I noticed that API-14C recommends monitoring of 2-ppm (and higher) SO2 levels. I felt this was a really low threshold value for SO2 .

What surprised me further is that the Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health (IDLH) value for SO2 is 100-ppm…same as H2S!

Oxygen Deficient Atmosphere (<19.5%)

Source: Compressed Natural Gas Safety Bulletin, SB-2, 1992.

We all know that air is mostly nitrogen…79% to be precise. What may not be a common knoweldge is that colorless odorless Nitrogen has led to asphyxiation and fatalities and is a risk particularly for personnel working in confined spaces and personnel utilizing breathing air systems.

According to the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) research there were 80 nitrogen asphyxiation fatalities between 1992-2002. This translates to one nitrogen asphyxiation death every seven weeks. Approximately, 10% of fatalities were due to attempts to rescue person in confined spaces.

Take a look at the following video from Dominion Power:

While evaluating impact of a toxic release, you may be interested in how the concentration of the toxicant increases in a room and its impact on indoor personnel. For example, if there is a H2S release in the plant and you want to estimate the increase in concentration in a nearby office building.

I want to share a simple model to estimate indoor concentrations following an outdoor toxic release. [Read more…]

Earlier I had written about the use of RFID for tracking hazardous substances. One of the readers, Sujith, wrote to me that RFID can be a ignition source and thus pose a potential for fire/explosion.

As safety professionals, we are often required to consider value of life in decision making.

So, what is the economic value of a life? According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), it is $5.8 million [in 2010]. Click on the link below to read more…

I have always been fascinated by Apple products. Apple’s iPhone besides providing the “cool” touchscreen also lets developers create customized applications. Here are a few safety applications you may find useful:

I had been  away from writing blog posts for last 3 months or so…mainly because of my travel to S. Korea. I have also been kept busy working on adding advanced features to Risk and Safety site. I will unveil them in the coming few months.

RFID stands for Radio-Frequency IDentification. It is a small electronic device that consist of a chip (capable of carrying 2000 bytes of data) and an antenna.

A RFID device provides a unique identifier and serves the same purpose as a bar code on a consumer product or a magnetic strip on the back of a credit card.

Workplace Safety training is a big industry…every year companies are spending millions of dollars on training their employees.

I have always doubted the efficacy of repetitive and boring training sessions whether personal or virtual (Will your Refresher Training Work?). What is more surprising is that organizations are increasing their training budget without evaluating efficacy of their training program.

I recently came across a very interesting incident involving foam concrete.

Foam concrete is produced by mechanical mixing of foam prepared in advance with concrete mixture, and not with the help of chemical reactions. At the incident site, two workers were removing steelwork using angle grinders while the foam concrete was settling. There was an explosion injuring the two workers.

Foam concrete produces hydrogen which is highly flammable.

To know more about foam concrete hazards, click on the link below.

Health and Safety Alert on Foam Concrete Fire Hazards

Based on incident data in biodiesel facilities, I had written that the biodiesel industry in the US is experiencing an incidentevery two-and-a-half months, i.e. approx. 10 weeks.

Here are incidents following my May 2009 blog post on biodiesel incident frequency.

A friend of mine, Dr. Ben Thomas, recently forwarded me a video showing a man escaping incident in matter of seconds.

Surprisingly, many organization and professionals believe that safety can be achieved by common sense. Here is an excellent article from Kevin Jones’ Safety at Work blog about common sense and safety: