1.5 FUNDAMENTAL OF SAFETY
Industrial work is full of hazards. It is necessary to take
precautions with a view to ensure safety of the plants, machinery and the human
beings.
Accidents in industry are very costly. Injuries to the
workers cannot be compensated. An accident may lead to.
a)
Damage to the plant and equipment.
b)
Disruption of production schedules.
c)
Lowers morale of personnel.
d)
Prolonged absence of trained worker for treatment.
Accident may occur due to :
a)
Human Error. Eighty-eight per cent accidents are
caused due to UNSAFE PRACTICE, lack of foresight, wrong attitude etc.
b)
MECHANICAL FAILURE. Ten per cent accidents are caused due to
plant condition, equipment or tool failure.
c)
Acts of Nature. Only two percent accidents are
caused due to weather, flood or cyclone.
It is necessary to eliminate
unsafe conditions to avoid accidents.
1.4 SAFETY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT POLICY
S, H & E Policy as adopted by Indian Oil Corporation is
reproduced below:
We are committed to conduct business with strong environment
conscience ensuring sustainable development, safe workplace and enrichment of
quality of life of Employees, Customers and the Community. We believe that good
S, H & E performance is an integral part of efficient and profitable
business management. We shall:
- Establish and maintain good standard for safety of the people, the processes and the assets.
- Comply with all Rule and Regulations on Safety, Occupational Health and Environmental Protection.
- Plane, Design, operate and maintain all facilities, processes and procedures to secure sustained Safety, Health and Environmental Protection.
- Remain trained, equipped and ready for effective and prompt response to accidents and emergencies.
- Welcome audit of our S, H & E conduct by external body, so that stakeholder confidence is safeguarded.
- Adopt and promote industry best practices to avert accidents and improve our S, H & E performance.
- Remain committed to be a leader in Safety, Occupational Health and Environment Protection through continuing improvement.
- Make efforts to preserve ecological balance and heritage.
1.3 ENSURING PARTICIPATION OF EMPLOYEES IN DEVELOPING S, H & E POLICY
Employee’s participation and involvement in development and
implementation of the S, H & E Management system is essential. It must be
remembered that a group decision is always considers to be a better decision
then that of an individual, and is thus better implementable.
Plant manager should be given overall responsibility for
the implementation of the Employee participation and to ensure that Process
safety information, process hazard analysis reports, Incident investigation
reports and Audit/ Corrective action report are made available to the affected
employees or contractor employees for proper dissemination of information.
Initial training on safety aspects to all has to be
ensured. Structured training on safety, hazards and emergency response should
also be imparted.
It should be ensure that on employee performs work for which he has not received
appropriate training. Employees should be encouraged to look frond report
potential hazards and to suggest ways to control and/or eliminate them.
Effective and continuing leadership at all level of
participation is required. Each employee should be encouraged to observe all
relevant S, H & E rules and regulations, actively participate in all
promotional activities, report unsafe act and situation and active cooperation
in mitigating the same.
Formal risk analysis should be conducted for all processes. One or more
operation personnel familiar with the process being studied should be included
in the HAZOP analysis. Hazardous processes and materials are identified in the
Factories Act- 1948, and specified as such by Risk Analysis for identifying,
- The hazards of the process;
- Any previous incident with a likely potential for catastrophic consequences in the workplace;
- Engineering and administrative controls to provide early warning of releases ;
- Consequences of failure of such controls ;
- Facility siting;
- Humans factors;
- A qualitative evaluation of the range of possible safety and health effect of failure controls;
1.2
COMMITMENT OF TOP MANAGEMENT IN SAFETY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT POLICY
In the industries, Safety, Health and Environment management is
considered as an integral part of overall management systems. Management’s responsibilities
include vision, establishing systems, setting the expectations, assessing
performance, improving effectiveness, encouragement for doing things safely
prompt action for deficiencies, and allocating resources for responsible
operation. The management should involve all employees, contractors, security
personnel and business associates related to operation in the safety culture.
Commitment of top management towards safety, health and environment is
essential and this message should flow to all organizational levels.
Separate manuals for safety, fire, health and environment management
need to be developed. The policy should be approved by the Board of Directors and be updated
periodically and made available to all employees. The intentions and
commitments on part of top management should be clearly specified.
For safety, separate committees need to be set up at management and
shop-floor level. Management safety committees should be headed by unit
head/location in charge. Workman representative should be included in the
committee. 50% of the members of each shop-floor safety committee should be workman.
Management safety committee should review safety performance, audit reports,
incident investigations, recommendations to the shop-floor committees, status
of firefighting and safety equipment and compliance of statutory
rules/regulations. Shop-floor safety committee should deliberate hazards involved
in operation, performance of safety systems, lessons learnt from past
incidents/near-misses, training etc, and suggestions for improvement in safety
standards.
Surprise safety checks, particular at odd-hours, should be carried out
and findings recorded. Punitive scheme may be devised for violation of safety
procedures and non-compliance of personal protective Equipment. Safety
promotional activities like display of safety posters/precautions and safety
records at prominent locations, publication of safety newsletter bulletins,
safety talk to contractor’s laborers, safety competition, etc. should be
encouraged. Safety awareness survey should be carried out once a year and input
provided to improve safety awareness.
Safety, Health and Environment Management Systems
1.1 NEED FOR INTEGRATION OF SAFETY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT (S, H, & E)
Present-day industries are becoming more and more complex because they have to meet the requirement of increased production rate, high efficiency and optimization. huge investments are incurred. Any negligence at any stage from concept stage to design, erection, operation can result into disaster, loss of human lives and huge production losses, etc. Accordingly safety aspects deserves serious attention. Today safety is an integral part of any industry. Even if a single employee neglects safety aspects, it can lead to serious problem for everybody. It is, therefore, essential that foolproof safety systems be designed and incorporated, people trained adequately, checks and counter-checks made to ensure implementation of safety. As losses due to any accident can be surmountable, it is important that top management gets involved and shows full commitment towards implementation of safety. In present context it is not only sufficient to take care of safety but other two interrelated aspects, viz., health (well-being of employees) and environment are also attached equal importance and consideration. All these three element are interrelated and affect each other. For instance, if health of employees is not given due regard, it may lead to accidents. If industry pollutes the environment around work place, it will ultimately affect production. Each industry has certain obligations towards keeping good environment and also towards health of people. It is only if health and environment are in control that safety in industry can be ensured.
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