The weak link in toxic, hazardous chemical safety
Direct employees might be ingrained with an operation’s safety protocol, but what about its contractors & subcontractors?
Regardless of the industry, if hazardous chemicals are on a job site, the chance for accidental release is present if they aren’t properly controlled, which lifts the possibility of a potential disaster.
To combat deaths and injuries from industrial accidents, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires businesses that deal with a volume of hazardous chemicals at or above a threshold set by the administration must develop a process safety management program that follows a list of requirements from OSHA.
“These 14 components are a list of smart things you have to do to make sure bad things don’t happen. They are simple things like having a written plan, a way to store and compile information and hazard analysis,” explains Jeff Muto, chief marketing and strategy officer for Veriforce, LLC. “One thing interesting to us: they specifically call out contract workers. That is where the market feels the most pain.”
Per OSHA, written provisions for contractor safety include evaluating a contractor’s safety performance before starting a project. Once a contractor passes clearance requirements, the company is responsible for informing the contractor of potential risks and health hazards. The contractor then must relay that information to the contracted team and train them appropriately.
Fines are levied against companies that are found out of compliance with safety regulations, with the charges reaching as high as $130,000 for repeat or willful violations, according to Muto.
“The financial implications aren’t in the fines. The big financial implications are in the incidents,” he says, giving as an example the 1984 Bhopal Disaster, which is one of the worst industrial accidents and involved a gas leak at a pesticide plant in India. The ensuing blast caused an immediate death toll of more than 2,000, while in excess of 500,000 people were exposed to toxic methyl isocyanate gas.
Reaching contractors, subcontractors
“In work environments with a mix of employee and contractor workers, a disproportionate number of safety incidents are attributed to contractors,” Muto says. “Not to paint that population in a bad light, but most times these incidents occur as a result of an individual making a mistake doing something they’re insufficiently trained to do safely.”
In order to best this challenge, organizations must first identify the companies that are working for them, including any subcontractors that might be coming to a site.
“You might have companies sending workers out to a job site that you don’t even have a contract with because it has been ‘subbed’ out,” he says. “Then you have someone showing up that represents a company that you didn’t even know existed in your ecosystem.”
The second, and similar step, is to identify the individual people that will be on a worksite, including those that might be with a subcontractor.
Once the first two steps are taken, the next step is to leverage technology to make sure all of the workers on a job site are up-to-date on safety practices, permit requirements and any changes to PSM programs.
“I can broadcast those changes to all contractors and subcontractors on my platform, and I can have them submit a roster of workers in advance. Now I have the ability to not just have those workers say they reviewed the changes, but they understand them,” he says.
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