Human Error

• Fires, explosions, chemical leaks, and other incidents happen in the process industries
• Most common types of incidents ranked by frequency

  • Chemical leaks
  • Fires
  • Equipment failures
  • Over-filled vessels
• It is not uncommon in some industries, such as the chemical and electric utility industries, to experience new injuries or fatalities due to the same incidents
• Safety Myths or Not

  • Lightning never strikes twice in the same place
  • A drowning person always comes up for air three times
  • If your boat overturns, you should swim to shore
  • The first step in saving a drowning person is to swim to them
  • It is impossible to stay afloat in water for long with clothes on
  • Red is the hunter's best clothing color
  • Applying a tourniquet is the best way to stop bleeding
  • Numerous cups of coffee will sober up a drunk
  • The primary danger from leaking gas is asphyxiation
  • Rub snow on frostbite to make circulation return
• Industrial incidents have an eerie way of repeating themselves because organizations do not learn from the past
• All of the statements in Table 3-1 are false
• As people retire, move to other plants, or plants downsize, incidents of a similar type tend to recur within the same company at approximately 10-year intervals
• Attitudes and values


  Determine the meanings we find in what we observe
• Investigations of industrial accidents reveal that most are caused by human error
• Misleading beliefs that determine individual attitudes and values about accidents

  • It won't happen to me
  • My number's up
  • Law of averages
  • Macho concept
• Problems found at industrial sites

  • Unprioritized alarm signals
  • Malfunctioning equipment
  • Poor maintenance practice
  • Distant display and equipment control panels
  • Inadequate operator training
  • Poor communications
  • Inadequate or outdated procedures
• People react to facts differently
• The human side of safety was ignored with high costs
• Education helps to change their beliefs and values
• Chemical manufacturers have yet to get over the impact of Bhopal, which killed 3,800 and injured over 200,000
• Civil penalties (fines) modify their behavior
• It required 4.5 years and $970 million to clean up after the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident
• Nothing changes their beliefs or behaviors
• Long-term environmental and health impacts of Chernobyl continue to haunt Russia and her neighbors
• Railway Safety Act was being considered


  1893
• In the mornings the ladders are wet with dew
• Awareness


  Individuals should be made aware of the most frequent types of accidents and the causes of these accidents
• A railroad executive said it would cost less to bury a man killed in an accident than to put air brakes on a car
• Workers can miss their footing on a damp metal ladder and fall just two rungs to the deck and sprain an ankle
• Factual knowledge


  Misconceptions about safety and accidents exist because all the facts may not be known or presented
• To an alert and careful operator, accidents won't happen. But the opportunity for them to happen abounds, especially at night and in bad weather.
• The executive considered the safety of workers only in monetary terms
• Remaining accident causes


  • Distributed fairly equally among the other causes just listed
• It is important to have a general understanding of how and why accidents occur, how people are affected by accidents, and how to avoid them
• Accidents are expensive


  To successfully incorporate prevention in the workplace, management must be shown that accidents are more expensive than prevention
• A moral consideration for the lives of workers developed because of the number of accidental deaths and injuries
• The executive believed workers assumed liability when they hired on and it was their responsibility to be safe even in unsafe situations
• To develop and maintain an effective safety and health program, it is necessary to know the most common causes of death and injury and the parts of the body most frequently injured
• Costs associated with workplace accidents, injuries, and incidents

  • Lost work hours
  • Medical costs
  • Insurance premiums
  • Property damage
  • Fire losses
• Gradually compromises came about between the benefits and the costs of accident prevention
• Most frequent injuries to specific body parts

  • Back
  • Legs and fingers
  • Arms and multiple parts of the body
  • Trunk
  • Hands
  • Eyes, head, and feet
  • Neck, toes, and body systems
• There was a long, hard struggle to provide safeguards to eliminate or reduce accidents and the injuries and damages that result
• Calculating the direct cost associated with lost work hours

  1. Compile the total number of lost hours for the period

  2. Multiply the hours times the applicable loaded labor rate
• Many of the larger companies found the mutual consideration and compromise beneficial
• The back is the most frequently injured part of the body