Category: chemicals

“We will trust but we will verify” – upcoming lessons from the Gulf of Mexico

The mass media is full of reports on legal action being taken on behalf of shareholders in BP over the continuing oil spill from the former Deepwater oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

An Australian video report was broadcast on 25 May 2010 and a composite article has appeared in The Australian on 26 May 2010 as well as elsewhere. Many outlets are mentioning the law suit (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and Robert Freedman v Anthony B Hayward et al, Court of Chancery for the state of Delaware, No. 5511) but no details of the suit are publicly available at the moment.

Although safety is mentioned as one of the bases for the suit, it is likely that environmental impact will get prominence over occupational safety and that impact on stock value will be of the most concern.   The shareholder outrage mentioned in some of the articles seems to focus mostly on the financial impact on BP share value rather than any moral outrage on environmental impact or dead and injured workers.

BP CEO Anthony Hayward has acknowledged the substantial  “reputational risk” but his comments are almost always reported surrounded by financial bad news.   Continue reading ““We will trust but we will verify” – upcoming lessons from the Gulf of Mexico”

BP, safety culture and integrity management

Tom von Aschwege has provided SafetyAtWorkBlog with a long article that was intended as a comment on recent articles concerning the safety culture of BP.  The comment deserved to be an article in order to provide more prominence to von Aschwege’s views.  Links, where appropriate, have been added and format has been tweaked.

“I came by Ross Macfarlane’s article totally by accident. I regret to say that I completely agree with him, because I have made some of the same, or very similar observations. I too am an ex-BP employee, and I too have a strong sense of dismay at what is occurring in the Gulf of Mexico.

Prior to retiring from BP in 2009, I worked in Integrity Management roles for 6 years in the BP deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GoM) organization.  In those 6 years we put massive amounts of time and effort into improving Integrity Management (IM) processes and practices for GoM operations – even more so after the 2005 Texas City accident, Thunder Horse listing incident, and Alaska pipeline failure.   I am thoroughly convinced that BP has done more and accomplished more in this area overall than any other GoM operator.   Yet somehow these things still happen in BP operations, and I wonder how that can be.   How can BP be so unlucky, and other GoM operators, with far fewer technical resources and knowledge, not have this happen to them? Continue reading “BP, safety culture and integrity management”

A personal insight into BP and the corporate approach to safety

Ross Macfarlane is a regular reader of SafetyAtWorkBlog and an active safety professional in Australia.  Below he provides his perspective on BP’s approach to safety as an ex-employee [links added]:

As an ex-BP employee I am again feeling a strong sense of dismay at what is occurring in the Gulf of Mexico.  The fact that BP appears to be deliberately distancing itself from Deepwater is a further shift from the radical openness policy that prevailed up until the Texas City disaster in 2005.

Prior to Texas City, BP was in the thrall of its charismatic CEO (then Sir John, now Lord Browne,) but since then, it seems to me, it struggles with its identity and its corporate culture.  In 2000, when I became a part of BP with Castrol, I was struck by what I saw as a “Cult of Lord Browne” – Continue reading “A personal insight into BP and the corporate approach to safety”

Casino smoking comes under a cloud

Crown Casino is a regulatory anomaly in many ways.   Smoking in workplaces has been a particularly difficult one for the casino.  When bans were first mooted the casino tried several control measures including air curtains between croupiers and smoking gamblers but the casino eventually agreed to be smoke-free, except in its high rollers venue, the Mahogany Room.

Now the poor air quality in that room is under threat due to one worker who, reportedly, seeking compensation for contracting lung cancer from her work activities.  According to a newspaper report four other employees are seeking relocation and have including the issue of smoking risks as one of the reasons.  Crown Casino has confirmed that smoking concerns have been raised. Continue reading “Casino smoking comes under a cloud”

Canadian research shows occupational link to breast cancer

“Certain occupational exposures appear to increase the risk of developing postmenopausal breast cancer”, is a conclusion reached by Canadian researchers and released in April 2010 edition of the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

The researchers acknowledged that “some findings might be due to chance or to undetected bias some findings might be due to chance or to undetected bias”, but there is enough evidence to generate concern in occupational sectors and, often, the media shows increased interest in breast cancer research.

Several Australian scientists have advised caution on interpreting the research findings.   Continue reading “Canadian research shows occupational link to breast cancer”

UV sunscreens and nanoparticle risks

Most of the discussion about the safety of nanoparticles is split in to the consumer end use of the products or the occupational hazards of their manufacture.  Safety managers, however, need to look at the potential risks of nanoparticles from consumer products that are used in the workplace.  New Australian research again focuses on sunscreens. Continue reading “UV sunscreens and nanoparticle risks”

Gas, lungs, ladders, fruit picking and concrete pumping – latest workplace incidents

The media on 11 March 2010 was reporting the discovery of a the body of a hotel worker in  a beer cellar of a Victorian hotel.  WorkSafe Victoria is investigating the possibility of carbon dioxide.

As with so  many cases of confined spaces, a second man was lucky to be alive after venturing into the cellar to check on the hotel worker.  The police report suggested that the second man was making a delivery to the hotel.

At such an early stage in the investigation and with so little detail,it is hard to say more than what WorkSafe’s Stan Krpan said in a media release this afternoon:

“With or without a gas leak or chemical exposure, limited means of entry and exit, poor air circulation, and working in confined spaces, is risky. Continue reading “Gas, lungs, ladders, fruit picking and concrete pumping – latest workplace incidents”

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