Iron and Steel industry is hazard-intensive. For ensuring safety of operations and a healthy environment, a well-planned approach, consistent efforts and continuous innovations are needed. It involves unfailing co-operation from the workers, managers and the unions to achieve the common goal of Safety and Health, both of which are not negotiable.
Iron and Steel industry is a heavy industry, involving a whole range of processes-chemical, metallurgical, mechanical, electrical, construction road and rail traffic, materials handling, earth-moving, nucleonic and many others.
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Each of these processes has many in-built hazards, falling broadly into three categories:
i. Those that can be eliminated – Leakages of gases, dust in motor-houses, pollution through power plant chimneys, blazing of coke ovens, narrow work spaces etc.
ii. Those that can be controlled – Noise level in pump houses and turbine-halls, heat level in cast- houses, dust-level in sintering plant, gas concentration at working levels, etc.
iii. Those against which protective measures need to be taken – i.e., those that can neither be controlled nor eliminated – e.g., liquid hot metal (heat and glare), noise in rolling mills, etc.
Iron and Steel Works:
An iron and steel works is normally divided into the following zones:
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(i) Iron zone, comprising of – Raw materials storage, preparation and handling yard, coke ovens and by-products plant, sintering plant, blast furnaces, gas holders and pipelines.
(ii) Steel zone, comprising of – Steel melting shop, continuous casting shop, oxygen plant, slag and scrap yard, gas-holder and pipelines.
(iii) Rolling mills zone, comprising of – Different rolling mills, with nucleonic control gauges, gas booster stations and pipelines, loading bays for dispatch of finished materials, electrical cable-tunnels and oil cellars.
(iv) Utilities, with common services, comprising of – Power plants with substations, road and rail traffic networks and installations, communications network, with exchanges and consoles, plant water-supply network with pump-houses, instrumentation and process control, mechanical workshops, electrical repair shops, refrigeration and air-conditioning systems, electronic data processing systems, fire services, safety engineering, services and pollution control.
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(v) Project and construction division.
Approach to Hazard Control in Iron and Steel Industry:
1. Identification:
One basic approach for any hazard control has been that in the first place, the hazard to be controlled has to be identified. A list of safety appliances needed for doing the job safely is listed up. Such studies are made shop-wise and process-sheets prepared indicating the hazards involved, safety measures required and the safety appliances needed.
The basic norms for these are taken from those prescribed in the Factory Rules, Environment, Pollution and related Acts. These are further improved upon as one accumulates one’s own working experience.
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2. Training:
Merely having updated safety books is not enough. If these are to be strictly followed, regular on-the-job training is essential for the operations on the machines and processes and for craftsmen in their respective trades.
Employees have also to be trained before they are put on the job whenever there is a change of trade or transfer to another department. This is very necessary for them to acquaint themselves fully with the hazards of the new trade and the new work-place.
This cannot be taken for granted. Many avoidable accidents have taken place due to lack of such training.
3. Maintenance Culture:
A common experience is that over a period of time, in addition to the normal wear and tear, a machine or equipment is hardly maintained in its original form. What happens is, when the machine is new, it is run loaded to its maximum capacity, every time postponing or truncating its scheduled maintenance and when it starts going under break-down, then wake up for its repair.
When repairs are done, all its attachments are not restored back or replaced back either due to hurried repair, or due to lack of spares, since it is still possible to ‘some how’ run the machine to give production, with bare minimum components working.
With the limit switches, control gauges, etc. gone the situation is ideal (“unsafe condition”) for any mishap to happen. The more complex the machine or the installation, the more chances of hazards created by this “maintenance culture” for accidents to happen.
To prevent this, it is very essential to evolve a culture of carrying out the maintenance of equipment and installation as per schedule and as per its technology, not compromising with quality at any stage.
4. Chemical and Environmental Hazards:
The Amended Factories Act (1987) has some very stringent stipulations in this respect. TLVs have been prescribed for 8 hours and 2 hours exposures of employees in these environments. It is very essential to strictly comply with these and the extant regulations, especially in the storage, handling, transportation and processing of the hazardous chemicals.
5. Noise:
Efforts must be made to reduce the noise level within 90dB by adopting suitable dampening devices and noise insulating system.
6. Heat:
This common hazard in our iron and steel works can be eliminated in some shops while it has to be dealt with in some other shops. For example, in the charging side of the coke-ovens and on the oven tops, it can be eliminated fully by proper cleaning of oven doors and frames for good sealing so that blazing does not occur.
This will also help a far healthier environment, without heat, smoke, gases, etc., to work in the coke-ovens area. With well-sealed ovens, operations are smooth and even product quality is better.
In the blast furnace and steel melting shops, liquid hot metal has to have a min. temperature of 1350°C, and it has to be handled in that state.
In the cast house of blast furnaces, where the hot metal tapped from the furnace flows through ‘runners’ (channels) into metal laddles for transportation to steel melting shop by rail, the common local practice has been to have ‘open’ runners.
This results in radiation of heat, spread of carbon particles and dust in the entire atmosphere of the cast house, making it uncomfortable and tiresome for the cast house crew. It saps their energy quickly.
For dealing with the heat and dust problem, the solution is to adopt “covered runners” practice by which the hot metal and slag runners are covered and an exhaust system sucks off emanating fumes, dust, etc. from the vicinity of the tap-hole itself.
The result is, the cast house is cooler by about 10°C. and is free from fumes and dust, it is comfortable for the crew to work in. Their productivity also increases as they no longer grow tiresome.
7. Fire Safety:
In iron and steel works, all the components required for out-break of fire are readily available – oxygen (from air), fuel (gases, etc.) and heat (from electricity, sparks, flames, hot-spots, etc.).
Utmost care is required in the storages, especially of flammable materials, with well-ventilated areas, good house-keeping in works areas, fire-safe construction with fire-resistant materials incorporated in the design itself, provision of escape routes/outlets from work areas in case of fire, isolator doors of fire-proof material to prevent spread of fire from one area to another in office/public buildings, training of employees to check on human errors which can also cause files (e.g., smoking, carelessness in observing fire-safety precautions in daily jobs, etc.), periodic site inspections of vulnerable areas and fire-fighting equipment ranging from hand-operated fire-extinguishers to fire-tenders and similar mobile special-purpose equipment in the fire services.
One important aspect which needs special attention in the intricate and vast works area is prominent display of route-directions to interior locations of vulnerable areas such as oil cellars, cable- galleries, etc. for quick reaching of destination by fire brigades in times of need.
For it is well known that the first few minutes after fire out-break are very vital for fire-fighting and bringing it under control, to prevent major damages. In this context, training the shop-floor staff in the use of fire-extinguishers assumes importance.
8. Ergonomics:
This relates to understanding human mental and physical processes in work- situations and ensuring that tasks required of any operator are within his capabilities. This is a comparatively younger science but is fast gaining importance, for optimisation of ‘man-machinery’ system efficiency. Steel plants offer a very wide scope for study of ergonomics and improvisations by its applications and elimination of existing hazards thereby.
Typical examples are – widening of gang-ways, creating better accessibility in restricted areas for better maintenance of equipment, adequate illumination on shop-floor, systematic laying of numerous cables, properly tagged, in the cable-tunnels with headroom, leg-room and elbow-room, proper ventilation and illumination in oil cellars with convenient entry and exit points, reliable and effective air-conditioning and ventilation of operator’s cabin of tongs, cranes, stripper-cranes, Hot-metal cranes, location of operating controls within easy reach and convenient position for ease of operation without causing strain.
9. Shrub Control:
Any iron and steel plant is a vast sprawling territory, however compact the design may be. So, in the inter-shop open spaces, if left unattended, tall wild grass, shrubs, etc. start growing, Initially they may not even be noticed.
But in course of time, they take root, and grow into wild proportions, posing hazardous working conditions like obstructing vision around corners for road-users and loco-drivers, or by harbouring snakes during monsoon periods and making it dangerous for shunting-porters to walk along the railways tracks for changing points. Though contracts are given for cutting this vegetation, it is rarely done effectively and the hazard remains perennially.
10. Disaster Management Planning:
Presence of hazardous chemicals, materials and processes in the plant can give rise to emergency situations, despite all possible safety controls and measures. For, there is what is known as the notorious ‘Murphy’s law’ which postulates –
“Any item that can fail can be expected to fail at the most inopportune and damaging time”.
And lo! We have an emergency on hand! instead of panicking at that moment, and land into a bigger mess, it is prudent to think out and prepare beforehand, during calmer moments, a “Disaster Management Plan” laying down, in detail, how exactly the situation will be handled, and coordinated using the resources at hand or even with extra resources obtained from external agencies.
This involves taking help from state authorities, explaining the dangers to our workers and to people in the vicinity and the role each one has to play, should the disaster take place.
Further, in order to perfect each one’s understanding of their role and make the system function more efficiently, mock-drills are conducted once in 6 months to a year.
One feature commonly observed is an ’emergency exit’ to be used as an escape route in case of fire. It is kept closed, locked and obstructed with useless items dumped before it, with the result that if and when the need to use it arises, it is next to impossibility to have access to it and people in distress will get trapped and die perhaps. Mock-drills will prevent such cases.
Planning, Project and Construction in Iron and Steel Industry:
Iron and steel industry is capital intensive. It influences the environment significantly, even socially and economically too! There are intrinsic built- in hazards also. With so many factors to be taken care of, planning is very essential for even additions, modifications or replacements, not to speak of modernisation or expansion of steel plant. It is imperative to ask the designers, manufacturers and suppliers of technology/equipment what the hazards involved and how they are taken care of. What are the safety measures required?
What emergencies can arise during operation and how is that to be tackled? What emergency planning and preparations are needed for its containment? Answers to all these queries are to be obtained and incorporated into the technical specifications before placement of orders.
The Amended Factory Act places the onus of responsibility for hazards on the designer, manufacturer, supplier and importer. They should furnish the complete know- how of safety measures, safely appliances and Do’s and Don’ts, at the same time ensuring the safety of the operations within the parameters prescribed in the Act.
For this purpose, Safety and Health Departments should be associated right from the planning stages, with Project Department, to scrutinise the offers and discuss with the Suppliers and Consultants on matters of safety and health. They should even visit the installations at the suppliers to gain a first-hand knowledge of the hazards involved and see what measures would be required to be taken in local conditions.
Construction:
During the construction stage, in addition to the various safety precautions required to be taken against the usual construction hazards of working at heights, excavations, cranes, movement of huge quantities of earth-work temporary electrical connections, there are some basic aspects to be taken care of with respect to contractor workers.
Salient amongst them are:
(i) Safety induction courses to be attended before commencement of work.
(ii) Supply of safety appliances and their use at site.
(iii) Penalty clauses to be included in contracts for invoking in case of violations of safety measures, even by sub-contractors.
(iv) Ensuring engaging of only competent agencies.
(v) Laying down of exact route of ingress and egress between gate and site inside the works, for the contractor workers to strictly follow. Any deviation of this would be treated as “Trespass”.
(vi) Site clearance to be obtained from safety officers before commencing work.
Safety Policy and Its Fulfilment in Iron and Steel Industry:
Knowing full-well that ‘people’ are the most important resource/asset/capital of the organisation, a Safety and Health Policy is necessary for the undertaking or the company. The main objective of the Policy is to create a safe and healthy environment in the works for the employees to work in.
The policy should also spell out clearly the roles and responsibilities of the workers, supervisors, managers, Heads of Departments and even the Unions for, all of these have a responsibility towards the safety and health of the employees. Safety and health are not negotiable.
Copies of the policy, in regional language, are issued to every employee and explained to them by their supervisors.
For any successful implementation of the policy, two-way communication and joint participation of workers and management are essential. Towards this, there are bipartite, two-tier—Departmental and Works level—Committees to inspect, implement, discuss, educate, improve and innovate. They should meet regularly. In addition, there are formal channels of communication between the manager and the workers during working on the shop-floor.
Any hazards identified should get quick and prioritised attention by the shop-in-charge. Any accident/incident, however minor, should be fully investigated immediately to know the right causes, formulate preventive measures and implement them in time. These aspects should be discussed in the shop-floor bipartite meetings in a constructive manner, to get the real benefits and learn from experience.
Safety is people-oriented. Not only their “attitude” but their “behaviour” as well should be attuned towards safety. The need to bring in “safety awareness” from within cannot be overlooked. Every organisation, big or small, should consider safely as one of the inputs in the production process. That would be a red-letter day in our efforts to build a ‘safety culture’. Safety hazards and emergency steps are given in Table 30.5.
The Plants’ Safety and Occupational Health Departments, consisting of qualified and experienced safety Engineers and industrial Health Specialists, will render all specialists’ assistance; give guidance and advice to the line-managers who have the ultimate responsibility for Safety and Health in their respective areas of work.