09 December 2012
"Conducting Mock Drill " Nice writeup
For conducting any mock drills there are certain steps that should be followed for better performance.
1. Number of maximum credible loss scenarios & number of potential emergencies to be listed out (one time activity)
2. Then make a mitigation plan for the same.
3. Now before doing a mock drill have a table top mock drill/ discussion (where each key personnel of the drill speak about the action to be done by him/her)
4. Then after some time (we follow a gap of 24 hrs at least) have the mock drill.
5. Now during mock drill you should have more than 3-4 observers ( we assign two observers at each location in our organization ) one for noting down the time and the other for noting down the activities done.
6. In any emergency response there are three parts. Evacuation, mitigation and restoration.
7. Evacuation time from each area to the safe assembly point should be assessed based on this formula distance from the place of evacuation to the nearest safest assembly point/6 kmph. ( The speed of brisk walking is assumed to be 5-6 kmph & no running only brisk walk during an emergency)(Here you can apply Chander”s scale and increase the number or size of your emergency exits considering the timings as bench mark)
8. One more practice that we can follow is “you are only responsible to the person sitting at your left” i.e while evacuating just see to it that the person sitting/standing at your immediate left is also evacuated with you.
9. In mitigation part, its as per the onsite emergency plan, but in addition to that we can have more failures added on to the scenario. Eg: Failure of power, then melting of some Sintex tank in the vicinity of a solvent tank fire, ERT collapsed due to SCBA getting empty etc. We should always make sure that all support functions like engineering, R&D etc are involved. The total drill may extend up to an hour also, at times
10. Then last comes the pre entry area toxicity monitoring and the salvage operations.
Now for improving the effectiveness
1. Get the timings and compare the evacuation timing against the standard that you have set and see what is the gap.
2. Timing of each activity, i.e SCBA donning, uncoiling of fire hose etc can be compared against the best timings available( you can get it from experts in this filed or can get from the best industries in your vicinity and assess whether they are acceptable in case of that particular emergency.
3. Vary the time. Mock drills ate early morning time, then during night shifts, then after general shift hours etc.
These! are some methods/steps that we follow in our organization.
Arun Kumar.K
‘Safety Polce’ vs. ‘safety professional’ Nice Writeup
Safety professionals can overcome negative perceptions by using communications strategies that reduce defensiveness and establish open dialog with workers. Rather than taking strictly compliance approach, safety professionals should behave more like educators and empower workers to participate in developing a safety culture.
Every old timers (that includes me too) has a story of a ‘Safety Police’ ,Walking and shutting down work activity for minor deviations, simply to show everyone there that they have the power to enforce the rules. As a result, any one in safety profession gets a label of being unprofessional and it is very difficult to change (that) attitude. One of the worst ways a safety professional can demonstrate the “safety cop” label is by being confrontational and look for ways to criticize or stop work.
Environments where people are labeled “safety Police,” create fear and reduce safety participation. Compliance might increase but hazard awareness, looking out for others and innovation can decline. Safety professionals and programs that only emphasize compliance may have a positive effect on an organization’s violation rate, but other safety behaviors such as self-reporting, collaboration and educational program participation may decrease.
Safety professionals cannot simply go through checklists; they must engage with workers and gain insight into their work environment. Anyone new to an organization should spend the first few weeks – or months, if needed – getting to know the people working there and simply ask them what their jobs are and ask them if they know of any safety issues. Allowing the workers to tell you what they see will give a new safety professional insight to the real processes that are used and not simply see people ‘acting’ when the safety personnel are around.
Below listed communication strategies can be used by a safety professional to foster this open dialog with workers:
- Make safety a regular topic of informal conversations and formal events.
- Ask workers’ opinions and regularly seek input.
- Accept constructive dissent as a positive step.
- Avoid blaming workers and focus on learning when discussing errors.
- Ensure safety messages show support and concern for worker’s welfare.
Earning trust
The best approach to overcoming a “safety Police” label is to calmly explain the safety aspect of your observation and point out any violations of the company’s safety plan. This explanation should include how you only want them to be safe and do not intend to interfere with their work. Unless there is an immediate threat of harm, wait until the person has finished whatever task they’re doing and then discuss safety.
It helps to make workers feel as though the safety professional is on their side. If they realize at the onset that you are there to help them, or make them safe, and you are doing a job, they are not as defensive.
Aligning with the culture
Aligning with the organization’s culture can help safety professionals establish credibility among workers. Safety professionals align safety with the organization’s core values. If the company appears concerned only with financial matters, the safety professional should figure out a way to align safety with that core value. He or she could emphasize how safety incidents cost money and hurt the company’s reputation, and iterate how incidents cause unnecessary human suffering. Then, he can follow up by describing the ways safety programs can save everyone and the company money and grief.
Safety professionals need to send the message, ‘I am here to help you to accomplish your goal, and oneway to accomplish your goal is by doing things safer.’ That will at least have a greater probability of getting their attention.
Good Luck!!
With warm regards,
Dr Katari Murthy
02 December 2012
NFPA 70E COMPLIANCE GUIDE
This guide shall only be used in conjunction with performing the necessary calculations contained in a flash hazard analysis to determine the proper cal/cm 2 . If the results of the calculations exceed the cal/cm 2 that correspond to the HRC found on this guide, you must use clothing that complies with the calculation.
OISD Standard 105 Work Permit System
This standard shall be applicable to all hydrocarbon processing / handling installations such as onshore / offshore oil and gas processing plants & platforms, drilling and workover rigs, crude oil and product installations, refineries, oil port terminals, pipelines & pipeline installations, marketing installations, LPG bottling plants, Lube Blending plants etc.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)