“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 [...]
“Luck is not an acceptable substitute for early detection.” — Valerie Harper Three weeks after the Norfolk Southern (NS) derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the well-meaning editorial board at the Washington Post published an editorial on “how to fix freight rail.” They consulted with a variety of transportation experts to come up with four recommendations: [...]
“There is nothing that this age, from whatever standpoint we survey it, needs more, physically, intellectually, and morally, than thorough ventilation.” — John Ruskin I worked on a project once that required me to spend a lot of time in the control building. It was a substantial building with a kitchen and breakroom, several offices, [...]
“People just don’t sue doctors they really like.” — Alice Burkin, plaintiff’s attorney Nice doctors get sued less. On the other hand, “evil corporations” are far more likely to be sued for their mistakes, or as lawyers describe it, their “negligence.” And in the consciousness of many Americans, there are few corporations more categorically evil [...]
“OSHA has issued new enforcement guidance to make its penalties more effective in stopping employers from repeatedly exposing workers to life-threatening hazards or failing to comply with certain workplace safety and health requirements.” — Department of Labor press release, January 26, 2023 There are two common complaints about OSHA citations and fines after a fatal [...]
“My life experience confirms that the U.S. government frequently overclassifies data.” — Michael Hayden When it comes hazardous (classified) locations—electrical classification—even seemingly sophisticated technical facilities often get it wrong. The issue isn’t with the class, or the group, but with the division. Getting the division wrong, though, can render a facility more hazardous than it should [...]
“The guard shall be such that it does not offer an accident hazard in itself.” — 29 CFR 1910.212(a)(2) Machine guarding It’s hard to imagine any safeguard that doesn’t pose its own burden. Safety shoes are heavy and make a worker less nimble. Side shields on safety glasses impair peripheral vision. Interlocks introduce the prospect [...]
“You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data.” — Daniel Keys Moran Last summer, we talked about the Chemical Safety Board’s compilation of incident data since their reporting rule became effective in March 2020. Companies experiencing catastrophic releases that result in one or more fatalities, one or more in-patient hospitalizations, [...]
“The battle of getting better is never ending.” — Antonio Brown There’s an old joke about someone looking for their keys under a streetlight. A passerby offered to help but after a while, asked, “Are you sure this is where you lost them?” “No, I lost them over there in the park.” “Then why are [...]
“The entire health care system is now being organized around machines instead of human beings. Not prioritized to reduce human suffering, but rather to optimize a computerized recordkeeping system. This is a tragedy.” — Carolyn Jourdan Imagine for a moment that you are a new PSM coordinator. The person who had the job before you [...]
