“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” — Rudyard Kipling A few weeks ago, a lot of folks in this area found themselves obsessively scraping the bottoms of their boots. Based on the smell that seemed to be following them around, they were sure that they had stepped in something [...]
“What we see depends mainly on what we are looking for.” — John Lubbock Every chemical plant I have ever been in has these minimum requirements for personal protective equipment (PPE): hardhat, safety shoes, and safety glasses with side shields. OSHA tells us that it is the employer’s responsibility to assess the workplace for hazards [...]
“The fact is the media never gets off the interstate unless there’s a major explosion.” — Jim Harrison On Friday, March 24, 2023, shortly before 5 pm local time, an explosion leveled the R.M. Palmer Company chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania, killing seven workers. How does a chocolate factory explode? What are the explosive hazards, [...]
“The name is the thing, and the true name is the true thing. To speak the name is to control the thing.” — Ursala K. Le Guin, The Rule of Names Process safety has three concerns: fires, explosions, and toxic releases. The most ancient of these concerns is fire. Because fire has been our servant [...]
“I love to breath. Oxygen is sexy.” — Kris Carr How long can you hold your breath? One minute? Two minutes? Pearl divers have been known to hold their breaths for over 10 minutes. When we’re breathing, though, it’s at a rate of between 8 and 20 breaths per minutes. So, many find it difficult [...]
“Suffocation is a cruel way to go.” — Arlaina Tibensky I usually think of process safety hazards as being related to fire, explosions, or toxic releases. There is another process hazard, however, doesn’t necessarily depend on any of these. It’s asphyxiation—death due to an inability to get enough oxygen to the body. Asphyxiation is not [...]
“Take off your sweater in the darkness and static flares as a tiny lightning storm.” — John Geddes The dry air of winter makes it much more likely that we will be shocked by static sparks. So instead of visions of sugar-plums dancing in their heads, the thoughts of many of our clients turns to [...]
“You can’t get a little bit pregnant, son.” — Hal Holbrook as Lou Mannheim in Wall Street, (1987) A whole new group of processes are about to become PSM-covered. Maybe. Some HVAC contractors have begun warning their customers that the new low-GWP refrigerants that they must switch to are “slightly flammable”, so may come under [...]
“Squeezing a balloon in one place makes it expand in another.” — Bernd Debusmann Finally. 2020, the worst year in living memory for most of us, is over. 2021 promises to be much, much better. Let’s make it a year when workplace safety gets better as well. To do that, though, we can’t just keep [...]
“The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.” - Harlan Ellison I first learned about H21, the project to convert the fuel gas distribution system in the North of England from natural gas to hydrogen, at a safety conference where I gave a talk on containing hydrogen deflagrations within pressure vessels. [...]
