Round Table Environment Expert Zoom Meeting on “Industrial Safety and Environmental Disasters: Awareness and Practices”

April 30, 2023 (Sunday, 12 noon-1 pm)

• World Day for Safety and Health at Work is observed annually on 28th April to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally.
• Some important industrial accidents in recent years have been the Bhopal gas tragedy (1984), IOC oil depot fire in Jaipur (2009), Vizag gas leak (2020) and the chemical factory blast in Gujarat (2022).
• The Bhopal gas tragedy is considered among the world’s worst industrial disasters. Over 50,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas. Two thousand people died in the immediate aftermath with another 13,000 dying in the next 15 years. Around 1,20,000 people are still suffering from cancer, tuberculosis (TB), blindness (partial/complete), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and menstrual irregularities.
• The Vizag gas leak occurred at the LG Polymers chemical plant located on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam in the early morning of 7th May, 2020. The plant stored 2,000 metric tons of styrene in tanks, which were left unattended. The resulting vapor cloud spread over a radius of 3 km. Eleven people died and more than 1,000 fell sick after exposure to the gas. The styrene monomer must be stored at 20-22°C and it is believed that a computer glitch in the factor’s cooling system allowed temperatures in the storage tanks to exceed safe levels, causing the styrene to vaporize.
• A blast in chemical factory in Gujarat in 2022 killed 6 people.
• A fire broke out in the IOC oil depot in Jaipur in 2009.
• Such accidents can happen anywhere including hotels where boilers are used. If there is corrosion in the pipes, then there can be a blast which can also lead to fatalities and injuries within the hotel. So, regular check-up is very important.
• There must be regular maintenance in projects where hazardous chemicals are used. At least once in 6 months, a shutdown of that particular area and complete check-up should be done to see if there is any kind of corrosion or blockages, which can lead to any kind of industrial accidents.
• Often analysis is done after the accident has occurred. This is not the correct approach. Instead, we have to take proactive action rather than acting only after it happens. Hence, maintenance is very important.
• The person in charge of the factory must be held responsible. There should be a strict law by the Government of India on this across the country.
• The workers in Delhi Jal Board or any water utility are exposed to many types of incidents. 
• Many obnoxious gases are emitted from septic tanks, which can be fatal. 
• There are some standing standard operating procedures (SOPs), which should be followed by the workers, managers, supervisors because the laborers do not know the SOPs. Mitigation is the best procedure to avoid such accidents. The manager should ensure that SOPs are followed at all the working places irrespective of the type of work.
• If there is a gas leak, the face should be immediately covered with a wet cloth.
• There are lessons to be learnt from the past accidents: recognize the costs of workplace accidents, recog­nize the benefits of implementing an effective safety and health system, describe the elements of an effective safety and health management system and identify three methods to prevent workplace hazards.
• Direct costs of workplace accidents include cost of treatment, cost of physician and hospital, cost of medications and cost of medical equipment.
• Indirect costs of workplace accidents include schedule delays, lower morale, increased absenteeism, poor customer relations and re-training.
• An effective safety and health program increases worker investment, management commitment and allows employers to better manage their resources, personnel and environment.
• The benefits include improvements in product, process and service quality; better morale; improved recruiting and retention and more favorable image and reputation.
• The Government of India has notified the Occupa­tional Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code in 2020. It encourages employers to create a proactive approach for finding and fixing hazards in the workplace.
• A safety and health system has several elements: management leadership, workers participation, hazard identification and assessment, hazard prevention and control, education and training and program evaluation and improvement.
• Various action points have been defined to enhance management leadership. The first of these includes communicating your commitment to safety and health program. This can be done by a written safety and health policy statement signed by the top management. The policy should be communicated to all workers, contractors, unions, suppliers, customers, etc.
• The second action item in management leadership is to define program goals and expectations. This can be accomplished by establishing realistic, attainable and measurable goals that demonstrate progress toward improving safety and health. 
• The third action point in management leadership is allocation of resources by integrating safety and health into planning and budgeting. Allow time in workers schedule for participation.
• The fourth action item in leadership is expectation of performance. This requires defining and communi­-
  cating responsibilities and authorities for accounta­bility and setting an example for workers by following the same procedures.
• Action items have also been defined for participation of workers. The first action item is to encourage workers to report safety and health concerns. This requires establishing a process to report injuries and other safety and health concerns and empowering workers to temporarily to suspend work they feel is unsafe.
• The second is the encourage workers to participate in the safety program by providing positive rein­forcement to those who participate and maintain an open-door policy.
• All workers should be involved in all aspects of the program. 
• Giving workers access to safety and health infor­mation is the fourth action item in workers participation. For this, they need to be given information to understand safety and health hazards.
• Barriers for participation should be removed (action item 5). Workers from all levels of the organization should be able to participate regardless of their skill level, education or language. The policies and programs should not discourage worker participation.
• The action items for hazard identification include collection of existing information about workplace hazards, route inspection of the workplace (work­flow, equipment, materials using checklists), conduct
  incident investigations immedia­tely (root cause analysis), identify hazards associated with emer­gency and non-routine situation by assessing fore­seeable emergency scenarios. Table top exercises should be conducted to plan and test the response plan and procedures. Another action point in hazard identification is to characterize the nature of identified hazards, determine the controls to be implemented and prioritize the hazards for control.
• Action items have been also defined for hazard prevention and control. The first is to identify control options by reviewing literature, OSHA standards, NIOSH publications and also seeking inputs from workers, safety consultants. The other action items are selection of controls (by using hierarchy of controls); developing and updating a hazard control plan; selecting controls for emergency and non-routine operations; implementing selected controls in the workplace and doing a follow-up to confirm that the controls are effective by regular inspections and tracking progress and implementation.
• Hazard prevention and control protects workers from hazards, helps avoid injuries, illnesses and incidents; minimizes or eliminates safety and health risks and helps employers to provide safe and healthy working conditions.
• Education and training are important components of a safety and health system. Action points to accomplish this are providing training for program awareness to all managers, supervisors and workers including temporary workers on safety policies and procedures. The training should be given a language and literacy level that all workers can understand. Others include training workers on specific roles and responsibilities on safety and health management system and training workers on hazard identification and controls.
• The material safety data sheets should be displayed properly.
• For program evaluation and improvement, first verify that the program is implemented and is operating, i.e., the injuries are being reported, inspections are conducted and progress in controlling hazards is tracked. Then the program deficiencies need to be corrected along with identification of opportunities to improve.
• In manufacturing industries, the safety concerns of the workers are budget based by the management. In the health hazards the lower class of labor is most affected. Temporary labors do not have any health care facility. 
• A study of ASSOCHAM in 2009 states that more than 50% of IT industry professionals are not well. Many mental issues are there in service sector. In 2022, a study of World Health Organization (WHO) states that India’s population is 17% to 18% of the world’s population, but we have a lot of mental disease. 
• Work from home also adds to mental health. 
• A holistic approach is needed. It is not just a compliance issue. 
• Until and unless the health of people is managed properly, we are not going to get any benefit. 
• It is not only health loss, it is time loss, resource loss; it also gives a bad reputation.
• To prevent all these, it is required from top management that there is routine check-up, routine mock drills, awareness programs is followed everywhere by all including the contractual and subcontractual staff.
• A proper orientation program is essential. The worker should be given the proper training.

Participants: Dr Anil Kumar, Mr Vivek Kumar, Dr Dipankar Saha, Mr Pradeep Khandelwal, Mr RS Tyagi, Mr Lovekesh Chandra

Coronavirus Updates

India Covid-19 update: New cases drop below 10k

On May 18, 2023, India recorded 865 new cases of COVID-19, according to data from the Union Health Ministry. The active cases are now 9092. The daily positivity rate is 0.64% and the weekly positivity rate is 0.81%. Total recoveries are over 4,44 crore. The recovery rate is 98.79%. A total of 1,050 doses were administered in the last 24 hours. So far, 220.66 crore total vaccine doses have been administered in the country including 95.21 crore second dose and 22.87 crore precaution dose… (Source: Press Information Bureau, May 19, 2023).

Booster doses should now include only XBB variants

A WHO Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC) has said that the new COVID-19 booster doses should include only the XBB.1 variants that are the predominant strains currently in circulation, either the XBB.1.5 or XBB.1.16 variants. The Advisory Group also recommended against including the original SARS-CoV-2 strain in the new vaccines since it is no longer in circulation… (Source: WHO, May 18, 2023).

Identify red flag neurological symptoms in long Covid patients

New guidelines from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R) published in the journal Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation emphasize on identifying long COVID patients with red flag neurological symptoms such as sudden/progressive weakness or sensory changes, which could be indicative of an acute neurologic complication like stroke, Guillain-Barré syndrome or myopathy. The guidelines also suggest collaboration with physical, occupational and speech therapists so that the patient is better able to function independently… (Source: Medscape, May 18, 2023).

Post-heart transplant mortality

Adults who are recipients of a heart transplant from donors with active COVID-19 infection were more likely to die at 6 months (13.8%) compared to transplants from non-COVID donors or those who had a recently resolved COVID infection (4.9%). Similar trends for mortality were observed at 1-year post-transplant; 23.2% for recipients with heart transplants from donors with active COVID versus 9.2% for recipients with heart transplants from non-COVID donors… (Source: Medpage Today, May 17, 2023).

High-risk for long COVID in patients with obstructive sleep apnea

COVID-19 survivors who have obstructive sleep apnea are at 75% greater risk for developing long COVID than those who do not have sleep apnea, according to a study published in journal Sleep. Such patients need to be watched over carefully… (Source: NIH, May 11, 2023).

With inputs from Dr Monica Vasudev