We’ve all heard the phrase “what a difference a day makes,” yet when it comes to industrial safeguarding, the concern isn’t days, hours or even minutes. It is the milliseconds it takes for a machine operation to stop after a stop signal is given.
Excessive rain caused by Hurricane Harvey was a key factor in the fire and subsequent hazmat release at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), which has released its final investigation report into the August 31, 2017 incident.
The report notes that in the days leading up to the incident, an “unprecedented amount” of rain fell at the plant due to Hurricane Harvey, causing equipment to flood and fail.
Welding and welding safety are nothing new to us all. In fact, welding of different types has been around since the 1800’s. While welding equipment today has dramatically improved, has respiratory protection for welders improved to the same degree?
Workers depend on the right tools to get the job done. And workers depend on their employers to ensure they’re equipped with the right tools, the right conditions, and the right processes to get the job done safely.
Eighteen of the 21 workers injured in an explosion at a Texas chemical plant on Saturday have been released from hospitals after being treated for burn injuries and injuries from falling off a scaffold, according to news sources.
Both the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) and OSHA are investigating the incident at the Kuraray America facility in Pasadena, which may have been caused by a leak of ethylene, a highly flammable gas used in the manufacture of plastics.
Every arc flash analysis is not created equal, and the only way to know that your organization is getting its money’s worth is to recognize the best features of a sensible arc flash analysis plan as well as the potential pitfalls.
Five years after a catastrophic ammonium nitrate explosion in West, Texas killed 15 persons, destroyed much of the city, and launched reforms in the way the federal government oversees the safety of the nation’s chemical facilities, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt last week told us that he cares more about the concerns of the chemical industry than he does about the millions of Americans living in the shadow of hazardous chemical facilities.
The amputation of a worker’s fingers in unguarded moving belts and pulleys has resulted in 11 citations and $86,615 in penalties against UMC Acquisition Corp. of Downey, California.
California OSHA concluded that the company failed to assess the workplace for hazards, ensure that proper lockout/tagout procedures were implemented, and install guards on moving machinery.
Major chemical incidents can be prevented by applying process safety management principles. Process safety management (PSM) is the control of process hazards in order to prevent process-related injuries and incidents. The CSB has conducted seven investigations with 26 resulting recommendations relating to improving state and federal process safety management programs.