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May/June 2023 issue

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Review

Human Factors in the Chemical and Process Industries

Open-access content Monday 23rd January 2017
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

book-review-human-factors-in-the-chemical-and-process-industries-content

Rating:

Examples abound; every chapter has a summary of key points plus a list of supporting references.

S IV -- Understanding and improving organisational performance -- is applicable to other sectors, covering subjects such as organisational change, staffing and workload, competence, supervision, safety-critical communication and performance under pressure.

The summary of ideas to aid employees and their families planning a move between countries is a tool that could be used by any organisation with multinational operations. Other sound advice includes human factors for investigators, dimensions for seated workstations, including distance to a back wall -- which I've not seen illustrated elsewhere -- and managing fatigue. I especially liked the section on "fatigue proofing", which recognises that, due to factors beyond an organisation's control, the risk of a person not working sometimes outweighs the risk of them working with fatigue impairment, and suggests how to manage that risk.

One small area of concern is in ch 4, referring to regulators' activities in the EU, where the terms inspection and auditing are contrasted. The authors suggest that the latter is less in-depth. That might be correct in the specific context but it could be misleading if applied more widely, say to management systems, such as the draft ISO 45001. For such systems, inspection is an element of planned monitoring for compliance with defined standards, while audit is an in-depth examination of a process or system, to identify improvement opportunities, not just compliance -- though, sadly, compliance is sometimes all auditors and auditees are looking for.

This book is an excellent compendium of theory, examples and tools. It is a valuable addition to the personal library of experienced OSH professionals and those seeking to develop their competence in human factors and ergonomics. The section on technical and non-technical competencies meshes well with IOSH's Blueprint tool for planning the next steps in your professional development.

You may also be interested in...

 Redgrave’s Health and Safety Ninth edition

Wednesday 15th February 2017
Rating: Following the style and structure conventions of most legal books, it begins with lists of laws. The first 80 pages comprise tables of the key acts, regulations and EU law as well as an alphabetical index of cases.
Open-access content

 Working through: cancer

Thursday 2nd February 2017
Around 330,000 adults in the UK are diagnosed with cancer every year. Half of them now survive at least ten years and many – up to 84% of those working when they receive their diagnosis – return to work. Two-fifths of employees with cancer have to make changes to how they work, and almost half move jobs or leave work altogether.
Open-access content

 Deepwater Horizon

Wednesday 15th February 2017
The director does a fair job of conveying for a lay audience the technological complexity of a dynamically positioned rig drilling in 1,500 m water depth. This includes the reality that many on board know only about the parts that directly affect their work. Also included is the irony of the special visit by senior onshore BP staff to celebrate the rig’s “outstanding seven-year safety record”, while the Transocean and BP drilling personnel struggle to understand exactly what’s happening in the vital well-integrity test.
Open-access content

 PPE guide: EN 388: a cut above

Monday 16th January 2017
The revised EN 388 standard, which was released in November 2016, is intended to bring the standard for safety gloves up to date with developments in cut resistant fibres.EN 388 determines a protective glove’s performance against four primary hazards:
  • blade cuts
  • punctures
  • tears
  • abrasion.
The results of tests for these factors are then translated into the performance rating of the gloves – a number from zero to four for puncture, tear and abrasion, and zero to five for cut resistance.
Open-access content
Pulsar-Nova-45-sound-level-meter.

 High recognition for sound level meter

Monday 9th January 2017
Having passed a series of gruelling tests, the Pulsar Nova 45 sound level meter was awarded its certificate and now belongs to an exclusive club of just a few meters officially recognised for their high accuracy against international standards.  This is a tremendous recognition for a product that was launched only a few years ago.
Open-access content
©TOTAL UK/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock

 Engineer demands ‘expert review’ into North Sea rig safety

Wednesday 8th February 2017
Neil Rothnie outlined his concerns after reading the findings from a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) report into the Elgin offshore rig, run by Total E&P UK and situated 240 km east of Aberdeen.The industry expert says the report had revealed problems with high-pressure gas leaks on the rig since 2001 and repeated failures to deal with the risks.
Open-access content
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