pressure condition will no longer exist.

Another example of this is using automatic mode operation rather than manual operation. So that hazards that are associated with manual operation removed to zero level. Elimination of hazards is usually performed at the design or preparation phase and implemented at the source of hazards.

Hazard Reduction

Hazard reduction is the effort to reduce or lessen hazard level from the workplaces to an acceptable level. In this case hazards are still present. It is generally chosen whenever hazard elimination is not feasible.

Hazard reduction is implemented during the design phase and in some cases as a result of evaluation on the existing equipments, jobs, tasks or activities. An example of this is to substitute a hazardous chemical with a less hazardous chemical.

Engineering Control

Including in engineering control are isolation, ventilation, containment and process control. Engineering control deals with the design of workplaces and their related processes.

Isolation of the hazards may come in the form of machine guard, blast shield, welding curtains and hot surface insulation. Exhaust fan that removes catalyst dust and hazardous chemical vapor from a building are examples of hazard control by ventilation, where at the same adds fresh air into that building. Another example of ventilation is fume hood inside the laboratory room.

In case of containment, hazards are enclosed by using enclosed cabs, enclosing noisy equipment, providing a noise-insulated work booth and installation of silencer at the discharge pipe of a compressor.

Process control is the most common hazard control method in chemical plant operation, such as isolation by interlock and safety valve to prevent over pressure.

Administrative control

Administrative control is selected when elimination and substitution is not feasible, and engineering control could not provide adequate control on hazards. Typical examples of administrative controls are provisions of operation procedures, safety signs, safety talks, setting up new safety policies, scheduling working hour to limit exposure to the hazard, implementing job rotation, work permits, alarms and training.

Personal Protective Equipment

Personal protective equipment provides a barrier between workers and the chemical, material, hot surface or noise. As I mentioned in my previous post about personal protective equipment video, it includes respirators, goggles, hand gloves, face shields, hard hat, ear plug and footwear.

Personal protective equipment shall be used when hazard elimination, reduction and engineering control are not feasible, and the administrative control could not provide sufficient additional safety protection.

The above hazard control methods can be applied in combination one with another in order to provide the most effective hazard control.

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An Introduction to A 5-Minutes Safety Talk

free-safety-talks According to www.whscc.nb.ca, safety talk is a hands-on way to remind workers that health and safety are important on the job. While www.ofswa.on.ca describes safety talk as a brief meeting held on regular basis with workers and their supervisors to discuss problems and concerns about health and safety. Principally, safety talk deals with specific topic, subject and problem which are health and safety related in the workplace.

The objectives of a safety talk are to remind workers about potential hazards in their workplaces and help workers to recognize and control these hazards.

Safety talks are best delivered by people who are responsible for workers’ safety and health. They may be supervisors, health and safety officers, members of safety committee or anyone with health and safety duties. Even in some companies every worker is scheduled to give safety talk, in order to maintain safety awareness among them.

So what kind of message should we deliver during safety talk? Are there any standard messages? Basically there are no standard safety talk messages. As long as we choose a specific topic, subject or problem which relate to health and safety in the workplace, it will be enough. But the important point is safety talk message has to be well prepared, because it should be finished in about 5 minutes. Please check this page for safety talk example.

Now it is the time to set up safety talk schedule. We can perform it once a week, three times a week or once a day. It merely depends on company’s OHS policy, job risks, workplace conditions and worker’s skills.

Choose most appropriate location where we will do safety talk. Wherever possible, choose the real workplace, or at least as close as possible to the real workplace. For instance, if we would like to perform safety talk about confined space work hazards, do it at a tank, at an opened reactor column or near a vessel.

If possible use real tools, equipments, materials (for example chemicals), procedures and work conditions to demonstrate key points of the safety talk we are talking about, and to make it is easy to be understood.

Don’t forget to make a safety talk record. Record the date, location, leader, attendants and the topic. Make sure that all attendants have signed on the attendant list. Also make a copy of the safety talk material and keep it together with the records for future reference.

Finally, I would like to stress that although safety talks only take 5 minutes to finish, but it helps employers and workers to remind importance of health and safety, recognize and control hazards, and keeps workers awareness alive. Remember, there are much potential hazards inside chemical plant.

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