Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico; cases found in CA & TX

AP just reported Swine flu outbreak in Mexico, Mexico city closes schools. This outbreak has been responsible for the deaths of 60 people in Mexico. Cases have been reported in California and Texas.

A 9-year-old girl in Imperial County and a 10-year-old boy in San Diego County both were identified as having swine flu. Luckily, neither child needed hospitalization and both have recovered. Health officials, however, are puzzled and looking for the source of the infection.

The story can be found here:

http://www.kdvr.com/lifestyle/health/sns-ap-med-swine-flu,0,1362740.story



What is the swine flu?

Swine flu refers to four different types of flu strains that circulate among pigs. Under normal conditions, typically humans don’t contract swine flu. Unless, of course, they have direct contact with pigs.

Historically, the swine flu epidemic of 1918 hit the U.S., killing more than 500,000 that year. In 1976, the U.S. was scared again by swine flu. A national vaccination program was launched and fewer people died.

This strain of swine flu originated in Mexico and is a NEW strain of the virus. For this reason, there is no vaccine to protect against it.




What are the symptoms of swine flu in humans?


The symptoms of swine flu in people are expected to be similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.



Influenza (also known as the flu) is a contagious respiratory illness caused by flu viruses. It can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to death. The flu is different from a cold. The flu usually comes on suddenly and may include these symptoms:

* Fever (usually high)
* Headache
* Extreme tiredness
* Dry cough
* Sore throat
* Runny or stuffy nose
* Muscle aches
* Stomach symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, also can occur but are more common in children than adults

These symptoms are usually referred to as "flu-like symptoms."





More info can be found at the CDC here: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/key_facts.htm


MOST IMPORTANTLY

* If you are sick, do not go to work. Stay home so you do not potentially infect others.

* Seek medical attention. Only a doctor can diagnose your condition and treat it.

* If employees show up at work with flu-like symptoms, coordinate with HR to send them home until they are well or it is determined that they are not suffering from the flu.

Machine Guarding

I think that machine guarding is probably the most overlooked deficiency in industry. The reason being that the guards get in the way, slow down production, and the mindset that there was never a guard there. This is a form of complacency. Complacency seems to be the most common factor in the majority of accidents I have investigated.

OSHA requires all machines to be guarded. An employer must guard any machine without a guard, even if it was purchased without guards. This is especially relevant in manufacturing. From my work in the printing industry it was not uncommon to see a printing press, die cutter, etc. that is about 100 years old. This is also common in the woodworking industry too.

In many of these machines there are only 5 things that can go wrong and they are all replaceable wear parts. They are bushings/bearings, drive belts, cutters (the working tool), feeders, and the drive motors. (Some may argue that motors are not wear parts, but they are designed to be rebuilt.) Unlike many of the newer machines that rely on electronics, the older machines will last forever.

The most common unguarded machines I see are table saws and drill presses. As for the drill presses, I am not fully convinced that a guard is practical. I think that is because I have not seen a really good design for a drill press guard. Sears offers a pretty good guard retail! The Sears Craftsman guard is pictured above.

I have also seen 1 or 2 guards that were fabricated at shops that were designed pretty good also. The one drawback is that they limit the functionality of the drill press. I have an open mind and I am always looking to advance safety, so I continue to look for a good drill press guard.

For table saws, there is an amazing product called Saw Stop. If you touch the blade, it stops the saw blade before it can cut you. You can watch the video here: http://www.sawstop.com/

Oklahoma Oil Fields

Click on any image to view full size.










Once again work takes me to some remote corner of the US. This time it was the Oil Fields of Oklahoma. I personally handle sites, inspections, training, and incidents that involve high profile sites or companies, high hazard/high risk industries, remote locations, severe incidents, or where safety is mission critical.

The petroleum industry is considered high hazard. One of the things that I learned from my trip is that the petroleum industry is dominated by many, many small companies rather than a few big multinational corporations. The industry is full of small contractor companies that service the different segments of the supply chain.

From a safety perspective this is good and bad. Unlike the big names that we all know, there is not the million dollar budgets for safety. They do not use Six Sigma quality control. They are however very agile when it comes to implementing programs and there is open lines of communications between employees and management with questions or concerns.

I also found that since this is part of the Bible Belt there are employees who do not drink alcohol. These companies are like families, small and the people look after each other. Many times these are family owned and employ family members.

Some differences from the offshore petroleum rigs is that drilling is done by mobile rigs that are somewhat safer. The whole process of sinking a well is done by small crews, each specializing in the step they are doing. The Oil and Natural Gas Industry as a whole has a lower rate of injury than the whole US private sector.

In 2006, the rate of job-related nonfatal injuries and illnesses for the oil and natural
gas industry was 3.41 per 100 full-time workers, compared to a rate of 4.4 for the
entire U.S. private sector.
-source: American Petroleum Institute, www.api.org

WOMAN RUNS OVER MATTRESS ON THE HIGHWAY

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WOMAN RUNS OVER MATTRESS ON THE HIGHWAY
And Decided Not To Worry And Kept Driving.

The Ensuing Jumble Finally Whipped Around Enough to Tear A Hole In The Fuel Tank.

The Subsequent Lack Of Fuel Is What Finally
Brought Her Vehicle To It's Knee's.

She Had Still Managed To Drive 30 More Miles
With A 60 Pound Tangle of Stuff Wrapped
Around Her Driveshaft.

She Had It Towed To Her Dealership And Complained
That The Vehicle Had A " Sort Of Shimmy "
When She Was Driving At High Speeds.


Below Are The Photo's Of What They
Found At Her Dealership.....................

The Last Photo Is By Far The Best.

" Sort Of A Shimmy" I'll Bet It Did !

Root Cause

I just finished another accident investigation, not too serious. Just prior to doing the investigation, I was reviewing my notes on accident investigation so that I was focused on the investigation and the facts. I came across this illustration of the "Accident Weed."

What this states is that the ultimate cause of all accidents is a system failure. Somewhere the safety program has deficiencies. These deficiencies lead to the accident. Although the deficiencies may not have been the direct cause of the accident, they allowed (or did not prevent) the behavior that lead to the accident.

In my years of investigation accidents I found a couple interesting factors that contribute; It is not the "goof-off" employee that is involved in serious accidents, it is the good employee that cares so much about his work that he forgets about safety practices (complacency).

Another factor is that time pressure is present in almost all of these serious accidents. The last contributing cause is when employees do not FOLLOW or do not UNDERSTAND the instructions given. #-part communication can solve this system weakness.

More PPE pics

I am doing this post first with some fun PPE pictures first so that it follows my entery on PPE. I am sure most people have seen these before.

The respirators in the first picture are like my BioMarine Industries full face respirator.

Just a note on the above picture: This picture has been all over the internet as one of those "What's wrong with this picture?" The real story behind this picture is quite a bit different. The gentleman in the shorts is one of the top Hazmat trainers in the US. This picture was taken during a training exercise in one of the Carolinas (I am pretty sure it was South Carolina).

This was a picture of a teacher with his students doing hands on training. There was never real hazards present. This picture is a great training aid for PPE. I am sure that at one point or another, every safety trainer has used it. I have even used it.

The best trainers know the real story behind this picture. When ever I use this pic, after the lesson has been learned, I tell my class the real story behind it. 

PPE

I am doing this post first with some fun PPE pictures first so that it follows my entery on PPE. I am sure most people have seen these before.



(Click on the picture to view a larger picture)