"group of people .. included school students (burned)"

Rhetorical question. Who is the most dangerous person at a workplace? The answer we are looking for is that the most dangerous person at the workplace is not there yet. It is the visitor, contractor, vendor, etc. That is because these individuals do not know not the current safety procedures of the workplace. This recent story highlights the hazards associated with visitors in a workplace.

An aluminium company was today fined $350,000 Euro and ordered to pay costs of $4,800 Eur after workers received burns from an uncontrolled release of caustic solution at the company’s (location omitted) alumina refinery.

The group of people affected by the 2022 incident included school students on a work experience placement at the site.

The aluminium company pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court for failing to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers under the (pertinent government regulations).

On the day of the incident, a contract worker noticed a burning smell and found a pump that was emitting smoke and debris. The contract worker notified his shift supervisor who attended the scene with other workers.

The shift supervisor checked with the refinery’s control room to see if they could bring another pump online to replace the damaged pump. A control room operator advised the supervisor they would need to change the pump within a short time frame due to potential production consequences.

The shift supervisor was aware the pump could explode if pressure built up.

Having opened a discharge drain valve, the shift supervisor left the valve to advise the work experience group to leave the area. As he did so, another worker engaged in the pump changeover pressed its start button unaware the discharge drain valve was still open.

This action caused an uncontrolled discharge of hot caustic solution from the discharge drainpipe.

The caustic solution contacted a metal step in the open spoon drain which caused the liquid to spray out and contact some of the workers and students.

Emergency response officers attended the scene and provided first aid to those affected by the spill before transferring them to the site’s medical centre.  

The government safety organization’s Commissioner said the workers and students were extremely lucky not to have sustained more serious injuries.

“Companies must ensure all people at a workplace, including work experience students, are kept safe,” The government safety organization’s Commissioner said.

“Companies must also have robust controls in place and ensure these controls are monitored so they continue to be effective.”

We pray that all of the injured students and workers recovered fully from their incident. We are indeed shocked that this incident occurred. Because it appears that the visitors were not given the proper ppe to tour the refinery. Or the visitors were not wearing the ppe properly.

Regardless, this incident should not have occurred.

On our tours through the industry, we arrive at the workplace wearing fire resistant clothing. Commonly, our clothing fabric is better than our hosts’ clothing fabric. Unfortunately, 99% of visitors to workplaces arrive in street clothes. If the workplace does not have the proper ppe (including but not limited to fire/chemical resistant fabric) to provide for the visitors. The visitors should not be allowed in the departments where their current clothing is prohibited.

Instead, we recommend videos be shown to the visitors.

Please comment.