Archive for the ‘Process Safety’ Category
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) are a part of today’s corporate growth strategy. As a part of M&A due diligence various critical business issues are evaluated. But what about safety performance of the company you are looking to acquire or merge with?
You will say that most M&A in oil and gas/chemical ...
Posted in Business Risks, Process Safety, Risk Analysis, Safety Culture | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
When you are driving on a highway, usually there is a speed limit. If you exceed this limit, a cop can give you a ticket.
In Houston, most highways have a speed limit of 65-70 miles per hour…although most drivers appear to assume it implies “90-mph is okay”.
Let us say the ...
Posted in EPA RMP, OSHA PSM, Process Safety, Regulations | No Comments »
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
Generally speaking, 5-6 things have to go wrong for an incident to occur. Furthermore, these events or failures have to occur in a certain sequence.
The characteristics of mega disasters is that 5-6 events with fairly low probabilities of occurrence line up.
Such rare incidents are referred to by many names within the risk management community - ...
Posted in Incident Investigation, Insurance, Process Safety, Risk Analysis | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
About a year ago, the Minerals Management Services (MMS) proposed a new rule that would require operators of oil and gas operations in the US Outer Continental Shelf to develop and implement Safety and Environmental Management System (SEMS).
It is expected that the rule will be promulgated sometime this year.
Based on ...
Posted in Offshore, Process Safety, Regulations | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
[Table = 13]
Source: Compressed Natural Gas Safety Bulletin, SB-2, 1992.
Posted in Confined Space, Health, Process Safety, Toxicity | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 18th, 2010
We all know that air is mostly nitrogen...79% to be precise. What may not be a common knoweldge is that colorless odorless Nitrogen has led to asphyxiation and fatalities and is a risk particularly for personnel working in confined spaces and personnel utilizing breathing air systems.
According to the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) research there were 80 ...
Posted in Confined Space, Process Safety | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
Take a look at the following video from Dominion Power:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7viGDALSoJE
And if you have time also check out this safety annoucement from Southwest:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvdCFYLf_JI
Posted in Process Safety, Risk Communication | No Comments »
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 »
