Articles Tagged with ''refinery safety''

In a recently released draft report, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) proposes recommendations for substantial changes to the way refineries are regulated in California. Entitled “Regulatory Report: Chevron Richmond Refinery Pipe Rupture and Fire,” the CSB draft calls on California to replace the current patchwork of largely reactive and activity-based regulations with a more rigorous, performance-based regulatory regime – similar to those successfully adopted overseas in regions such as the United Kingdom, Norway, and Australia – known as the “safety case” system.

An oil company’s adoption of process safety management (PSM) is the subject of an article in the November issue of Professional Safety, the American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) journal.

Springfield announces that it will manufacture and distribute DuPont™ Nomex® MHP in North America. This new high-performance fabric provides inherent FR protection against heat and flame, electric arc, and small molten-metal splash.

Calumet Montana Refining modified high-voltage electrical equipment to keep the asphalt mill operating, “despite the safety concerns this modification presented to employees," said Jeff Funke, OSHA’s area director in Billings.

A coalition formed to improve California refinery safety in the wake of Chevron’s Richmond refinery fire last August has released a list of recommendations it wants to see enacted.

A highlight at ASSE’s annual professional development conference, this year titled Safety 2013, is the Executive Summit Panel Discussion. This year’s featured panelists:  Robert Zaist, President of Energy and Construction, URS Corporation; Rafael Moure-Eraso, Chair, U.S. Chemical Safety Board; Lester Grey, Sr. Vice President of Operations, Perdue Farms; Stephanie Buchanan, Vice President of Operations, United Airlines, Houston Hub; and Virginia Valentine, Nevada Resort Association.

Missed opportunities to apply inherently safer design, failure to identify and evaluate damage mechanism hazards, and the lack of effective safeguards culminated in the vapor cloud release and massive fire that occurred at the Chevron refinery on August 6, 2012,a draft report by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has found.

From a new NIOSH initiative for a safe, skilled workforce to an update on pending occupational health and safety legislation to a report on the Chevron refinery fire in Richmond, here are the week’s top OEHS-related news stories as featured on ISHN.com:

With the United Steelworkers (USW) currently voting local-by-local on adoption of a US National Oil Bargaining Policy, one thing is certain when talks with oil refiners get underway early in 2012: union-initiated process safety improvements will lead the agenda.