OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Occupational Health And Safety Quality Management



Occupational Health And Safety Quality Management

Introduction

Safety and health issues are an important concern throughout the world. Employees who work in the United States and out of the states need to feel safe and obtain a sense of security. Before 1970, there were no regulations for safety hazards in the workplace, and no accountability for accidents which occurred on the job. Companies controlled the workforce and the environment. The passing of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) changed the future for employees. The law gave protection to workforce and forced employers to provide a safe and healthy workplace, plus created accountability.

This paper discusses the following four accidents in recent years in the process industries:

The explosion in Shell's Pernis oil refinery in Holland (20 January 1968)

The unintended formation and release of a few kg of the super-toxin at Icmesa Chemical Company's works at Seveso (10 July 1976)

The release of some 30-40 t of toxic methyl isocyanate vapour at Union Carbide India Ltd's pesticide factory at Bhopal (2/3 December 1984)

The Piper Alpha disaster, (6 July 1988)

Case studies

Shell Pernis Refinery - Netherlands

Hot oil and water emulsion in oil refinery slop tanks at Shells Pernis refinery in the Netherlands reacts with volatile portion of hydrocarbon slop, causing violent vapor release and boilover. Ensuing refinery fire rages over 30 acres. Two killed, 85 injured. At the refinery, two wax cracking units, a naphtha cracking unit, a sulfur plant, and 80 storage tanks are destroyed or damaged. Off-premises damage occurs as far as 9.5 miles from the site. Total estimated financial losses range from $97 million to more than $120 million.

Dioxin release at Seveso

The Seveso experience was essentially about dread - an emotion mobilized by involvement of the chemical dioxin. Dioxin first came to widespread public notice during the Viet Nam War, when it was identified as a component of the defoliant Agent Orange (Hay 1982). Previously, campaigns on behalf of agricultural and forestry workers had been mounted to have TCP banned because of its alleged toxic effects on humans. These frequently met with scientific disapproval, partly because the evidence was only "anecdotal." The United Kingdom's regulatory system was particularly unsympathetic to such claims.

The Bhopal disaster

On December 3 1984, more than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, immediately killing at least 3,800 people and causing significant morbidity and premature death for many thousands more. The company involved in what became the worst industrial accident in history immediately tried to dissociate itself from legal responsibility. Eventually it reached a settlement with the Indian Government through mediation of that country's Supreme Court and accepted moral responsibility. It paid $470 million in compensation, a relatively small amount of based on significant underestimations of the long-term health consequences of exposure and the number of people exposed. The disaster indicated a need for enforceable international standards for environmental safety, preventative strategies to avoid similar accidents and industrial disaster ...