An evening at Joint Management Body Flat office.

'I'm an experienced building supervisor!!! You know nothing!! It's not JMB problem!!', Mr. A raised his voice. I was shocked, hardly believed what I've just heard. Why on earth suddenly he changed his tone in that manner. There's no point arguing something that's already written in the law. I just asked him to install necessary guard at the moving parts of the lift machine, in order to prevent any accident occurring.  But hey, for me as you are the so called 'experienced building supervisor' then you should know better. It's part of the safety concerns, not only to him but also to the public.

This particular machine, as far as I'm concerned is under JMB property. Therefore it is under the JMB responsibility to maintain and to operate as far as practicable safe, not only for human lives, but also towards the properties.
Don't think that as so called 'experienced building supervisor', you are above the law. Don't think that your job is just to collect maintenance fees and to receive complaints, you are also obligated to practice safety and health in your respected office. Cause you're running the place for god sake!! You know where and what that always broken or malfunction. You know where to look at and what to look at.
He is Mr. A. , a guy who are so stubborn and who can't abide with law. Come on experienced building supervisor man, it's just a guard. I'm not asking you to change the lifts.
It is enough for me, after his showdown of stubbornness, I, calmly and in a very slow tempo of my talk, trying to make his stupidity stop, but I've failed. He's indeed were way to ego to let down his guard.
Then I asked for his manager. He was proudly said that his manager won't talk to a simple guy like me. Then I  said, don't let your silliness clouds your brain, just give me your manager phone number. He agreed, and ask me to leave. Then I left the ghetto, with a phone number in my hand. Without wasting any time, I lodged a complaints towards the so called experienced building supervisor man. Weeks later I heard that he was transferred to another office. Served him well.

New employees more prone to workplace accidents

PUTRAJAYA: New employees are more likely to get involved in accidents at their workplaces as compared to their senior colleagues.

Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Noraini Ahmad said this was because many of these employees are eager to please their bosses. In addition, they are usually also excited about their new jobs.

"We have found that many of those involved in workplace accidents in Malaysia have been working for less than six months after finishing school or graduating.

"Maybe they are excited about getting their first salaries and are eager to follow their bosses' orders, including doing dangerous tasks without any thought to their safety.

"That's why it is important for us to start promoting awareness about occupational safety and health issues in schools," she told reporters Friday after a press conference on OSH Week here.

Noraini however said that the scenario was reversed in developed nations where many of those involved in workplace accidents were those about to retire.

"In Japan and in Scandinavian countries, where there are fewer young people, employees have to work until their 60s so they face dangers from failing eyesight and less mobility," she said, adding that as a rapidly developing country, Malaysia was heading towards that trend.

Noraini said Malaysia also hoped to halve its rate of workplace accidents at six cases for every 1,000 workers by the year 2020.

"At present, the manufacturing sector records the highest number of workplace accidents, which is where we have most of our workers. However, the construction sector sees the highest number of fatalities," she said.

Noraini said OSH Week, which runs from Monday until Friday at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, also aimed to promote awareness of occupational safety among women workers.

"Most women work in service and electronic sectors, where they are required to handle detergents and chemical solutions that may pose a risk to their reproductive system. Similarly, they come into potential harm using pesticides in farms," she pointed out.

Below is the fatal accidents graph involving workers in year 2009. Death toll illustrated mostly came from building construction sector.

Petronas Blaze

Six hurt in Bekok C blaze
Six people have been hurt in a fire on board the Petronas Carigali-operated Bekok C platform, about 200 kilometres off Peninsular Malaysia.
The fire started just after midnight today but was contained by an emergency response team working on board the platform, Petronas said in a statement.

The six injured crew have been taken to the Kuala Terengganu hospital for treatment, while the remaining 102 personnel have been evacuated to nearby platforms.

The Star newspaper reported that one of the injured workers was later sent to the ICU after his condition deteriorated.

The paper also reported Chief Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Said visited the workers and said they were traumatised over the incident.

“They said sparks from one of the maintenance valves could have caused the fire. They were all panic-struck but were thankful there were no fatalities,” he said.

Bekok C platform was undergoing a scheduled shutdown for planned maintenance at the time of the incident.

An internal investigation into the incident is under way.

The Bekok C platform was said to have been in operation since the 1980s.

Bekok is an oil and gas discovery neigbouring the giant Tapis field. Gas from Bekok is understood to be exported via Tapis production facilities to Peninsular Malaysia.

A trade source told Reuters that Petronas could lose around 100 barrels of light sweet crude for export per month due to the fire, but how long this might continue is not clear.

"It's one of the fields linked to Tapis production, but it's not a major field," the source said.

Published: 14 December 2010 06:10 GMT | Last updated: 15 December 2010 06:28 GMT

Dust Collector Explosion

The said Dust Collector

BUTTERWORTH: A dust-collecting machine at the factory of a manufacturing company blew up yesterday, shattering the roof and sending debris flying at the Prai Industrial Estate near here.
The blast at Excel Rim Sdn Bhd was also believed to have damaged buildings within 100m of the factory.

The factory, making motorcycle wheel rims, was badly damaged.


Eight of the 70 employees were injured in the explosion, said state Fire and Rescue Department assistant director Mohd Razam Taja Rahim.


"Locals and Nepalese were among the victims. Four have been sent to Bagan Specialist Centre here while the other four were sent to Seberang Jaya Hospital."

Razam said they were alerted at 10.20am. Seven fire engines and 33 firemen were sent to fight the blaze.


Thirty volunteer firefighters from around Seberang Prai also helped the firemen.

Razam said the cause of the explosion and the company's losses were still being investigated.

Impact from the explosion, affecting opposite factory.

Lumut Power Plant

My blog writing is stalled for a while due to work urgency. I've been in Lumut for couple of days for a certificate of fitness extension program which is requested by Lumut Power Plant aka Teknik Janakuasa Sdn Bhd who are operating and maintaining the plant.
In this case, Risk Base Inspection or RBI is used in order to fulfill the cf extension requirements and procedures. On top of that, they would learned and achieved a whole new level of productivity and quality as well as their skills.
In applying for the extension, they would undergo a lot of paperwork, studying processes, water quality, emission, cost and a lot of things to consider upon.
Other than that, they would need to do a marvellous record keeping and tracking for all the equipments so that any defects arises can be monitored and counter measures can be taken accordingly. Defects like corrosion, erosion, creep, oxygen pits, and others are to be monitored and evaluate by metallurgists as well as corrosion engineer/s. Furthermore, a proper monitoring and evaluation of the equipments is very crucial for the plant survival and running period. Well this Lumut Power Plant is the largest Combined Cycle Power Plant in Malaysia with a total capacity of 1953 MW. It consists of 3 blocks of combined cycle power plant, each with a capacity of 651 MW. For each block, there are 3 gas turbine-generator units, 3 HRSG and 1 steam turbine generator unit. Also, there are a lot of auxiliary equipments such as cooling towers, valves and etc. Although they have a long equipments list, they have never left safety behind. They've developed a 600 HIRARC only for this purpose which covers repairing and commissioning.
That's all for now. Just a brief overview how they do it.

Planting A Tree

Everyone have a goal to achieve. A vision and mission to fulfill. Nothing matters the most than achieving what is already stated in everyone's mind whether in life or in the line of work.
It's a satisfying moment of pleasure for someone to reach for the sky and they can really touch it. It's a smell of victory. Smell that so sweet. No one can really say anything about it. It's an experience only the person himself can feel it.
A pleasure in the line of work. Sort of gratitude, sort of an outstanding performance, sort of achieving the imposibble. Making an impossible things to a possible, achievable, reachable target.
When this happens one's vision to achieve more would grew in the very soul of the achiever. A soul that demand for more success.
In this very bitter pathetic life, everyone wanting some victory in themselves. It's not to be arrogant about it or brag beyond annoying state, it's like a gift of pleasure and confident to do more. A motivational towards people's thinking.
It's a hard thing to find in one's attitude, the aggresiveness of eagerness to be successful. Not all people can do what they think can do. Dreaming in reaching for the sky is quite easy, but then the path to gain the sweetness of success it's not easy as it seem.
Therefore, hardworking, commitment, anticipation and all the great added values is needed. Another thing is REZKI, no one can tell, how, when, why this particular success is possible. It's a gift from god.
And for these, I'm very thankful to HIM. Really deepest thanks to my success to be selected for the award. Award for best job performer throughout the year of 2009.
People say I'm a newbie to receive this distinguish award. Well, no one can blame them. Like I said before, it's a gift plus all the added value and also the most important thing is target. Without target, there's no destination to go, no path to take, no plan to execute. Target, vision and mission gives out the motivational value within one's mind and their way of thinking. That's why I'm sharing these. I bet all the billionaires did the same.

Eagle's Eye View West Side of Penang

What an astonishing view. A view that only can be described by photograph. It'll need a thousand words just to describe the sky.
I've never seen this panorama in Penang before eventhough I've stayed here for a while. A beautiful Malaysia it is.
This picture was taken from a rooftop of a apartment in Mount Erskine, which my job requires me to be here.



It seem that, only in seconds, shadow already over the area. This is not special effect or super impose. It's real. No doubt about it.


At the far left, there's a luxury condominium is under construction. Seem to me that, there's gonna be an addition in lifts or elevators database as the project consists of, may be there are 4-6 lifts will be installed there. If I'm not mistaken.


Far ahead, there lies Bukit Mertajam in mainland.


The tallest building can be seen from here, KOMTAR.

Funny Safety Pics

I first started giving out talks in safety about a year ago,.. mostly about regulations and sometimes I would add funny pictures to avoid boredom of my fellow audience.
It seem that, well,... in their faces when they saw the pictures that safety culture is still far away to grab, but hey it's a challenge.
In order to make this country a developed country, safety culture is part of it. So, what is the relations between developed country and safety? Let me put it this way... imagine that, in a big companies which always have an accident occurs involving its employee, would, at least lost its profit due to,....
Firstly, the injured employee would take a medical leave which recorded as lost time injury, secondly, if the employee is not fit enough to do the same routine job, the company would bare the cost to train a new employee. Doesn't it cost more rather than invest for safety for the sake of the employees and company profit?
Know this, that accidents is like an iceberg, you can only see certain part of it, you'll never know what the hidden cost is. That' why accidents are costly.
On top of that, who's gonna support his family if the employee is dead? What about income per ca-pita which our government urge it's citizen to increase their revenue? Think about it.

This welder do not wear an appropriate personal protective equipment. Just imagine the spark from the welding rod jump off and hit his face. What would happen?


This picture was taken a long time ago. Do not know when is the exact date. These were the construction workers of World Trade Center in New York. There were no safety harness put on by these fellows.


Can a brick act as your safety helmet?


Take safety for granted aye?


What a superhuman strength...gosh..

First Restaurant Convicted

This article was extracted out from WSH Bulletin. Do read the article, negligence of safety will cost you more.
Don't think that investments in safety would give out loss of profit. Do think that, this is an investment for not making a bigger losses. It's like a preventive measures.
Risks assessment, standard operation procedure, safe working procedure and safety induction can be done easily. Do take safety seriously, you'll not know when and where accidents would strike. Contribution and commitment from top management would ensure the safe workplace for workers. On top of that, losses can be avoided. Just a simple procedures and awareness needed.


Raffles Marina Ltd was fined $80,000 today for its failure to take reasonably practicable measures to ensure workplace safety and health, thereby contributing to the death of a worker on 29 May 2009. Raffles Marina Ltd is the first restaurant to be convicted under the WSH Act since it was extended to cover restaurants from 1 March 2008.

About the case

The incident happened on 29 May 2009 at Marina Bistro Coffee House located at 10 Tuas West Drive. The worker was a senior steward employed by Raffles Marina Ltd. The worker was likely to have either slipped due to the slippery floor or fallen when he stepped on one of the articles strewn on the kitchen floor of the dish washing area. He was carrying at least one plastic rack containing 25 glass wine goblets. The wine goblets shattered and cut the worker in the neck area. The worker was sent to the hospital where he died from excessive loss of blood as a result of a deep cut on the neck.



Investigations by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) showed that the employer had failed to take reasonably practicable measures to ensure that the workplace was safe and without risks. The employer failed to conduct risk assessment to identify and manage the hazards for the dishwashing activities. The employer also failed to ensure the kitchen was free from slipping and tripping hazards. Although the employer had issued a pair of safety boots to the worker for his use during the course of his work, it was insufficient to prevent the worker from falling.



Mr Heng Chiang Gnee, Deputy Chairman, Workplace Safety and Health Council said, “The death of a worker in the course of carrying out simple kitchen work shows that we must never take the safety at workplaces lightly. Employers must plan safe work procedures for all types of work, ensure that their workers are well briefed and implement safety measures effectively. Often, near misses during work, such as a slip at work, are not noted and no suitable immediate actions are taken to reduce risks and improve situations . To improve our safety management, there is a need to change mindset to seek out near misses and drive improvements even though near misses may not result in injuries. We should therefore all be mindful of the possible risks that our employees face everyday at work. If there are incidents or near-miss cases, measures must immediately be taken to prevent them from happening again. The Council urges all parties to pay serious attention to near-miss cases, or seemingly minor incidents, so that necessary steps can be taken to improve. With this mindset, we can then aim for safer workplaces for all our employees."

Commissioner for Workplace Safety and Health, MOM added that the conviction of Raffles Marina Ltd serves as a stern warning to all workplaces to make safety and health a priority. He reminded all employers, individuals and stakeholders of the importance of ensuring and adhering to proper safety measures.

Lifts... aha... it's all about lifts

I'm on my way to do my job. Passing by electronic board saying that the road is clear, weather is clear.... not the weather, only the traffic and drive safely...
They should put more electronic board like this..


Today I'm set for a lift inspection. This particular inspection is done to renew an expired certificate of fitness which only valid for 15 months. Well, in my record, these lifts just expired. It's just like renewing a road tax, as I've explain it in my previous post. For today, I've arranged 3 job site which consists of a high rise buildings. Erm... almost 102 meter above sea level. Quite high indeed.



My inspection begins here.. what a tall building it is.


This is a typical landing door of a lift. I'm going to top floor where the motor room is placed.


This motor room holds 4 machines that bring ups and downs 4 lifts for daily usage.
It's important to ensure that the lifts are well maintained and inspected regularly to avoid any disrupt of an operation as well as to prevent any dangerous occurrence and any accidents that may happens. Basically, I am inspecting the condition of the motor room itself, machines, then the wire ropes, and lastly, the control panel.
If everything is in good order, I may proceed to the car top. While I was on the roof top, I've snapped this photo.. enjoying the moment though..



After I've enjoyed the view which is about 2 minutes...I continued with my duty..
Oh hey.. this is the car top.. not all people get a chance to see this.. isn't it?



Now, I'm gonna enter this domain.... This is a hoist way... you do the math..


Then, I'm gonna inspect the lift pit, to see whether the 'runby' is within prescribed range or not.

Then, I noticed something... something funny...

This is a no smoking signage written in Thai...whilst this apartment is in Penang.
Till some other time..

Is Dewan Millenium On Fire??

"Help, Help, Help!!!!"......
Everybody from the function halted what they're doing when heard the scream. Then silence struck the atmosphere. Everyone looking each other in puzzled, don't know what is happening.
Suddenly, a guy ran outside and pointed something that scares him.
Gosh... there's a heavy smoke came out the first floor at the back of the Dewan Millenium.




Everyone gathered outside to see what is going on.



And there goes Bomba to the scene. What a fast response.



Actually, this is one of a program slotted in OSH Carnival 2010.
It's seem so real, you're actually can feel the vibe.
This excercise was conducted by TNB Power Plant in Gelugor which emphasized the Emergency Response Team mode of rescue in the event of fire.



Rescuer on duty.



This was performed by IOI ERT, to control and subsequently to extinguish fire ignited from dangerous chemical. Water and foam were used in this excercise.



First Aider to the scene. This unfortunate fella fell during working at height. This excercise also performed by IOI.


That's all for now... we'll meet again in Final Chapter of the OSH Carnival 2010.

OSH Carnival 2010 Penang - Part 1

Hello and hello again, it's an exhausting and a glimmering day as for today my department held a 5 in 1 function. Seems hard to be a successfull one as we first started there were a lot of obstacles and criticsms. Surprisingly we managed to overcome this. With almost 800 participants and by comers were in this particular function. It's a great and successful function!! Hell yeah...
Thanks to all participants and anticipations of all involved personnel whether directly or undirectly.
May this be the starting spark towards the Safety Culture.
This 5 in 1 function consists of Opening Gimmick, Banner Competition, Demonstration of Emergency Response Team (Demo by Stesen Janakuasa Gelugor, IOI Corp. and B. Braun), safety exhibition and OSH Simple Solution.


At arouund 8.00 am, the hall still empty.


At around 8.30 am, empty chairs was filled up with participants and by comers.
It's a relieve to see almost all chairs being sit.



Entrance bunting.









Exhibition hall.

More to come... stay tune for Part 2.....

What Shampoo & Soap can do?

This is contact dermatitis, due to inappropriate and prolonged use of wrong soap and shampoo.




This is chronic dermatitis.

What Is Safety Culture?

The beginning of the safety culture period of accident investigation and analysis can be traced back to the nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 in which a 'poor safety culture' was identified as a factor contributing to the accident by both International Atomic Agency and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developement Nuclear Agency (Cox and Flin 1998; Mearns and Flin 1999; Pidgeon 1998).

Since then safety culture has been discussed in other major accident inquiries and analyses of system failures, such as King's Cross underground fire in London and the Piper Alpha oil platform explosion in the North Sea (Cox and Flin 1998; Pidgeon 1998), as well as the crash of Continental Express Flight 2574 (Meshkati 1997), The Columbia Space Shuttle accident (CAIB 2003), and the explosion at the British Petroleum Refinery in Texas City (CSB 2005.

So, what is Safety Culture?

'the product of multiple interactions between people (psychological), jobs (behavioural) and the organization (situational) in the field of occupational safety and health'

Fault Tree Analysis

Introduction.

A system consists of people,equipment, material, and environmental factors. This system performs specific tasks using prescribed methods. The components
of a system and its environment are interrelated, and a failure in
any part can affect the other parts.
A negative event can be a near miss or an incident that could
have resulted in personal injury to an employee or equipment/
property damage. FTA reasoned most accidents/incidents result from failures
or malfunctions within a system.

Method.

1. Define the top event.
2. Know the system.
3. Construct the tree.
4. Validate the tree.
5. Evaluate the tree.
6. Study tradeoffs.
7. Consider alternatives and recommend action.

Example:



1. And gate - represents a condition in which all the
events shown below the gate (input gate) must be present
for the event shown above the gate (output event) to
occur. This means the output event will occur only if all
of the input events exist simultaneously.

2. Or gate - represents a situation in which any of the
events shown below the gate (input gate) will lead to
the event shown above the gate (output event). The
event will occur if only one or any combination of the
input events exists.

Event Symbols

1. Rectangle - The rectangle is the main building
block for the analytical tree. It represents the negative
event and is located at the top of the tree and can be
located throughout the tree to indicate other events
capable of being broken down further. This is the only symbol
that will have a logic gate and input events below it.

2. Circle – A circle represents a base event in the
tree. These are found on the bottom tiers of the tree
and require no further development or breakdown.
There are no gates or events below the base event.

3. Diamond – The diamond identifi es an
undeveloped terminal event. Such an event is one
not fully developed because of a lack of information
or signifi cance. A fault tree branch can end
with a diamond. For example, most projects require personnel,
procedures, and hardware. The tree developer may decide to
concentrate on the personnel aspect of the procedure and not the
hardware or procedural aspects. In this case the developer would
use diamonds to show “procedures” and “hardware” as undeveloped
terminal events.

4. Oval – An oval symbol represents a special
situation that can only happen if certain circumstances
occur. This is spelled out in the oval
symbol. An example of this might be if switches
must be thrown in a specifi c sequence before an action
takes place.

5. The triangle signifi es a transfer of a
fault tree branch to another location within the tree.
Where a triangle connects to the tree with an arrow, everything
shown below the connection point transfers to another area of
the tree. This area is identifi ed by a corresponding triangle that
is connected to the tree with a vertical line. Letters, numbers
or fi gures identify one set of transfer symbols from another. To
maintain the simplicity of the analytical tree, the transfer symbol
should be used sparingly.

Certificate of Fitness

Here I am again to share what I've been doing over these pass years. My job is basically to inspect all certificated machineries that stated clearly in Factory and Machinery Act as well as promoting safety to all workplaces...
I mean ALL WORKPLACES... that includes, restaurants, hotels, transportations, public services, goverment sectors and etc...
Actually, these certificate of fitness are similar to road tax, only that, these machines are to be inspected every 15 months instead of once per year...
Certificated machineries are lifts, elevators, escalators, mobile cranes, tower cranes, derrick cranes, scissor lifts, two post lifts and others that categorized as lifting machines which powered by electricity. Other lifting machines that are manually powered are excluded.
Yes, that's right, lifts and escalators... we uses these particular machines almost everyday, at office, at shopping mall and even at home.
There are cases which fatal accident occured. Lack of knowledge and awareness leads to this. So, sharing these essential info would ascended one's knowledge for whoever visited this blog..
Other than that, unfired pressure vessel, for example... air receiver, air compressor, oil separator and etc, also must be inspected to be fit enough to operate..Boilers are definitely falls under certificated machineries..
There are registration number for all registered machineries. This for the eligibility for inspection and for the certificate, for example, if you noticed, in lift car and at escalator step, there are registration number label as SL PMA XXXX, PP PMA XXXX, KD PMA XXXX.
That's all for now

My Line of Work

Hahahaha.... this is my new gadget... a videoscope... i'm gonna use it for today inspection.. Let's pack up and stroll out..



Looks like a clear road for me...and seem that it's gonna rain shortly



Penang bridge toll plaza... this building suck out my RM7 from my wallet... but heck, this bill is going into my claim..



This is an electric boiler as I've mentioned in my previous post. The looks itself doesn't bring any danger right? Well, with only 1034Kpa as the safe working pressure, not that high pressure, it seems harmless in that particular way...
Electric boiler must be regularly service especially the heating elements,the control of the scale build up, gauge glass,feed check valve and safety valve. If these parts are neglected, it would arises a problem, altogether with hazards.
But, always bear in mind that, although the pressure is not high as it looks, the damage made can be catastrophic. Never try accident first than try safety.



These are the essential fittings that fits the boiler.



These are the heating elements..



Top view of the electric boiler... this is where the videoscope went in.



Whitish scale that I found using the videoscope. It's a quite cool gadget actually..
This gadget have a 10m long cable, up to 25m, if wireless is use. It can observe to most part that can't be access with naked eye.



General corrosion found at top portion of the electric boiler.



Going back to make my report, and its raining cats and dogs out there, still people are busy bee.. crossing the road.



and there goes Beca Pulau Pinang.... cool..