[Demystifying Ship Recycling: Safe removal and recycling of batteries recovered during Ship Recycling[ (https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/demystifying-ship-recycling-safe-removal-and-recycling-of-batteries-recovered-during-ship-recycling/)
Batteries are used as an emergency source of electric power on ships of all types. Lead is usually found in lead-acid batteries. Lead is considered as heavy metal and correct handling of it is essential. Similarly, contact with acid is hazardous to human health. End-of-Life vessels are delivered to the Hong Kong Convention (HKC) compliant recycling facilities in India with the Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) part I, II, and III. Batteries are listed, located, and quantified in the IHM. As per ship specific Ship Recycling Plan, the SOPs are prepared to remove and dispose of these batteries. Only trained workers are allowed to remove the batteries. Workers are given adequate PPE, consisting of hardhat, safety shoes, gloves, overalls, glasses, and masks. Batteries that contain acids and lead are isolated from the electrical power cables, transported, and stored at designated areas in recycling facilities by trained workers. The designated area is well ventilated. The workers are made aware of the possibility of rapid charge release from the batteries and their heavyweights. Safe manual lifting practices are followed. Extra care is taken not to cause any physical damage to the batteries to avoid any acid splash (electrolyte). The workers are also trained to handle acid spills and first aid measures in case of contact is made with the acid.
Source: GMS The batteries are sold to the authorized recyclers for recycling purposes and the battery submission manifests are maintained at the recycling yards. The increasing safety culture and strict compliance to the SOPs at the HKC compliant recycling facilities are admirable. Kiran Thorat is a Sustainable Ship & Offshore Recycling Executive at GMS, where he looks after sustainable ship recycling projects. Kiran believes that Sustainable Recycling is an integral part of Sustainable Shipping and a notable example of a circular economy. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Marine Engineering and Research Institute (DMET), India, and a Master’s Degree in Energy, Trade, and Finance from Cass Business School, London.
Head of WorkSafe ACT concerned about repeated safety breaches
The head of the ACT’s workplace compliance watchdog has been appalled at the lack of safety across residential construction sites in Canberra and fears another construction site death without a cultural change.
The ACT work health and safety commissioner Jacqueline Agius has likened the reckless attitude of some builders to those who speed or drink drive.
She has been particularly shocked by the number of repeat offenders.
WorkSafe ACT has issued 282 safety notices to residential building sites over the past five months.
The watchdog has conducted mass inspections across the territory’s greenfield suburbs as part of a three-year campaign to crackdown and change the safety culture of Canberra’s residential construction sites.
The Operation Safe Prospect campaign was prompted following the death of two workers in separate incidents at Denman Prospect construction sites in early 2020.
Mexico AW109 Crash Now a Homicide Investigation
Mexican authorities detained four people on Friday in connection with the December 2018 fatal crash of a 2011 Leonardo AW109S (XA-BON) that killed all aboard, including National Action Party opposition party member and Puebla state governor Martha Alonso, her husband senator Rafael Moreno Valle, an aid to Valle, and both pilots. The helicopter crashed minutes after takeoff on a flight from Puebla to Mexico City.
The Puebla attorney general said the four detained—all employed by Toluca-based Rotor Flight Services (RFS) at the time of the accident—were being investigated for homicide and making false statements. Accident investigators, led by Mexico’s DGAC with assistance from both the NTSB and Canada TSB, concluded that a known, preexisting problem with the helicopter’s stability system should have grounded it from further flight before the accident.
A final accident report from Mexico’s Agencia Federal de Aviacion Civil found the helicopter crashed due to a sudden left roll, causing loss of control that deteriorated into inverted flight and impact into terrain. It said the uncommanded roll could have been caused by loose actuator screws contacting the stability system’s electronic card.
Listed contributory factors included “ineffective maintenance practices” by RFS, inadequate safety culture at operator Altiplano Air Services, pressure on the operator to continue flight operations despite intermittent malfunction of the stability system during prior flights, and insufficient governmental maintenance and operations supervision.
Ep. 59 What is the full story behind safety I and safety II (Part 3)?
Topics:
A recap of the chapters we’ve covered thus far. Chapter 6 Dealing with complexity, The role of resilience. Chapter 7 Correct and incorrect functions. Determining the cause of accidents in complex systems. The faulty definition of Safety II. The purpose of Safety II. Chapter 8 Recognizing, monitoring, and controlling performance variability. Why Hollnagel criticizes Safety I. Methods and techniques. Chapter 9 Hollnagel’s predictions about the creation of Safety III. Practical takeaways from the book. Quotes:
“So you think of Safety I just as it protects against lots of specific things, but it doesn’t protect against generic things that we haven’t specifically protected against.”
“The fact is…we can make some fairly reliable and valid conclusions about what happened leading up to something going wrong.”
“I think all theorists we should take seriously and not literally.”
“We are comprised of 12 Subject Matter Experts (SME) who work to encourage, educate, and enforce Department of Defense and Occupational Safety and Health Association standards,” said Lt. Julian Krusely, the Nimitz Industrial Hygiene Officer. “We wear a green ball cap to promote a visible safety culture and the making of safe choices both on and off duty throughout the ship.”
Each safety SME oversees and surveys air and safety afloat programs, and leverages divisional safety petty officers and squadron safety representatives in order to teach and enforce safety standards to empower Sailors and Marines to make safe choices.
“Our team roves the ship looking for general hazards such as proper wear of personal protective equipment, electrical safety discrepancies, respirator protection, hearing protection, fall protection and fall hazards, hazardous material safety, and hazard identification,” said Senior Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Handling) Anthony Pena, Nimitz’ Safety Department’s Leading Chief Petty Officer.
While underway, it is Safety’s job to provide a constant presence at every major evolution to be the extra set of eyes and to ensure the proper procedures are being carried out.
Although Nimitz Safety department assumes responsibility for training Sailors how to be safe, it is the responsibility of every Sailor, Marine, and civilian aboard to take accountability for safely carrying out procedures, maintenance and daily duties.
“Safety is everyone’s responsibility,” said Pena. “We want every Sailor and Marine to safely follow the correct procedures and maintenance requirements and have a questioning attitude when performing daily duties. If it doesn’t feel right or it looks unsafe, it’s most likely not. You can choose right. Choose SAFE!”
Montana DPHHS Expands Online Services at Parenting Montana dot Org
“The Department of Public Health and Human Services partnered with the Center for Health and Safety Culture at Montana State University to expand parentingmontana.org, which is an information website full of all kinds of things that would be helpful for parents who have children from infancy all the way into their teen years,” said Palagi. She then provided some specific examples of topics that parents might have.
“If you have a two year old and maybe they’re experiencing the terrible twos, and you wonder if your child is having tantrums and if that’s a normal part of child development, you could go to parenting montana.org,” she said. “That website would provide information that would reassure the parent that tantrums are an expected part of development, and also give guidance on how to support her to your child and their needs during a tantrum.”
Pinoys need a safety culture to adapt to the new normal businessmirror.com.ph/2020/12/2…
The new normal demands a “safety culture” as preventing the spread of the Covid-19 virus is contingent on public compliance and private sector cooperation.
Dr. Arnold Tabun, National Auditor of the Philippine College of Occupational Medicine, however noted that the response to the Covid-19 pandemic by the different countries around the world vividly exposed the differences in the cultural values of Eastern and Western societies.
He cited that South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and even Cambodia were able to manage the pandemic better than their Western counterparts.
MSF awards $30K in PPE grants to 37 Montana schools
HELENA, Mont. — Montana State Fund (MSF), Montana’s largest workers’ compensation insurance company, presented personal protective equipment (PPE) grants to 37 classrooms across Montana Tuesday.
The grants, which are part of MSF’s Growing a Safer Montana program, usually include safety eye protection, fall protection gear, gloves and ear protection, among other equipment, and are intended to help students understand the importance of operating safely in their environment.
“Through our Growing a Safer Montana initiative, we are committed to improving Montana’s workplace safety culture,” said MSF President and CEO, Laurence Hubbard. “We can only improve the safety culture through education and reinforcement of positive safety habits. If we start in the classroom, the next generation of Montana’s workforce will be better equipped when they step onto the job site. Our goal is to send students and workers home safely to their families at the end of each day.”
The Growing a Safer Montana initiative began in 2017 and is available to high school trades and industry classrooms statewide. The grant maximums are up to $750 in value resulting in $30,000 in safety grants for Montana schools.
NTSB Offers Information on Managing Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Fatigue Risks
A photo of the 3-D image of the truck, which appeared in The Washington Post, helped the NTSB investigate the crash. Fox said investigators discovered that the Walmart truck driver had made a personal trip during his off-duty time, traveling 800 miles (12 hours) from his terminal in Delaware to visit his home in Georgia. The driver then drove back to Delaware and continued with his entire planned route. The NTSB determined he’d been awake for almost 24 hours at the time of the crash.
Walmart didn’t have any restrictions on how far away a driver could live from their terminal. Although the company uses collision avoidance systems on its vehicles, these systems were not fully operational. Fox said NTSB found that critical event reports were not being generated. Walmart did address fatigue as part of its driver training, but Fox relayed that it did not have a structured fatigue management program. The company has since implemented numerous safety improvements that address driver fatigue.
Additionally, Fox discussed the four elements of creating a fatigue management program:
Good safety culture with continuous education Policies and Procedures, to provide structure to support the culture of safety Training and Education, including obtaining rest off-duty Evaluation of the success of the program may use accident data Fox suggested that insurance companies are excellent partners to work with when creating a fatigue management system, as they can provide tools to help reveal vulnerabilities.
Protester re-occupies Burnaby tree after Trans Mountain suspends project … Trans Mountain suspended all work in Burnaby and across the entire pipeline route starting Friday, Dec. 18 until Jan. 4, 2021.
The move came after a worker with a contractor at the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby was seriously injured on Tuesday. Another work in Edmonton died after an accident.
In a statement, the company admitted it needs to “improve” safety on the project.
“Trans Mountain is proactively taking the step to temporarily stand down construction on the Expansion Project to review, reset and refocus our efforts, and those of our contractors and their workers,” said Ian Anderson, president and CEO of Trans Mountain, in a statement. “We are committed to a strong culture of safety above all else and insist that our project contractors and subcontractors are equally committed. The critical success of any organization is its ability to self-reflect – to honestly and courageously ask the question, ‘where can we improve?’. This is non-negotiable, we must improve the safety culture and performance on our project.”
The injury was reported to the Canada Energy Regulator late Tuesday and its safety specialists were on-site Wednesday. All work in Burnaby had been shut down, but now the work will halt across the entire project.
Ep.58 What is the full story behind safety I and safety II (Part 2)? safetyofwork.com/episodes/…
Picking up where we left off, we begin our discussion with chapter three. Over the course of this episode, we talk about Hollnagel’s definition of Safety I, the myths of safety, and causality (among other things). Tune in for part two of our in-depth look at this important book.
Stronger MSME commitment must for achieving zero-accident workplace
Jamshedpur, Dec. 18: CII Jharkhand organised its second edition of Industrial Safety Conclave today. The objective of the CII Jharkhand Industrial Safety Conclave 2020 was to inspire the stakeholders towards building an even stronger culture of safety in their organisations. This conclave acted as a forum wherein the participants got the opportunity to interact with the safety professionals, thought leaders to learn the best practices.
“For achieving Vision Zero or a Zero-accident workplace, we would need more involvement and commitment of the MSMEs. I am happy that the CII Jharkhand Safety Panel has launched Project SARTHI to handhold MSMEs on better safety management practices and transform them into a better and safer workplace”, stated Sanjay Sabherwal, Chairman, CII Jharkhand State Council & Managing Director, Metaldyne Industries Ltd at the CII Jharkhand Industrial Safety Conclave 2020.
Addressing the gathering, Tapas Sahu, Chairman, CII Jamshedpur Zonal Council and Managing Director, Highco Engineers Pvt Ltd said, “Safety is something which can never be over emphasised. Impact of being unsafe is very heavy on the society. Best safety cultures are led by business leaders who integrate safety into the business”.
“The commitment from the leadership towards safety is extremely critical to inculcate a true safety culture within the organisation”, affirmed Mr Vilas Gaikwad, Chief – Safety, Tata Steel Long Products Ltd while addressing the conclave.
Japan operator says human error caused Mauritius oil spill
TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese operator of a bulk carrier that struck a coral reef and caused an extensive oil spill off the coast of Mauritius said Friday that the accident occurred after the ship shifted its course two miles (3.2 kilometers) closer to shore than planned so its crewmembers could get cellphone signals.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said its investigation showed the accident was caused by human error, including inadequate nautical charts, navigation systems and risk awareness, and a lack of supervision and safety monitoring.
The company said the tanker’s nautical chart provided little information about depth and other necessary information. Crewmembers on duty also failed to conduct safety checks visually or by radar, it said.
The captain and crewmembers were also using their cellphones while on duty, the company said.
It said it will invest about 500 million yen ($4.8 million) to provide electronic nautical charts, training to strengthen safety culture and other systems to enhance safety.
The environmental disaster began July 25 when the ship MV Wakashio strayed off course and struck a coral reef a mile (1.6 kilometers) offshore. After being pounded by heavy surf for nearly two weeks, the ship’s hull cracked and on Aug. 6 began leaking fuel into a lagoon, polluting a protected wetlands area and a bird and wildlife sanctuary.
NTSB Investigation Into Fatal Plane Crash Reveals Mechanical Problem, Changing Safety Culture
The captain of flight 3296 had been flying into Unalaska for about three months. On the day of the crash, he had logged 131 hours in a Saab 2000 — less than half the historical requirement for PenAir pilots responsible for bringing flights into the Aleutian city. His first officer had a few hours more. Both had been hired by the company in May of that year.
The NTSB’s investigation describes the airline’s safety culture following PenAir’s sale to RavnAir Group. Ravn’s safety director told investigators he considered the overall safety culture as “still good,” but admitted that pilots had approached him saying they were “not as comfortable anymore” speaking freely about their concerns.
A Ravn VP of flight operations told investigators the requirement was not consistent with how other commercial air carriers operated in the Lower 48.
“I’m not convinced that it’s necessary because it’s not done elsewhere,” the VP said. “There are mountains around the country, around the world. Air is air. Physics are physics. Why is this different?”
Trans Mountain shuts down pipeline expansion project to address worker safety
Trans Mountain says it is shutting down construction on its pipeline expansion project until early January for safety reasons.
Officials from the company and the Canada Energy Regulator said Wednesday that a contractor was seriously injured a day earlier at the site in Burnaby, B.C.
In a statement Thursday, Trans Mountain says the company is enacting a voluntary, project-wide safety stand-down from Friday until Jan. 4.
Construction at the Burnaby site had already stopped Wednesday after the injury.
The company says its priorities remain the safety of its workers and maintaining a safe work environment. Ian Anderson, president and CEO of Trans Mountain, says there have been safety incidents over the past two months that are unacceptable to the company.
“This is inconsistent with Trans Mountain’s proud safety culture,” he said in the release. “Trans Mountain is proactively taking the step to temporarily stand down construction on the expansion project to review, reset and refocus our efforts, and those of our contractors and their workers.”
TEPCO opens facility to teach lessons of meltdowns Tokyo Electric Power Company has opened a facility for employees to learn from the meltdowns at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant caused by the quake and tsunami in 2011.
The meltdowns at three of the reactors at the plant in northeastern Japan forced many residents to flee their homes and evacuate.
TEPCO opened the facility inside its research institute in Yokohama near Tokyo, ahead of the accident’s 10th anniversary on March 11.
Panels with photographs and charts chronicle how flooding caused by the tsunami led to loss of electric power and eventually resulted in the release of massive amounts of radioactive material into the atmosphere.
There are also panels explaining how the company failed to take stronger anti-tsunami measures at the plant despite there being opportunities to do so.
At a training session at the facility held on Tuesday, eight employees studied the panels and then took part in a discussion.
One participant said the company was overconfident about the safety of the nuclear plant. Another said they must acknowledge the company’s inadequate safety culture.
TEPCO introduced training two years ago for all employees to learn from the Fukushima accident. It says it will use the new facility for training and to promote awareness through dialogue among members.
In October 2017, Khansaheb MEP started its frontline supervisor training for senior staff with 47 members completing both the two day and one day refresher training course which finished in 2019. After each course, a presentation and feedback session was organised to develop future courses.
It is now looking to launch the third phase of its training program which is aimed at positioning its training at a level not seen in the UAE. The operatives going through this six day course will be trained on Health and Safety, accurate measurements and scales, waste management and innovative techniques for improving HSE, quality and productivity.
The celebration also marked the achievement of 4 million man-hours LTI free for Khansaheb MEP.
Khansaheb’s ‘Aim to be Accident Free’ program has inculcated a safety culture in the organisation that all its business units are contributing towards.
Commenting on the double achievement, Khansaheb MEP general manager David Duffy said: “People development is an important pillar of our strategy. We are very proud of what our training teams have achieved over the last 5 years and the attainment of 4 million man-hours LTI free across the division is a testament to the success of our training programs and the commitment of our people towards HSE.”
Vazquez: Research shows drivers know it’s wrong, do it anyway
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s latest research finds drivers who have been in at least one crash in the past two years are significantly more likely to engage in risky behaviors like speeding or texting, even when they think the police may catch them. After months of staying at home, we at AAA urge drivers to keep everyone safe on the roads and warn motorists against falling back into dangerous driving habits.
The frequency of drivers in the United States engaging in improper behavior is too high. While drivers acknowledge certain activities behind the wheel like texting, are dangerous, some do them anyway, We need to be aware of the serious consequences of engaging in these types of dangerous driving behavior and change course.
The Foundation’s annual Traffic Safety Culture Index, which highlights the gap between drivers’ attitudes and their reported behaviors, found drivers perceive distracted, aggressive and impaired driving as dangerous. Yet many of them admitted to engaging in at least one of these exact behaviors in the 30 days before the survey. The numbers were even higher for those involved in a recent crash:
Ep.57 What is the full story behind safety I and safety II (Part 1)?
Quotes:
“Most theories are billed as critiques of other theories. So, any new theory implicitly, and usually, explicitly criticizes a lot of existing stuff. And it’s important to separate those two things out.”
“He says that success and failure are not opposites.”
“It means that every single data point, then, has a lot of uncertainty attached around to it, because they’re such isolated examples, such extraordinary events…”
After grueling hearings on Capitol Hill, the day before the final ruling from the FAA, the House unanimously passed a bill by voice vote that reforms the plane certification process.
The bill, among other things, requires an expert panel to evaluate safety culture and recommend improvements and mandates aircraft manufacturers to adopt safety management systems and to complete system safety assessments for significant design changes. The bill awaits a vote in the Senate.
Some consumers are still concerned that the extensive recertification process and changes to software and company culture are not enough. Airlines are allowing free flight changes to passengers worried about the Boeing 737 Max, and the company is fighting to repair its reputation.
Black Hat Europe: Hackers Need to Educate Policymakers
Governments are increasingly calling on security researchers and the academic hacking community to improve the state of cybersecurity by better informing policymakers. And businesses must do more to foster a “safety culture” in which input from security teams gets translated into ongoing problem-solving.
… Learn From Aviation’s Safety Culture Cooper also spoke from the perspective of his having served as a U.K. Royal Air Force pilot flying Tornado fighter aircraft. Subsequently, he became an air force safety officer in charge of creating an engaged “reporting culture” in which individuals felt comfortable enough to “readily report problems, errors and near misses” so the organization could target the underlying problems.
“Aviation had really huge accident rates until the sector really started digging into the culture and understanding of what was causing those accidents - and it absolutely transformed safety,” he said.
Many organizations, however, are not set up to foster the required levels of input and action from their cybersecurity teams. “Really, the final keystone of that culture is a questioning culture, empowering individuals to speak up if they see risks, mitigations or opportunities,” he said. “And if they think something isn’t right, even if they don’t know the solution, it’s really important to hear their voice.”
Another traveller found to have breached Sydney quarantine and flown to Melbourne
The Park Royal hotel has operated throughout the period in which Victoria’s hotel quarantine program was suspended for some returned travellers and maritime workers, according to the government.
While the department confirmed the man tested negative to COVID-19 on day three and day 11 of his two-week quarantine, AMA Victoria president Julian Rait said the fact there had already been a known instance of a breach in the system before Saturday’s incident spoke to his organisation’s ongoing concerns that DHHS had “a lack of an adequate safety culture”.
“The best healthcare institutions have an open disclosure policy where not only are patients told of any unexpected mistake, but staff are encouraged to reveal them and examine how they might be prevented in the future.
“That applies equally as much to NSW as Victoria, it’s easy to be critical but I think we all need to reflect on what’s the most appropriate organisational culture that will lead to better outcomes.”
Ep.56 Does Goal Based Regulation increase bureaucracy?
Topics:
Why regulators are often spoken of negatively. The two forms of deregulation. Goal-based and rule-based frameworks. The progressive pulling-back of Government involvement in safety. Why overregulation occurs. What is actually being regulated. Conclusions from our conversation.
Quotes:
“So, the intention of this goal-based regulatory strategy is for organizations to understand their broad obligations to adopt a risk-based management strategy and to set their own safety management requirements inside their own organization.”
“The second theme that came out of the analysis was that overregulation is because of liability management and management insecurity.”
“The next important question to ask is are we regulating safety work or regulating safety of work?”
Japan court revokes permits at 2 reactors over quake safety
TOKYO — A Japanese court on Friday revoked the operating permits of two nuclear reactors for having inadequate earthquake safeguards, a ruling that challenges safety assessments conducted by the nuclear regulator and could influence the outcome of other court cases. The Osaka District Court revoked the permits of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at the Ohi nuclear power plant in Fukui in western Japan. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority had approved the restart of the two Ohi reactors, run by Kansai Electric Power Co., in 2017 and granted them operating permits. Nuclear safety standards were tightened and reactors were reexamined after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, which highlighted what investigators termed lax oversight and a lack of a safety culture. In its ruling, the court upheld demands by about 130 plaintiffs that the two reactors be shut down because of insufficient resistance to major earthquakes.
CSB spotlights Airgas’ safety improvements after fatal incident
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) highlighted the positive actions of Airgas in a recent “Safety Spotlight.”
The agency said Airgas, an Air Liquide Company, rapidly implemented a “robust” process safety management program in response to its recommendation following CSB’s investigation into an August 2016 fatal nitrous oxide explosion at the Airgas facility in Cantonment FL.
Following the incident, the company quickly began a comprehensive initiative to review the safety programs for its nitrous oxide production facilities, trucking fleet and cylinder-filling operations. The scope of this safety initiative includes 17 different areas for process safety. Some of the company’s most significant improvements include initiatives typically associated with the most effective safety management components, including the hierarchy of controls, improved audit practices and inherently safer design.
“Taking proactive, effective action, similar to what Airgas did following this incident, is the hallmark of driving chemical safety change,” said Katherine Lemos, CSB chairman. “I applaud the company for beginning implementation of these important process safety initiatives before the CSB completed its final report. This is especially noteworthy given that OSHA’s Process Safety Management standard does not apply to its facilities.”
The CSB determined that the most probable cause of the incident was that, during the initial loading of a trailer truck, a pump heated nitrous oxide above its safe operating limits. This likely started a nitrous oxide decomposition reaction that propagated from the pump into the trailer truck, causing the explosion.
The Safety Spotlight emphasizes that in a little more than two and a half years, Airgas reengineered its entire approach to managing process safety in its nitrous oxide business. Airgas also increased its efforts aimed at sharing lessons learned and good safety practices, both inside the company and with the broader compressed gas industry. Airgas exceeded the CSB’s recommended actions by developing and rapidly executing comprehensive process safety changes that have broadly applicable lessons for the entire compressed gas industry.