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..