Feature
WHY TRAINING IS SO IMPORTANT WHEN SELECTING AND USING PPE
By Andrew Perks
When we talk about PPE we think of equipment hanging on a wall that may be needed sometime not always the procedure we are undertaking , the risks involved and the requirement to have the correct PPE on hand to quickly and decisively attend to any unforeseen circumstances .
Selecting the correct PPE will depend on the Risk Assessment undertaken prior to the commencement of any work in a potentially hazardous procedure . Now I have been in this industry forever and I need to tell you about a situation that I got involved in that got totally out of control . Over confidence is always a bad start to any procedure .
I was on my way home one Friday evening when I got a call to pop into a client who was having problem with an intermediate liquid injection system causing high discharge temperatures on an Ammonia 2-stage reciprocating compressor .
So , with very little tools and no PPE I swing by the plant . First mistake .
I diagnosed that the issue was the liquid feed solenoid , shut the compressor down , then pumped it down and vented it till all the gauges were zeroed . Then I started to open up the solenoid forgetting that whilst the up-stream high pressure liquid valve was closed I had not checked to see that it was holding . Second mistake .
Being in a hurry , instead of cracking a flange I opened the solenoid top to find I had high pressure liquid . Third mistake .
The only response to this was to beat a retreat to find some water as I had inhaled some ammonia . So , I get out of there like a dog , low to the ground , grab some water and straight back in to switch off the plant and ignition sources in the area . At this point the years of training started kicking in but I am on my own and I have no PPE . I race around the site to try to find a gas mask but there isn ’ t one ( should have been two outside of the plant room ).
Anyway , things need to be done so with a wet rag on my face I start closing valves to minimise the release . Whilst I was doing this the Fire Brigade arrived that really made my day . One of the firemen wanted to go in but I knew what valve was not holding and with a wrench I wanted to get to it . So , they kitted me out in a level B chemical suit and a BA Set and in I went . At the door I heard this whistle start at which point the guy tried to pull me back , but by this time I was on a mission .
I got to the passing valve and got a full two turns on it – it was now tightly closed and the Ammonia stopped leaking . It was only years later that I found out about the 5-minute whistle on a BA Set that sounds to tell you that you have 5 minutes of air left and it is time to get the heck out of there .
At this stage , I am sure the adrenalin has subsided , and I need to get the plant back up and running . Just when I was getting ready to go and get a bucket load of milk the engineer arrived and kept me there for a further two hours as he compiled his report to submit to the DOL about the incident , I was shattered .
It didn ’ t end there . Six weeks later , my car blew a cylinder head gasket , you may ask what this had to do with the Ammonia leak . Me too until I realised that all of the copper fins on the radiator had corroded away due to the Ammonia from the leak as my car was outside the plant room when all this was going on . So yes , lots of lessons to be learned . You won ’ t catch me doing that again . It ’ s these kinds of incidents that we try to highlight for the up-and-coming engineers during training . Reminds me of the phrase ‘ measure twice , cut once ’. It ’ s all about risk assessments . RACA
SOURCES : 1 . Health and Safety Executive 2 . AJ Charnaud 3 . Andrew Perks 4 . EHS Today 5 . Sisi Work Safety 6 . Industry feedback
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Training on the correct use of PPE is essential .
RACA Journal I August 2021
Image by malateronald from Pixabay www . hvacronline . co . za