Work permit is required to be completed before a work can be done. Work permit is made to ensure safe condition both for personnels and equipments. The same sense is also applied for a hot work.
According to wikipedia.org, a hot work is any process that can be a source of ignition when flammable material is present or can be a fire hazard regardless of the presence of flammable material in the workplace. (more…)
Tags: fire hazard, Occupational safety and health, hot work, toxic gases
A series of questions in confined space pre-entry checklist shall be completely answered prior to entering any confined space. The confined space checklist will ensure entrants, attendants, supervisors and rescue team members in safe condition. Do not enter the confined space until it is surely safe.
Answer the questions below by “YES” or “NO”. Then, follow up immediately question with answer “NO”.
2. Permit
3. Verification
4. Testing
5. Monitoring
6. Ventilation
7. Isolation
8. Equipment, Clothing, Tools and Personal Protective Equipment
9. Training
10. Standby/Rescue Team
Double check the above confined space checklist to ensure there are no left items. Afterward, we can proceed to the next step prior to entry the confined space.
Source: IACS Rec.2000/Rev.2 2007
Tags: pipe lines, ventilation system, Verification All instruments, confined space entry, Confined space, Double check, Oxygen content
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 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 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.
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 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 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.
Tags: adequate control, The hazards, hazard elimination, chemical vapor
By definition, a hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm to people, damage to property or environment, or loss to process. OSHA defines hazard as the potential for harm that is associated with a condition or activity that if left uncontrolled can result in injury or illness. Meanwhile, according to OHSAS 18001:1999, hazard is source or situation with a potential for harm in terms of human injury or illness health, damage to property, damage to the workplace environment, or a combination of these.
Hazard recognition or hazard identification is vitally important in accident prevention. By recognizing hazards’ characteristics and properties, we can clearly determine proper controls. Unfortunately, the majority of us sometimes overlook to recognize hazards.
There are many hazard recognition methods. The more hazard recognition methods we know, the bigger our chances to recognize all hazards that exist in workplaces. A hazard might not be identified by a certain method, but it can be detected by another method. Principally, we need to assure that hazard recognition is completely done.
The following are the most useful hazard recognition methods:
1. Pre-Use Analysis
2. Multi-Step Planning Process
3. Work Permitting
4. Equipment Inspections
5. Suggestion Method
6. Walk through Safety and Health Audits
7. Safety Patrol
Now, lets talks about these methods one by one.
Pre-Use Analysis can be applied before any new equipment, device, instrumentation, personal protective equipment, machine, tool, plant facility, etc are used. This method is applied before exposure to hazards.
Multi-Step Planning Process is applied before hazard exposure and applied to every task, job and activity. To apply this method simply asks a series of questions before doing the task, job or activity. The question should be similar to:
a. What am I going to do?
b. What is the purpose to do this job, task or activity?
c. How will I do that job, task or activity?
d. How could I get hurt doing this job, task or activity?
e. What will I do to prevent accident (injury, illness health)?
Work Permitting is issued before the job, task or activity done. Some questions asked and a checklist shall be completed to assured that hazards are not overlooked. Commonly, including in the checklist are analysis of toxic gas (such as carbon monoxide), oxygen sufficiency, flammable gas concentration, etc.
Equipment Inspection is implemented to any equipment before it is used or put into operation. Equipment inspection is planned and organized to check overall equipment conditions, safety protective equipment, guarding, emergency stop, etc.
In Suggestion Method, every worker is encouraged to propose or suggest potential hazard (and control) that are contained in a job, task or activity. Workers consider their past time experiences on the shop floor and field to give suggestion and this is very good safety habit. This method can be used for improving current hazard identification list.
Safety Patrol can be carried out by every worker in the plant site, not only by persons who are in charge of health and safety matters. Safety patrol may be done during an equipment running, plant operation, plant shut down or whenever it is intended to identify potential hazards.
The best way to use these hazard recognition methods is by combining these methods one with the others.
The next question is when is the right time to apply these hazard recognition methods? Of course before exposure to the hazards is the best time, because at that time no one was injured, ill or death, and no property damage. However, during a job, task or activity is being done hazard recognition is still important especially in accident prevention, and we can stop or cancel the job, task or activity at any time whenever we see a potential hazard to cause injury, illness health or plant facility damage.
Hazards may also be recognized after a job, task or activity has been completely performed and we can plan hazard control improvement to that job.
Tags: Hazard Recognition, workplace environment, hazard identification, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Hilda Solis, Industrial hygiene, safety protective equipment
Safety meeting is the right time to discuss about health and safety related matters in the workplace. Safety meeting can be held regularly or incidentally as a response on occurrence of a specific health and safety problem or after an incident or accident happens.
Ideally, safety meeting focuses on just one specific topic. But, what kind of topics do we have to discuss? Here are some topics that you can use in the safety meeting:
It had better to provide schedule for every safety meeting, especially for regular safety meeting. Don’t forget to file them when you have finished using the materials. Later you will need those files.
I believe the list above does not cover all the chemical plant safety related topics. Your input and feed back would be very valuable and I will add it to the list.
Tags: compliance status, Confined space, Safety Training, safety meeting subjects
