Articles

When disasters like the Sayano–Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station collapse in Khakassia, Russia, occur, it is difficult to get past the overpowering tragedy of 75 people losing their lives and 40 other sustaining injuries. The only way to draw positiv…

Having a safety plan in place is not enough to guarantee safety of manufacturing automation operations. In order for risks to be truly minimized, the plan needs to be studied and understood by all stakeholders so that proper actions can be taken both before a…

Pressure and haste in the workplace can lead to bad safety decisions. Such was the case at a Russian hydro-electric plant when a turbine was brought back into service too soon. Had the history of the turbine’s performance been analyzed, plant management would …

Catastrophic situations often occur as a result of complacency. If, over time, warnings of abnormal conditions are ignored without any apparent consequence, those situations begin to slide into the realm of routine. Then if the pattern of consistent oversight…

One element that figured prominently in the 2008 explosion at the Bayer Crop Science facility in Institute, West Virginia, was a lack of operator training for the new DCS that had just been installed at the methomyl production unit. While this was undoubtedly …

Prior to the 2008 incident, the methomyl unit at the Institute facility had been shut down for two major equipment upgrades: the DCS had been replaced and the old carbon steel residue treater vessel had been replaced with a new stainless steel pressure vessel.…

Equipment Problems Share the Blame Bayer Crop Sciences Poses Equipment Problems Share the Blameacceptable levels. When the two operators who were killed went to the vessel, the expected to find this vent was simply blocked and were going to clear it. These …

Bayer Crop Science company procedures called for a PSSR (pre-startup safety review) to be run for the methomyl unit before it was restarted. This was a complex process that was supposed to prove that all the equipment and safety devices were in order, allowing…

History has shown that industrial disasters are rarely the result of some single failure in a plant environment that is otherwise carefully operated and scrupulously maintained. In most situations, an incident, large or small, is the logical and inevitable res…

On March 23, 2005 at the Texas City refinery, a geyser of flammable hydrocarbon liquid and vapor erupted from a blowdown stack, which ignited creating a huge fire. The result: 15 fatalities and 180 injuries. All the individuals who died were in or around a gro…