Lax about safety standards in your plant? Get ready to pay heavy fines

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15  The Justic Department has reportedly fined MFG Chemical, Inc. $270,000 for a toxic release on April 12, 2004 of extremely hazardous chemicals at the company’s Dalton, Ga., plant. The toxic release resulted from a runaway reaction at the plant leading to an extreme increase in temperature and causing an explosion that released … Read more

Safety Guidelines-which ones do you follow?

We all have several safety guidelines in our plants.  Some are given as top management directives,  some are given out by the local authorities, some by the federal/higher government authorities like OSHA/ other  independent bodies like the US Chemical Safety Board  and some others are plant and process specific only.  Some of these are introduced, … Read more

Bayer Cropscience explosion update-CSB to hold public hearing

Recall that there was a large accidental explosion at the Bayer Cropscience facility in Institute, W. Virginia, on Aug 28, 2008. Details of this incident were reported by me in a post on this blog, you can refer it here. Now the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has announced that it will be … Read more

Meeting Safety Standards in Industrial Plants-what are the costs?

Running an industrial manufacturing plant in these days is tough.  First, you have to meet all the production and cost targets, whereas you are not allowed to hire more hands (due to the slowing economy), or to have any safety violations or incidents, nor any environmental issues. With shrinking budgets and an equally shrinking manpower, … Read more