Recent incidents in Indian Industry creating turmoil

Yesterday's fire and explosion incident in Yashashvi Rasayan has made me ponder upon the prevention and protection measures taken by the manufacturing plants.

The incident has been said to be in the tank farm area. As per the initial reports, the fire in the tank farm has lead to an explosion of solvent storage tank/ tanks. In multiple images, damaged tanks, hydrogen trolley and multiple other plant units could be seen in the near vicinity of the tank. The other images of the incident are quite disturbing with charred bodies lying on the ground. There is a disturbing video of a charred man asking for help outside the plant that is being circulated in social media. The root cause of the incident still needs to be confirmed by the authorities. 

This incident combined with Vizag Styrene release and Tarapur surfactant factory explosion has put multiple questions in my mind. 

• Do you think that the understanding of Indian industry to process safety has improved? Do you think enough measures are taken in a plant to prevent unsafe acts and unsafe conditions? 

• Do you think that management of your plant or the neighbouring plant is seriously implementing measures and filling gaps identified in audits and PHA studies? 

• Do you think that government authorities are seriously making proactive reviews of the sites? 

• Do you think our laws and regulations related to industries are stringent enough to make the industries realise that they have more to lose in an accident than to gain in the normal operation of the plant? 

In my opinion, some industries have a better understanding of the importance of process safety in their plant and they implement preventive and protective measures as well. But several of them lack resources and knowledge related to process safety and how to prevent unsafe conditions and acts in their plants. They are still limited to hard hat and steel toe shoes safety which is important, but there is so much more to safety.

Many do not understand the importance of a good PHA study and how it can help in preventing and safeguarding against incidents. For example, I have worked with companies representatives who have asked me "why are you taking a scenario of external fire in a tank farm as I have enough fire monitors and hydrant points available in plant to fight such a scenario?" or "Why are you recommending a dump tank for a PSV release as I have high-pressure alarm and interlocks for my vessel?"

Although we have many existing guidelines, laws and regulations. Also, frequent inspections keep on going on in our plants. But it is high time to bend our perspective towards Process Safety along with general safety. It is high time that we understand and focus on topics like chemical reaction and thermal runaway hazards, facility siting, the importance of Management of Change and quality PHAs, risk of Dust Explosion, risk of fire/ explosion due to electrostatic discharges, the importance of QRA (Quantitative Risk Assessment) and LOPA (Layer of Protection Analysis) studies for the major accident hazard scenarios, the importance of Process Safety Management (PSM), etc.

These incidents leave us and our families devastated and in turmoil. We need to learn from these incidents and improve our facilities. At the end of the day, we all should return to our families safe and sound.