Archive for the ‘Process Safety’ Category
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Earlier I had written about the use of RFID for tracking hazardous substances. One of the readers, Sujith, wrote to me that RFID can be a ignition source and thus pose a potential for fire/explosion.
Special attention should be paid while choosing RFIDs for applications involving flammable materials.
Here's a file that provides more details on ...
Posted in Fires and explosions, Process Safety, Technology | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 4th, 2010
As safety professionals, we are often required to consider value of life in decision making.
So, what is the economic value of a life? According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), it is $5.8 million. Click on the link below to read more...
http://ostpxweb.dot.gov/policy/reports/080205.htm
Posted in Chemical Accidents, Process Safety, Risk Analysis | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
I have always been fascinated by Apple products. Apple's iPhone besides providing the "cool" touchscreen also lets developers create customized applications. Here are a few safety applications you may find useful:
USW Safety App: Chemical Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and relevant health and safety information.
NFPA 1600 App: Provides user access to NFPA ...
Posted in Process Safety, Technology | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
I had been away from writing blog posts for last 3 months or so...mainly because of my travel to S. Korea. I have also been kept busy working on adding advanced features to Risk and Safety site. I will unveil them in the coming few months.
I hope to get back ...
Posted in Chemical Accidents, Process Safety, Risk Analysis | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
RFID stands for Radio-Frequency IDentification. It is a small electronic device that consist of a chip (capable of carrying 2000 bytes of data) and an antenna.
A RFID device provides a unique identifier and serves the same purpose as a bar code on a consumer product or a magnetic strip on ...
Posted in Emergency Response Plan, Process Safety | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Workplace Safety training is a big industry...every year companies are spending millions of dollars on training their employees.
I have always doubted the efficacy of repetitive and boring training sessions whether personal or virtual (Will your Refresher Training Work?). What is more surprising is that organizations are increasing their training budget ...
Posted in Process Safety, Training | 9 Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Based on incident data in biodiesel facilities, I had written that the biodiesel industry in the US is experiencing an incident every two-and-a-half months, i.e. approx. 10 weeks.
Here are incidents following my May 2009 blog post on biodiesel incident frequency.
1. 15 July 2009, Chicago: An explosion at a biodiesel plant ...
Posted in Biofuels, Incident Investigation, Process Safety | No Comments »
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Surprisingly, many organization and professionals believe that safety can be achieved by common sense. Here is an excellent article from Kevin Jones' Safety at Work blog about common sense and safety:
Safety is More Than Common Sense
Posted in Process Safety, Risk Analysis | 5 Comments »
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Recently, Erik, a reader of this blog directed me to a video his firm has created that explains the role of trees leading to the Buncefield explosion.
Remember the Buncefield incident occurred in oil storage and transport depot. Thus the fuel involved was liquid hydrocarbon. The most probable outcome of a ...
Posted in Fires and explosions, Incident Investigation, Process Safety | No Comments »
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
I would like to wish readers and the growing list of subscribers of risk and safety blog a prosperous 2010.
It has been a year since I started writing the blog. Here are top five blog posts for 2009:
1. Biofuel Safety: Is it time for Bio-PSM?
2. Lithium Battery Fires: Why Your ...
Posted in Battery Fires, Biofuels, Fires and explosions, Process Safety, Risk Analysis | 4 Comments »
