It's
been more than 36 years since 1984 when India faced major industrial accident
in which more than 3500 people died and 10000 affected with methyl
isocyanate (MIC). That was the time, when industries was not having many safety
devices compared to present days. The automation and programmable logic control
has made running industry efficient and safe. Nowadays the use of artificial
intelligence is helping enginners in decision making while troubleshooting and
normal operations.
Yesterday Indian industries faced four accidents;
1. Polymer industry; Styrene gas leak in Vizag.
2. Chattisgarh paper meal gas inhalation.
3. Tamilnadu Boiler explosion.
4. Fire into Nashik based industry.
5. 19 migrating labour died on track as goods train passed
over them.
In most cases they were performing start up activities post
long lockdown.
When the plant runs normal or
work goes without accident no one cares. Most of the times people consider
safety as “too much safety”. But even a small mishandling or unsafe action may
leads to fatal or accident.
Whatever the work is and how
important it is, even a small safety practice / device / measure has to be
followed or implemented. This can save life, machines and lot of money.
Our
70% power is supplied by Thermal Power plants, of which the first plant
commissioned in 1920; still we are experiencing Explosion in Boilers. Boilers
are very critical to operate when it comes to pressure control and furnace
control. If the three element control is bypassed for any reason the whole
safety of boiler gets bypassed. One can control everything manually, but at a
time one man can control only one thing / few parameters / a section of plants.
Major accidents in boiler are due to
1. Failure of Safety devices.
2. Failure of material of construction.
3. Error in operations.
Let's consider the case of
Paper mill. As such paper mills are very safe to operate; only sections which
are having gases are either chlor-alkali units or pulp digestion and bleaching
sections. Anyhow only suspicious gas seems to be chlorine in this case.
Though the severity is less and
the cleaning was only undergoing, it clearly indicates the failure to fulfill
shut down checklist or post shut down checks. Such short cuts always plays
important roles in delayed start up activities.
It is shipped as monomer with a
dissolved inhibitor. Substances which are to be avoided include strong acids,
aluminium chloride, strong oxidizing agents, metallic salts, polymerization
catalysts and accelerators. A considerable distance to ignition source is
needed. The possibility of reduction in concentration of oxygen in air as a result of large volume of styrene vapour in atmosphere might be reason behind deaths or breathing difficulties.
How the styrene gas leak has happened needed to be studied.
State run Shramik (Labour)
express has started with limited capacity, the mode of transfer to reach
stations is not enough and clearly stated. No one's failure it's just a fate /
coincidence.
Safety is important, to keep
ourselves safe from accidents. It should never be bypassed and any process or
system alarm to be acknowledged and necessary action to be taken without fail
so as to keep plants running safely.
Personal and respiratory safety
/hygiene is important to keep ourselves safe from Covid-19. Stay at home and
Stay Safe.
- Tushar
