Safety fatalities

In recent years, however, the usage of TMAH in the semiconductor industry raised serious concerns over industrial hygiene and safety. Fatal damage to nerves and muscles upon dermal contact with TMAH has been reported [35,36]. Therefore its usage should be prohibited and more benign clean chemicals used in the industry. 

Railroads require work outdoors and involving heavy moving machinery, which clearly pose a greater risk than working in an office. However, railroad workers face job risks which are at the lower end of the scale when a comparison is made with a peer group of other transportation modes such as trucking, aviation, and the maritime industry. There is also evidence of great improvements in worker safety. Fatality rates have fallen by a third, and injury rates by two-thirds since 1980. 

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (1994). Rail-Highway Crossing Safety Fatal Crash and Demographic Descriptors. Report DOT-HS-808-196. Washington, D.C. U.S. Government Printing Office. 

The safety triangle shows that there are many orders of magnitude more unsafe acts than LTIs and fatalities. A combination of unsafe acts often results in a fatality. Addressing safety in industry should begin with the base of the triangle trying to eliminate the unsafe acts. This is simple to do, in theory, since most of the unsafe acts arise from carelessness or failure to follow procedures. In practice, reducing the number of unsafe acts requires personal commitment and safety awareness. 

A fatal accident and some other disasters, which were caused by small cracks, lead to a more strict consideration of the security of these steam drums. Parallel to these the economical pressure, due to the globalisation of the today s industry, lead to the increase of the pressure and the rotation speed of the paper production machines for a higher output of the production, which means, that all safety aspects from the design and the material will be exploited totally. On the other hand cast iron is also not a ductile and comfortable material, like the most steels for the pressure equipment. 

The MSDS (46) for thiophosgene describes it as highly toxic, corrosive lachrymator and moisture sensitive compound. It may be fatal if inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin. When using this material one should wear the appropriate NIOSH/OSHA-approved respirator, chemical-resistant gloves, safety goggles, and other protective clothing. It should be used only in a chemical fume hood. 

Inhalation. The threshold limit value of HCN is 4.7 ppm. This is defined as the maximum average safe exposure limit for a 15-min period by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Exposure to 20 ppm of HCN in air causes slight warning symptoms after several hours 50 ppm causes disturbances within an hour 100 ppm is dangerous for exposures of 30 to 60 min and 300 ppm can be rapidly fatal unless prompt, effective first aid is adininistered. There is always a small concentration of cyanide (0.02 to 0.04 mg/L) in the blood, and the body has a mechanism for continuous removal of small amounts, such as from smoking, by converting it to thiocyanate, which is discharged in the urine. 

At 6 30 A.M. on June 21, 1970, fifteen railroad cars, including nine cars carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), derailed in the town of Crescent City, Illinois. The derailment caused one of the tanks to be punctured, then release LPG. The ensuing fire, fed by operating safety valves on other cars, resulted in ruptures of tank cars, followed by projectiles and fireballs. No fatalities occurred, but 66 people were injured. There was extensive property damage. 

In this study detailed fault trees with probability and failure rate calculations were generated for the events (1) Fatality due to Explosion, Fire, Toxic Release or Asphyxiation at the Process Development Unit (PDU) Coal Gasification Process and (2) Loss of Availability of the PDU. The fault trees for the PDU were synthesized by Design Sciences, Inc., and then subjected to multiple reviews by Combustion Engineering. The steps involved in hazard identification and evaluation, fault tree generation, probability assessment, and design alteration are presented in the main body of this report. The fault trees, cut sets, failure rate data and unavailability calculations are included as attachments to this report. Although both safety and reliability trees have been constructed for the PDU, the verification and analysis of these trees were not completed as a result of the curtailment of the demonstration plant project. Certain items not completed for the PDU risk and reliability assessment are listed. 

A Caution Hydrogen fluoride and fluorine are dangerous materials. Exposure to them will cause severe, painful, and perhaps fatal injury. Exposure may not be evident for several hours. The procedures described here pose the risk of exposure to hydrogen fluoride and to elemental fluorine and should only be carried out by, or under the direct supervision of, qualified professionals. Qualified first aid treatment and professional medical resources must be established prior to working in the area. Prompt treatment is necessary to reduce the severity of damage from exposure and should be sought immediately following exposure or suspected exposure. Material safety data sheets are available from HF and fluorine suppliers. Their recommendations should be followed scrupulously. 

Worldwide traffic fatahties have increased due to the motorization juggernaut sweeping the Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) economies and other countries. Traffic accidents can only be reduced by the concerted efforts of people, cars, and society as a whole. The introduction of seat belts had a positive impact on lowering passenger fatalities and the introduction of air bags among other safety developments in motor cars is expected to reduce this further. 

The exact role of rituximab in RA is not clearly defined, but it is indicated for patients with moderate to severe RA with a history of inadequate response to DMARDs and other BRMs. Rituximab carries a black-box warning of fatal infusion reactions and severe mucocutaneous reactions even though these events did not occur during the RA clinical trials. The benefits of rituximab must be tempered against the safety concerns reported with use of rituximab in the oncology setting. 

For accidents affecting process plant buildings, the potential for serious or fatal injury to building occupants is the foremost concern. Additionally, in cases where buildings house critical controls or equipment, proper design and siting may also help reduce indirect safety impacts (e.g., due to loss of process control), as well as business interruption costs and property loss from such events. 

These process safety management systems help ensure that facilities are designed, constructed, operated, and maintained with appropriate controls in place to prevent serious accidents. However, despite these precautions, buildings close to hazardous process plants have presented serious risks to the people who work in them. This observation is prompted by the fact that some buildings, because of their design and construction, have collapsed when subjected to comparatively moderate accidental explosions, with serious injury or fatality to the occupants. Conversely, experience indicates that personnel located outdoors and away from such buildings, if subjected to the same blast, may have a lower likelihood of serious injury or fatality. 

The Fire at Hickson Welch Ltd." A report of the investigation by the Health and Safety Executive into the fatal fire at Hickson fit Welch Ltd., Castleford on 21 September 1992. HSE Books 1994. 

NIOSH. 1985a. Fatal accident circumstances and epidemiology (FACE) report Two sanitation employees die in confined space in Kentucky, August 24, 1985. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Division of Safety Research, Morgantown, WV. Report no. FACE-85-44. NTIS publication no. PB91-197848. 

---