Ignorance Is a Fire Hazard! Do You Know Where Your Sprinkler Controls Are?
At a strip mall in Indianapolis in a storefront that was being repurposed as a tattoo parlor, the new occupants wanted to open up the space. To do so, they tore out the walls around the sprinkler...
View ArticleFrozen Pipes and Other Sprinkler System Headaches
When the temperature drops below freezing, your pipes are at risk. Most people, including most business owners, are aware of this risk with respect to ordinary plumbing found in bathrooms and kitchens....
View ArticleShine a Light on Lighting Hazards
Unless they’re working in complete darkness, workers may not pay too much attention to lighting in the workplace. But poor lighting can contribute to accidents whether workers notice it or not. Here’s...
View ArticleProviding Light When All Other Lights Have Gone Out
When there’s an emergency in the workplace, workers need to get out quickly. Unfortunately, some types of emergencies may involve power failures and a loss of interior and exterior illumination; or,...
View ArticleAre You Ready for Anything? Three Action Items to Check Your Emergency...
What’s your worst-case scenario? Fire? Explosion? Flood? If you’re just thinking of the disaster itself, you’re not thinking broadly enough: the true worst-case scenario is a disaster for which your...
View ArticleAre You Ready for Anything? Three Questions to Ask After a Spill
What happens if there’s a chemical leak or spill in your workplace? Are your workers ready to contain it? Workers at Nestlé’s Willy Wonka candy manufacturing plant in Itasca, Illinois were quick to...
View ArticlePreparedness is Prevention: Four Ways Process Safety Management Could Have...
Is an ounce of prevention really more effective than a pound of cure? According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), that’s certainly the case for Arboris®, LLC, a food...
View ArticlePreparedness is Prevention: Six More Ways Process Safety Management Could...
At the Arboris® plant in Newark, Ohio, workers were adding hexane to a process that produced sterols—a natural compound produced by pine trees—for use in foods such as spreads, bread, milk, and yogurt....
View ArticlePreparedness is Prevention: Emergency Preparedness Could Have Prevented These...
When a 900-gallon melt tank containing hexane and ethanol overpressurized and exploded in December 2015 at a food additive manufacturing facility in Newark, Ohio, owned by Arboris®, LLC, the U.S....
View ArticleCSB’s Most Wanted Safety Improvements: Emergency Planning and Response
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...
View ArticleMinor Fire Leads to Major Penalties: Could Your Workers Put Out a Small Fire?
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:...
View ArticleMinor Fire Leads to Major Penalties: Are You Making These Fire Safety Mistakes?
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....
View ArticleWho Speaks for You in a Crisis?
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...
View ArticleRetail Details: Clear the Exits for Holiday Fire Safety
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...
View ArticleRetail Details: Fire and Electrical Safety for Retailers
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...
View ArticleFire Experts: It’s Time to Take the Tree Down!
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 National Fire Protection Association...
View ArticleQ&A: Fire Extinguishers on Golf Carts
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? This was our response: There is...
View Article7 Steps to Conducting a Fire-Risk Assessment at O&G Wellsites
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...
View ArticleFire in the Air—Preventing Deaths from Vapor Ignitions
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...
View ArticleManaging Aerosol Cans: Safe Use in the Workplace
It’s very likely that you use aerosol cans at your facility. They are pervasive in workplaces and in society as a whole. However, aerosol cans present significant environmental and safety hazards....
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