OSHA fines Carlson Tool for fatality due to machine safety interlock bypass

Machine Safety Bypass Interlock

August 29,2016– The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has concluded that the bypassing of machine safety interlocks caused the fatality at Carlson Tool & Manufacturing in March 2016, after conducting an investigation. OSHA has issued a citation and a notification of a penalty of about $125,000. According to the citation this incident was not … Read more

Are integrated SIS/DCS systems better than standalone SIS DCS systems?

Lately, there have been many launches of new “integrated” control systems, that have both DCS and SIS systems in the same package. For those of you are not familiar with these terms, an SIS is short for “Safety Instrumented System“, which is a special kind of control system that is used for the safety critical … Read more

Static Electricity Hazards-Mere bonding and grounding may not be enough!

Continuing with our series on the US Chemical Safety Board accident investigation videos, we discuss today the most insidous and hidden hazards in the chemical processing industry-Static Electricity. Why is static electricity so hazardous in chemical plants?  Simply because many inflammable liquids (like most solvents), tend to accumulate static charges on their surface, especially  when … Read more

Use Gas Detectors to improve safety-lessons from an industrial accident

This post shows how easy it can be, to build-in safety into your plant, by using the right kind of gas detector. Continuing our “Case study” series, we show below how a simple gas detector, had it been installed, could have easily prevented a major industrial catastrophe. The video below show the US Chemical Safety … Read more