INDUSTRIAL SAFETY

1. What is Industrial Safety :-

Measures or techniques implemented to reduce the risk of injury, loss and danger to persons,
property or the environment in any facility or place involving the manufacturing, producing and
processing of goods or merchandise.
 The issue of industrial safety evolved concurrently with industrial development in the US
 Shift from compensation to prevention as well as toward an increasing emphasis on addressing
the long-term effects of occupational hazards.
 Today, industrial safety is widely regarded as one of the most important factors that any
business, large or small, must consider in its operations.
 Employers are required to compensate employees for work-related injuries or sickness by
paying medical expenses, disability benefits, and compensation for lost work time.

Creation of OSHA:
 First comprehensive industrial safety legislation passed at the federal level was Occupational
Safety and Health Act of 1970
 One of the factors contributing to strong support for the act was the rise in the number of work-
related fatalities in the 1960s, and particularly the Farmington, West Virginia, mine disaster of
1968, in which 78 miners were killed.
 Distinguishing factor of OSHA was its emphasis on the prevention of—rather than
compensation for—industrial accidents and illnesses.
 Includes safety standards, designed to prevent accidents, and health standards, designed to
protect against exposure to toxins and to address the more long-term effects of occupational
hazards.

2. Types of Industrial Safety

a. Process Safety System or Process Shutdown System, (PSS)

The process safety system (sometimes called process shutdown system) must carry out the
process shutdown function, acting on the lowest level of protection. They shall generally act as
an additional loop that protects and/or trips equipment and applicable to the fire zones or the
process units.

b. Safety Shutdown System (SSS): This includes Emergency Shutdown-

(ESD) and Emergency Depressurization-(EDP) Systems.

The safety shutdown system shall shutdown the facilities to a safe state in case of an
emergency situation, thus protecting personnel, the environment and the asset. Safety
Shutdown System shall manage all inputs and outputs relative to Emergency Shut Down (ESD)
functions (environment & personnel protection). This system might also be fed by signals from
the main fire and gas system.
c. Fire and Gas System (FGS).

The main objectives of the fire and gas system are to protect personnel, environment, and plant
(including equipment and structures). The FGS shall achieve these objectives by:

• Detecting at an early stage, the presence of flammable gas,

• Detecting at an early stage, the liquid spill (LPG and LNG),
• Detecting incipient fire and the presence of fire,
• Providing automatic and/or facilities for manual activation of the fire protection system
as required,
• Initiating signals, both audible and visible as required, to warn of the detected hazards,
• Initiating automatic shutdown of equipment and ventilation if 2 out of 2 or 2 out of 3
detectors
• Initiating the exhausting system.

3. Signs & Symbols used for safety in Industries

4. Safety Issues :-
Although safety equipment is useful and can save a trip to the hospital, it is the
responsibility of every employee to pitch in to help with safety issues.
Safety issues can occur in any situation including:

Trespassers committing vandalism or setting

Sabotage fire for fun
Workplace violence Protesters intruding into the plant
Theft (different
motivations) Bomb threats
Fraud Workplace drug crime
Product contamination Theft of confidential information
Infiltration by
adversaries computer hacking
 • Management issues includes
– security policy
– internal and external collaboration,
– incident reporting and analysis,
– employee and contractor training and security awareness,
– investigations of suspicious incidents and security breaches,
– Emergency response and crisis management
– Periodic reassessment

• Physical security
– Access control
– Perimeter protection („keeping intruders offsite“)
– Security officers
– Backup systems
– Other measures, such as entering post control etc

• Information, Computer and network security:

– Operations security
– Spoken information security
– Computer and network security
– Audits and investigation

Safety Accidents

Industrial Reason Impact

Accidents

 Terra  Inadequate  Release of Ammonia.

Industries indication of
Inc. Port Process condition  More then 20 employees
Neal, Iowa affected

 Chernobyl  Inadequate  $ 200 Billion

Nuclear knowledge of
Plant, process as well as  More then 1 Lakh people
Ukraine safety parameters affected

 Bhopal Gas  Negligence in safety  $ 500 Million

Tragedy,
India  More then 20,000 people
affected
 5. Safety – A necessity for Sustainable Development

Safety is must for Sustainable Development.

Safety means protection of :-

 Humans
 Plants & Machinery
 Surrounding Environment

• Gains obtained by ignoring safety aspects are for short terms and not
sustainable.
• Developing and providing Sustainable Technologies results in Sustainable
development and improved Profits.
• Safety is Efficiency:

 Safety Management = Risk Management

 Risk Control= Cost Control
 Cost Control = Efficiency
 Efficiency= Productivity
 Productivity = Profit
6. Tools ensuring Safety
 Risk Assessment
 HAZOP Study
 Effective Disaster Management Plan
 Generate Public awareness by involvement of local government, NGO’s and
public.

Tools Ensuring Plant Security

 Threat Analysis
 Vulnerability Analysis
 Assessment of Severity of Harm
 Mitigation & Emergency Plan

7. Conclusion:-

• Policy are in place but lacks implementation. It’s the time that principles
laid down must be transformed into action, action must deliver result and
progress towards result must be measurable.

 Be Aware, Be Alert, Be Alive