– By Osama Hasan, BE Chemical ’12, School of Chemical and Materials Engineering
Safety is the first business when you enter any responsible industry anywhere in the world. Excessive emphasis and focus on safe and secure operations of an industry enables them to establish excellent trust, security of employees, and prevention of any major hazards. When I joined Engro Fertilizers as a graduate trainee engineer, this was the first milestone I encountered. With safety being a priority cardinal rule of the company, it ensures every employee takes good care of personal and peer safety in all their day to day activities. While looking around for a few safety posters for an assignment here, I came up with Simpson’s safety posters. So, below are the findings with their very important messages.
1. Wear Eye Protection
Eye protections are available at plants to secure eyes against high temperatures, gases, flying objects (not the UFOs, but tiny particles) and during special job assignments like welding or acid dosing. Eye protection goggles help you work safely and confidently with a clean and clear vision of the site.
2. Lockout/Tagout
Lockout/Tagout (also known as LOTO) is an industrial practice ensuring safety of both, personnel and equipment. This is followed in all cases when equipment is taken out of service or hazardous energy input to machine is restricted. The mechanical equipment (valve, lever, etc) or the electric switch is locked and tagged so that not only no one can operate it without due authorization and possession of keys to those locks, but people can also learn why that particular equipment is locked via the tags placed at site.
3. PASS the Fire
Fire is one of the most common industrial hazards possible at any industrial location in the world. Fire extinguishers offer immediate protection against a fire hazard when it is in its primitive stage. The operation of a fire extinguisher is learnt via word PASS, which tells you to 1) Pull the extinguisher key; 2) Aim at fire; 3) Squeeze the lever; and 4) Sweep on fire.
4. Safety Suits
A safety suit helps protect you against possible danger, so it’s a good idea to put one on before you commence any job with a safety risk. For example, while acid handling, fire fighting, workshop/maintenance work, an appropriate safety suit is important.
5. Emergency Role Statement
Since time to tackle an emergency at chemical production plants is very less, emergency role statement is important for plant operators. Rather than relying on any external help or guidelines, operations team members have to be capable enough to make a quick, right decision at the right time.
6. Look @ Labels
With chemical storage or warehouse facilities, it’s mandatory to label containers to avoid any misconception or misuse of the stored item that could result in a safety incident. Removing labels is a crime in any case, whatsoever.
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Images’ Source: safetyemporium.com
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