Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Yesterday we reviewed steps to conduct a fire-risk assessment concerning vehicle and motorized equipment ignition hazards at oil and gas (O&G) wellsites. Today we will look at how to use that information to protect your wellsite workers from vapor ignition fires and explosions.
According to a new safety hazard alert, there were 85 deaths between 2005 and 2015 at oil and gas (O&G) wellsites that were caused by fires or explosions. Of those, 27 deaths were directly related to flammable vapors from vehicles or motorized equipment.
Recently, a subscriber asked the following question: Are fire extinguishers required to be mounted on electric golf carts that are used in an industrial chemical plant?
If you’re one of those people, or businesses, that love to keep your Christmas tree up after the holiday, the risk of fire might motivate you to think again.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cites retailers over and over for failing to ensure that their stores are fire-safe. Retailer Dollar General has been OSHA’s most cited case in point, although they are far from the only offender. Since 2010, OSHA has recorded more than 100 safety and health violations at Dollar […]
When you think of dangerous industries, “retail” is probably not the first one that springs to mind. And while retail employees aren’t generally exposed to the types of machinery hazards that industrial workers face or to the kinds of health hazards that healthcare workers face daily, there are some persistent issues that crop up during […]
At about 9 a.m. on October 4, 2016, contractors were cleaning coal bunkers at the Cambria Cogen power station in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, when an explosion occurred. The explosion injured four workers, two of them seriously—but early news reports stated that three men were taken to the hospital with burns, and little else. Always in […]
Yesterday we looked at some of the problems that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) identified during the inspection of a United States Postal Service (USPS) facility in St. Louis, where a minor fire could have turned major after workers went through five fire extinguishers before they located one that worked. As is often […]
At the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) vehicle maintenance facility in St. Louis, a minor grease fire erupted in a wheel hub on July 3, 2016. Workers trying to put out the small blaze ran into a problem: The first five fire extinguishers they tried to use were not charged.
On April 17, 2013, a 60-ton stockpile of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate (FGAN) exploded at the West Fertilizer Company (WFC) in the middle of downtown West, Texas. The fire and explosion killed 15 people—12 twelve emergency responders and 3 members of the community—caused injuries to 260 more people who required medical treatment, and damaged more than […]