Just got off the phone with the owners of Shyne. An employee brought an unsafe electrical tool into a fire control area, caught a vessel of cleaning solvent (ethanol) on fire, panicked and removed the flaming container from the control room. That then caused a chain reaction resulting in a catastrophic fire.
These guys went above and beyond to make a safe extraction facility and a stupid mistake caused a serious issue.
They are heavily invested in that community (out in the middle of nowhere) and have multiple other facilities for post handling the extracted goods in operation and in build out, so this was a pretty big kick in the pants.
They are insured, although had recently decreased their coverage amount unfortunately, so this wasn’t some sort of insurance fraud, a fact the fire marshal corroborated.
They plan on rebuilding in some capacity once all the dust (ash) has settled. A good thing imo, as these guys are some of the best people I’ve encountered in the hemp space
im gonna assume an older model that was either having brushless motor issues (sparks flying in the housing) or a tool with a frayed chord. im also a fellow Kentuckian in the industry and there arent many of us left processing. what a shame. glad everyone was safe and sound.
That would be considered a failure to instill safety culture then. I don’t know how many labs I’ve gone into who think risk/hazard management and loss prevention are as simple as keeping a fire marshal satisfied at the onset of the project/facility build, but who don’t bother to instill safety etiquette whatsoever into their employees. Next thing you know you’ve got a plant full of operators who have never seen a SDS, don’t know which fire extinguisher to use in an emergency, can’t locate a spill kit or use it properly, who have never heard of a hot work tagout and have no documented training because they were immediately put to work on something they don’t understand. Training documentation is exactly what should get looked at in these incidents (frankly, a diligent insurance company will) - this would establish who is accountable for the staff not knowing better.
Of course no one means for these things to happen, but creating an environment where operators are working with hazardous materials but don’t understand the hazards enough to adhere to good lab common sense is plainly the responsibility of the owners.
Issues with safety culture internally are not ones a customer/client/business relation could be expected to be aware of. A common symptom of poor company culture is when people who work there or who have worked there are unsurprised when these incidents occur.
No matter how much you train someone or install safety practices there will be error in every setting. The real world is not a vacuum, people react strangely to different scenarios and you cannot expect them to operate in a perfect manner.
As someone that runs a decent sized team, you get constantly reminded that people make mistakes. That will never change.
sure, but saying “oh the employee made a mistake” doesn’t simply absolve the employer of responsibility, it sorta just looks like kicking accountability down the line. Saying accidents are always unavoidable is a very hand wavy response to a building blowing up.
I’m speaking more generally about any company - for all I know they have a hardcore QMS, risk management and training program. There are reasons training is formally documented and repeated periodically, there’s a reason why when there are small incidents quality assurance/engineering perform and document CAPA (corrective and preventative action). To establish a record of taking process safety seriously, and having a continuous improvement approach to safety.
Someone with a background in industrial loss prevention would look at this (or any case) and ask “was this just someone having a bad day in lab (i.e. momentary lapse in judgement or forgetfulness) or was this just the incident that the public actually got to observe? If it wasn’t this accident today, would it just have been some other accident tomorrow?.” That is what occurs in the industries you’re invoking when incidents occur.
All buzzwords and makework for the top brass… CAPAS especially. Those systems are just going to be overlooked as corporate bullshit IME, and just lets the higher ups CYA. They have no impact on safety or even quality of products as I have experienced in several “high quality organizations”. Do not rely on this to keep your labs safe.
Honestly big fucking signs over/on/beside doors work really well as safety reminders. Not boilerplate signs either, they need to be directly applicable. And having a mean ass dude/chick in charge of safety who provides detailed examples of safety fuckups in related industries and is willing to take people to task for safety errors, no friendsies.
Cant you just shut up and not reply if you arent adding anything of value?
You love to see someone seeing Cannachem for the recent college graduate with head so far up his ass he can see the diamonds being grown that he is.
Some folks love pretending so hard that this isn’t a public forum designed for asking questions.
If you got all the answers, why the fuck would you be here? Obviously, he doesn’t have all the answers, and is desperate to read the answers and claim he always knew.
I don’t think any one of the elements I mentioned above is the end all be all, but having them in place and employees who are cognizant of those systems and who have had some form of structured, documented training is a symptom of a company that has some sort of quality/safety culture.
Its like how no contraceptive is 100% - true as it may be, that’s not a very good reason to just never wrap your shit lol.
What you described above is a form of safety culture and therefore would be considered a risk management program, even if its an informal as printing out some signs and appointing someone to enforce safety policies. Having a safety coordinator, signage, plant turnarounds, predictive/preventative equipment maintenance and accountability are all elements of risk management. Involving employees in HAZOPs, CAPAs, safety audits, periodic retraining are also elements of a risk management system.
Cringe - EIT isn’t bragworthy, you know as well as I do you either have a PE or don’t. FE is just undergrad content, and passing it doesn’t carry any license/meaning other than you’re allowed to take part 2.
Think back on the engineering ethics section - are you representing our craft in a positive way by being vane and condescending to strangers? How any one engineer acts reflects poorly on us all, which is why we’re supposed to respect the profession.
funny
on an ai 7.5 T.T
