VISAKHAPATNAM: As many as 138 fatal accidents occurred in various industries between 2012 and 2020 in the district. There are 20 major hazardous Industries and 120 hazardous industries both in private and public sectors, according to factories department in a report. Among major hazardous industries, there are 11 major hazardous industries in public sector and nine in non-public sector.
Whereas in hazardous industries category, there are 12 industries in public sector and 108 in non-public sector industries. There are 1,400 non-hazardous industries and eight naval and defence establishments in the district. The factories department filed seven cases for prosecution in courts 2017, 11 in 2018, 20 in 2019 and seven in 2020.
Hazard potential of the industry is based on the quantity of hazardous chemicals present and industries having inventories beyond the threshold quantities specified in MSIHC Rules, 1989. Hazardous industries and industries having chemicals listed in schedule of MSIHC Rules but below threshold quantities. The report said most of the accidents occurred due to other reasons such as mechanical hazards, electrical hazards, chemical hazards, fall from heights, confined spaces, manual handling, mechanical handling, fires and explosions, toxic releases, and structural instability.
The report said the factories department suggested steps for safety improvement. Some of the steps include training contract workers, ensure workers’ participation in safety management, encourage near miss reporting, follow change management protocol, risk identification and mitigation, implementation of process safety management, personal protective equipment, safety audits and inspections and strict implementation of permit to work system.
It said as a part of the safety audit, 92 industries are covered in 2016 and 70 in 2018. Four teams are now constituted to conduct safety audit of industries from July 20 to 29. It said offsite emergency mock drills were conducted in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Onsite emergency mock drills were conducted in 300 industries in 2018, 300 industries in 2019 and 100 industries till June, 2020. Industrial emergency response centre is located at Jawaharlal Nehru Pharma City, Parawada.
It is manned 24x7 with trained staff to meet any emergency requirements. The centre is equipped with emergency equipment like SCBA sets, PPE, fire entry suits etc. The centre is also provided with emergency equipment tender. Live fire training imparted to 2,000 workers of Pharma City with the guidance of IERC at HPCL - Visakh Refinery under the guidance of factories department.