Tianjin Explosion

At first glance of the picture posted on the internet, its looks like something out of a science fiction story. The destruction is massive. After that, the first thing that come to my mind: chemical storage safety.

The accident location is at a chemical storage depot where imported chemicals are temporary stored before they are transported or distributed through the region. From the scale of the explosion and destroyed vehicle, one can expect the massive volume of chemicals stored. Death toll reach 112 with 90 still missing as of this posting today. With 700 reported injuries, damage of property, disruption of operation, law suit from the victim's family....the story will never end.

At Malaysia, under OSHA Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards (CIMAH) Regulation 1994 enforce the requirement for such storage facilities. CIMAH regulation enforce the registration of competent person, demonstration of safe operation, emergency plan, threshold quantity of stored substance etc. Even in the case if your facilities or factory does not store above the threshold quantity, proper safe storage practice should be implemented. Chemicals compatibility and storage ventilation are two areas that should be look into. Flammable and oxidizer chemical should not be stored together because their fumes can react with each other to cause fire or explosion. Storage should be separate using barrier or distance between each other. The ventilation should be adequate to remove contaminated air from accumulating in the storage area. A wall or ceiling exhaust ventilation should be installed in place.

One Small Step for Safety

Just conducted another OSHA course last week for my Diploma in plantation management students. I been doing this OSHA course for while and every session is unique by itself. I decided to post about the recent session because it caught my attention on the origin place of the participant. The OSHA course duration is 2 days and cover all the basic in OSH legislative and risk prevention. 

                                    

On the second day of the course, three participants come to me and ask: "Sir, can we finished the course at 3pm" (instead of the scheduled 5pm). I ask "what is the reason" curious to find out why. One reply "because have to catch the express boat, last one leaving at 3.30pm". A few of the participants are coming from rural district, which is accessible by river only. They basically took a 2 hours boat ride to Sibu town to attend the course and go back afterward. Most of them has never heard of OSHA and their right as worker under the law. 

Most of the male participants are plantation field conductor handling spraying, manuring and collection work. My greatest hope is after the course, they would have gain the knowledge and awareness to safe guard their own safety at their workplace. From there let them be example to other to follow. A small step in growing safety culture.