The effects of social media are felt every day in our
industry. In terms of public relations, Twitter has caused the most problems to
the aluminium industry. Our industry has struggled to respond effectively to
safety incidents when social media is involved. Here is a recent story where an
aluminium company responded to a social media posting:
The aluminium company has denied allegations about an
explosion inside its plant. The aluminium company stated in official statement
"In reference to the recent social media postings about explosion inside (redacted)’s
plant, the aluminium company officially states that the comments are false and
that aluminium company’s operations are running normally and safely,"
Social media in some aspects can be both good and bad. The
APSB acknowledges that opinions may differ on the previous sentence. Nevertheless,
the Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has seen numerous incidents where an aluminium
company denied an accident occurred. But, the survivors, widows, and orphans time
and time again would not be denied and brought awareness to tragedies that
would otherwise be forgotten.
There are numerous reasons why a company would deny publicly
that an incident never happened. From limiting liability to protecting their
image companies have found that misleading or putting forth misinformation is
in their best interest. They are sadly wrong. The trend now a days is for aluminium
companies to highlight their streak on how many days with no recordable
incidents. Though these accomplishments are great and should be celebrated they
do come with their own unique dilemma. Which is what is more important the
streak or worker’s safety. The argument could be made that the streak and
worker’s safety have a cause and effect relationship. But, in reality the APSB
has seen time and time again where plants and companies are so consumed with
keeping the consecutive days without a recordable that the goal of protecting
workers from injuries maybe forgotten. As crazy as that sounds, it does occur
in our industry. The APSB has been invited to visit and tour many plants around
the globe. One particular plant was celebrating 4+ years of no recordable incidents.
Prior to visiting the APSB put forth the question “what is more important;
keeping the streak alive or worker safety”. Upon meeting the plant manager and
department managers the APSB was told that the streak was over. What happened
proved the importance of the plant manager and reinforced his leadership to his
workers. A week or so prior to the APSB visit a worker tripped down some
stairs. That worker insisted that he was fine and that the incident did not
deem be written up. The plant manager was not sure and when the worker walked
away he limped. That limp was a result of the incident, and the plant manager
instructed the worker that indeed a recordable incident did occur. The streak
was over, but so be it. The plant manager proved to all his workers that safety
was more important than days without a recordable streaks.
On the other hand the Aluminium Plant Safety Bog has seen
numerous incidents that social media claimed to have occurred but actually did
not happen. Or the postings were misleading or put forth misinformation to the
detriment of the aluminium company(s) and our industry.
The Aluminium Times magazine had an article last year about
social media and the positive and negative effects in our industry.
Please Comment.
If you ever deny an accident or incident happened and the public finds out, you will play hell getting back respect and trust.
ReplyDeleteI worked at a company that produced Magnesium, a similar process, but it created many pounds of chlorine gas in the process. Much of the components were asbestos, due to it's properties in the hot process of molten salt and mag chloride. The Magnesium floats on top of the molten salt which releases Magnesium from the mag chloride fed to the electrified anode pot powered by DC voltage.
If it were not for OSHA I suppose the company would have kept exposing people to asbestos without proper training, noise, chlorine gas. In the right time of the year it was a very comfortable place to work. During the summer and because operators had to wear flame resistant denim, the operating floor was a very warm environment. The only air conditioned spaces were the offices of leadership and the electrical component room. The break room/lunch room was ambient. There were 27 anode cells per bldg. and 4 bldgs. The temperature between the cells was usually in the 120 degree F range. This was all before anyone really had safety or environmental concerns. In the sixties men skimmed molten mag from the metal wells with a stainless bucket (about 2 gallons) stainless was used for most work as it was not as magnetic as stainless. Magnetism was so strong under the buss bars that it would hold a 2 lb hammer tied with a piece of string, suspended in the air like magic. The men had to pour the dipper of molten mag in ingots on a buggy. Doing this over time caused many men to break a vertebrae in their neck portion of the spine. Because they had to hold the weight and pour a stream of molten metal into the buggy of ingots. The buggies also had a purge of SO2 gas on the ingots so the mag wouldn't ignite in the buggy. The ingots had to be perfect or else they were sent back to be re-melted and poured again. They in the late 60's went to a insulated crucible on railroad tracks through the basement of each building. A molten metal crew would go through the building one operator each dipping a metal well into a funnel with a ground strap in a hole in the floor. That helped stop spine injuries. The crucible (holding about 5,000 lbs of molten Mag) was transferred to Magnesium Casting where it was pumped into peg lock bars and stacked on pallets. Eventually they pumped the molten mag into the crucibles.
The process no longer exists. It projected itself to be in good position with car industries using more magnesium in auto production, and then they got out of the business. I think the competition was Russia. Many, many burns working in this process. Cold equipment and anything wet and molten Magnesium or molten salt did not get along. If someone put a cold tool in one of the well, the explosion would blow the implement out of your hand and you were burned some where.
Thanks for your comments. Explosions occur in the aluminium industry with some frequency but not as frequent as in the magnesium industry. I have heard some magnesium facilities have explosions on a daily basis of varying severity.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I am glad you mentioned explosions. I saw the back of the casting come off when molten mag from the furnace got under the operating floor and burned a 1 inch gas line. The gas reached the right ratio as always with air and ignition source, thankfully only the wives know how scared their husbands were, from doing their laundry.
ReplyDeleteDuring the shifts small amounts of mag would get on the brick floor (which was on second level). The metal dipping crew had to wash down the floors where they worked, the bldgs. were about 100 yds. long and there were 4 bldgs. When washed down in the sewer system the mag would mix with low pH water from leaking and spent HCL getting into the sewer. Hydrogen gas would build in concentration, detonate in the sewer and blow the sewer covers about 100 feet high. These sewer manhole covers were at least 75 lbs.
Years before I joined the company, they were working out dipping the molten metal into the crucible in the basement. I saw the photo of a man in a hospital and the only part of him from the waist up that wasn't charred was where he was wearing goggles. He poured a bucket down a cold funnel into a cold crucible. The funnel acted as a rifle barrel for molten buck shot. Sometimes the crucibles would derail in the basements, full of molten metal. The crew had to use house jacks to get it back on track. Danger there was metal pouring out of the dump spout on the front of the crucible where people were working. It was easy for a crucible to be over filled and molten mag would pour on basement floor then ignite and burn. It was supposed to activate a DC ground alarm, but once it was full it was coming out. It would burn so hot it would warp the railroad tracks. The only way to put out the mag fire was to use G-1 powder (graphite powder). Yes I could write a book on those years and I swear people would think I had made it up, but I have many witnesses.
Thank you, as I read your comments I think about how much the aluminium and magnesium (as well as other metals) industries are losing during the retirement and attrition of seasoned workers. In terms of experience. I recently was asked to speak to every shift of an aluminium casthouse in the USA. I started out each presentation explaining to the attendees that the my presentation is designed to shock them. For them to understand that when your supervisor tells them to perform a function (steps 1,2,3, etc.) there is a reason behind that. I explained that their employer does not want the to take shortcuts and or skip steps. Afterwards I had some greenhorn workers come up and talk with me and tell me how their view on safety changed.
ReplyDeleteGood job. Workers in those kind of jobs look up to the more senior employees and emulate them in many ways to be accepted.
ReplyDelete