Smelter's safety record 'disappointing'

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has a recent story of a smelter which by their own account had a "disappointing" 2013 in terms of safety. It is not this blogs intention to place blame on any company or any worker(s) for an incident, but the hope that awareness brings education. This smelter's name and location have been omitted to protect their identity. Here is the story:

The safety performance at the aluminium smelter plant was disappointing in 2013 and this year it must improve, its boss says.

The smelter general manager highlighted safety in the recent smelter's newsletter.

"Unfortunately, our safety performance in 2013 has been disappointing with eight recordable injuries year to date.

"We need to do something differently in the New Year if we are to get to zero," the smelter general manager said. "I firmly believe we can reach this goal as there are many examples of teams and individual people on site, both employees and contractors, who are already there."

If it was possible for other individuals to stay safe, then it was possible for the whole site to stay safe, the smelter general manager said. "A great example of this is the (movable equipment safety) team who reached 3000 consecutive safe days in 2013. This is a fantastic achievement and clearly demonstrates that the goal of zero is achievable."

The acting general manager of the smelter said there were no obvious reasons why the numbers had increased this year.

The smelter's safety targets for 2014 would be confirmed early in the year, said the acting general manager of the smelter.

Data supplied to the local newspaper by the smelter from 2008 to 2013 shows the number of lost-day injuries and restricted work-day injuries combined in 2013 was the highest.

A restricted work-day injury is where the injured person is at work but unable to carry out the full requirements of their role so is assigned other duties.

Lost-day injuries in 2013 include:

• Rotator cuff tendon injury, 
• Sprained and twisted knee, 
• Crushed hand, 
• Lacerations
• Burnt finger.

Restricted work-day injuries include:

• Sprained ankle
• Sprained/twisted knee 
• Finger fracture
• Pulled nail 
• Laceration to a finger.

The data shows similar injuries for other years and also includes:

• Crushed foot, 
• Fractured clavicle 
• Dislocated shoulder
• Fractured leg
• Fractured wrist
• Broken and crushed ankles
• Bruised ribs and 
• Lower back strain

The  community relations officer said the injury numbers were not as good as the smelter would like, but its overall safety performance was reasonably good.

"We aim for zero injuries and are working hard to reinforce the need for our employees and contractors to remain absolutely focused on safety at all times."

Under the pertinent government laws, incidents are reported to government safety organization.

The government safety organization investigated only some reported incidents, and these were entirely at its discretion.

Documents released by the government safety organization shows the following incidents were investigated in 2011 at the smelter: 

• A broken leg with lacerations when a contractor fell from a cladding pack 
• A fractured hip after a worker fell from a casting table.

In 2012, a crushed foot was investigated after a worker's ankle was run over by a forklift.

The documents also show there were "occupational illness investigations".

These ranged from the following:

• Tennis elbow
• Golfer's elbow
• Dermatitis
• Carpal tunnel syndrome (condition of the hand and fingers caused by compression of a major nerve) 

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog commends this smelter for recognizing that their goals were not being met. "Zero accidents" should be the goal for every plant in our industry. Instead of keeping these safety deficiencies within the conveys of the smelter. The smelter manager decided to confront their poor safety record, and publicize them in the smelter's newsletter. The APSB commends the actions of the smelter manager. His actions resulted in a local newspaper publishing a story titled, "Smelter's safety record 'disappointing'. When contacted by the local newspaper the smelter responded to the newspaper's questions. 

The current trend in our industry is to issue "no comment" after "no comment" after an incident. History has shown us that when faced with no information the media will speculate (i.e., make information up). It is best to provide written answers to their questions. If no questions are provided, then provide a written statement. 

The APSB has posted incident after incident involving movable equipment. Moveable equipment is a hazard that results in numerous injuries and fatalities a year in our industry. Whereas this smelter has succeeded in eliminating incidents involving movable equipment. 

It is the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog's hopes that this smelter will expand their existing successful safety teams to incorporate those areas of the plant where incidents are occurring. The APSB is confident that in time this smelter will be able to minimize their recordable incidents and achieve the lofty goal of zero accidents.

Reflect upon your own plants in terms of coming to terms with the reality that any incident is unacceptable and the goal of "zero accidents" needs to be put forth.

The APSB requests that readers post comments. Even though the smelter name and location were omitted from this post, the employees of this smelter will quickly realize that this post was about their facility. We sincerely hope that those employees of this smelter understand that not only is the APSB standing behind them, but our industry as whole stands by their general manager's goal of making their facility safer in 2014. 

So, please post a comment, hopefully your comment(s) will be included in the smelter's next newsletter. To be used as motivation for the smelter employees and contractors.