5.2 CHAPTER 5. THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Activity: Safety issues and risk assessments
Safety issues are important to consider when dealing with industrial pro-
cesses. Read the following extract that appeared in the Business reporton 6th
February 2006, and thendiscuss the questions that follow.
Cape Town - Sasol, the petrochemicals group, was likely to face pros-
ecution on 10 charges of culpable homicide after an explosion at its
Secunda plant in 2004 inwhich 10 people died, aCape Town labour
law specialist said on Friday. The specialist, who did not want to be
named, was speaking after the enquiry into theexplosion was con-
cluded last Tuesday. It was convened by the labour department.
The evidence led at theenquiry showed a failure on the part of the
company to conduct a proper risk assessment and that: Sasol failed
to identify hazards associated with a high-pressure gas pipeline run-
ning through the plant,which had been shut for extensive mainte-
nance work, in the presence of hundreds of people and numerous
machines, including cranes, fitters, contractors, and welding and cut-
ting machines. Becausethere had never been arisk assessment, the
hazard of the high-pressure pipeline had never been identified.
Because Sasol had failedto identify the risk, it didnot take any mea-
sures to warn people about it, mark the line or take precautions.
There had also been inadequacy in planning the shutdown work.
In the face of a barrageof criticism for the series of explosions that
year, Sasol embarked on a comprehensive programme to improve
safety at its operations and appointed Du Pont Safety Resources, the
US safety consultancy,to benchmark the petrochemical giant’s oc-
cupational health and safety performance against international best
practise.- Explain what is meant by a ’risk assessment’.
- Imagine that you have been asked to conduct a risk assessment of the
Sasol/Lurgi gasificationprocess. What information would you need to
know in order to do thisassessment? - In groups, discuss theimportance of each of the following in ensuringthe
safety of workers in thechemical industry:- employing experiencedSafety, Health and Environment personnel
- regular training to identify hazards
- equipment maintenance and routine checks
- What other precautions would you add to this list to make sure that work-
ing conditions are safe?