Drop in the bucket...

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog was recently told at TMS 2015 in Orlando, Florida in the United States the following then ask a question "there are not a lot of molten metal explosions occurring because we never hear about them. Or are there?". The APSB responded that there are a lot of molten metal explosions in our industry. They simply do not reach the media. In a few hours at TMS the APSB was told of four explosions that occurred in our industry in the past 30 days. The APSB does not walk around hollering "does anyone know of any recent explosions?" Our contacts tell us. They tell us, because they know we use that information, as well as other incidents involving other hazards as learning tools. We firmly believe that only through acknowledgement of history can we as an industry learn for the present and future. Our view maybe idealistic, but we feel that our industry has done so many good things (commonly overlooked) that took place as a result or reaction to a catastrophe.

So where were getting at? The APSB only posts incidents that make it in the media. Why, simply because there is not enough time otherwise. We hear of many incidents that do not make it in the media. It is now commonplace for a fatality not to be covered by the local media, and thus the national and international media never know. Why? We’re not sure, there are probably a myriad or reasons. The APSB has a large and growing backlog of incidents that we have not yet posted. We hope that in time the incidents will decrease and there will no longer be a need for our service.

Our goal at the beginning never included how many views would we get. Our goal, our hope was that by bringing awareness of these incidents that it will hopefully prevent recurrence from occurring. We are humbled by the response that we have gotten, we just surpassed 100,000 views.

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