Explosions and fumes emanating from a flood-crippled chemical plant in southeast Texas sent a deputy sheriff to the hospital and caused local officials to brace for a fire and more blasts at the facility. News sources report that the flooding caused by Harvey knocked out power to the plant, disabling its refrigeration system and allowing the volatile chemicals it stored to heat up and explode.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z358.1 calls for primary stations to be located within a 10-second unobstructed path of the chemical and capable of delivering a 15-minute flush to both eyes with tepid fluid.
A behavior-based safety (BBS) process's focus is on employee behavior during tasks or in reaction to surrounding environmental events- equipment failures, process breakdowns, poor lighting or other work conditions.
My job was on the line. Within minutes after the CEO chewed my ear, I arranged a confidential meeting with the operating company president. I briefed him on the situation, described changes that must occur, and I promised to protect his plant management the best I could.
The NFPA 70E Standard “Electrical Safety in the Workplace” recognizes that the quicker a circuit breaker operates (instantaneous trip preferred) the less incident energy (arc flash) an individual maybe exposed who is working on electrical equipment and an arc flash incident occurs.
The NIOSH Lifting Equation mobile application, NLE Calc, is a tool to calculate the overall risk index for single and multiple manual lifting tasks. This application provides risk estimates to help evaluate lifting tasks and reduce the incidence of low back injuries in workers.