OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) reports annually the safety violations in the workplace.
Safety is a primary issue that must be addressed in every type of workplace. Restaurant managers must be concerned with the safety of their kitchen staff as they prepare meals. Construction crew leaders have to take necessary precautions to ensure the well-being of workers on their job sites. For industrial plant managers, safety concerns are everywhere. Several reoccurring safety issues affect industrial plants, and some may not be obvious.
Cleaning Methods
While not always thought of as a top safety issue, using natural gas as a cleaner has long been a practice in many industrial plants. In fact, in a 2010 poll conducted by CSB, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, 63 percent of industrial plant representatives indicated that they have used this method of cleaning.
When set at a high pressure, natural gas can blast away stuck on debris and leave the pipes nearly spotless. While using gas as a cleaner may seem beneficial to some degree, it is an extremely dangerous activity. Consider the Kleen Energy case of 2010 in which workers used natural gas to rid new pipes of dust and dirt before use. The high velocity flow of gas quickly found a source of ignition and exploded. The explosion killed 6 people and did a great deal of damage to the newly constructed power plant. Clearly, using gas as a cleaner is a major plant safety issue.
Uneducated Employees
Companies with a strong human resources department can often overcome the issue of uneducated employees. The more in-depth a hiring process is, the more a company will be able to have quality employees. Even for the best and brightest employees, however, additional on-the-job training is often required.
In May of 2009, the Hess Corporation was cited for not having properly trained employees. In this specific situation, Hess workers were doing jobs they were not formally trained to do, and, in turn, the company saw a downturn in quality production and an increase in potentially hazardous situations. Hands-on employee training is required in industrial plants for health and safety, among other, reasons.
Faulty Equipment
It is important for industrial plants to keep equipment running smoothly. Routine check-ups of equipment and safety control devices should be carried out periodically in an effort to decrease the danger of continuous use. Unfortunately, this step is skipped even for many top industry leaders. For example, in 2010, a BP plant was cited with thirteen separate safety violations, one regarding neglect toward proper maintenance of safety machinery. Inspectors indicate that BP is not alone in this violation.
Tags: industrial plants, industrial plant, safety issue, safety violations, using cleaner
