The Grass-Cutter

The Grass Cutter The grass -cutter dropped in at 11.30 am and started to trim the grass around the compound of that house. By 12.00 pm, he had completed the job and approached the lady of the house for some potable water. He was perspiring from head to feet. The lady invited him into the sitting room and offered him some water and red wine, and telling him that her hubby has gone to another city and would not be back until three days later. The young man was very happy to hear that and smelled something. After the red wine, the lady handed over a towel and told him to have a shower, and not to worry about lunch because she has prepared his lunch too. After the shower, he came back to the sitting room and the lady invited him to have more red wine. He could not refuse such a good offer. “ There are only you and me in this house. Do you have a wife or girl friend? Don’t you need anything?” the Col’s wife asked him. After more red wine, he approached her and and put his mouth on hers, and started to massage her nipples and removing all her clothes. She stood up and requested that they do it on her bed. They went in and by then they were both fully naked. That was the bed which only last night her own husband ejaculated inside her. He pushed her on the bed and started to push his penis inside her. She was shivering and shouted with joy. When it was over, she appreciated the huge amount of sperms ejaculated inside her. After this session, both of them were tired, and hungry. They ate mutton curry and other dishes which she has prepared earlier. He enjoyed all the delicious dishes and was resting on her bed after the lunch. She invited him for another session. This time she handed over tooth brush and tooth paste and requested him to brush his teeth thoroughly. He wanted to know the reason for brushing the teeth! There was no need for an explanation. After brushing, he came to lay beside her, fully naked. She was quiet for several minutes. After that she began to kiss him on the mouth and massage his penis, and told him that after brushing, the kisses would be more enjoyable! He rested on the bed, enjoying her message and kisses. Suddenly she went down to suck his dick. Uncontrolable desire arose in him, and his dick was really hard and huge.She rested her cunt on his mouth and asked him to lick and suck it while she was shouting with joy. By then he realized he must push his dick deep inside her and work hard to satisfy his own desire and her desire. He pushed right in until the end of his dick. Isn’t this what ladies want?He exerted himself and continued to pound her until he ejaculated, but his tongue was still inside her mouth. He wanted to make sure she would look for him again even if her hubby has come back.

Signal Hill Black Out

This guy was still in the upper secondary school. His school performance was among the top of the class. One family had a daughter in the lower secondary school. The parents thought it would be a good idea to pay the guy to guide her on her school subjects, hopng that he would teach her some of the means to achieve good results. Many weeks passed by and the tuition was going on very well. But one night during a thunder storm, Lightning flashed and flashed in the sky. A sudden intense flash of light, about 100 yards long and about 2 inches in diameter, appeared on the sky, followed by a big bang. The power supply to the residential area was cut off. She jumped up and put both her arms round her tutor still shivering all over the body. The tutor held both his arms around her, and kissed her on the mouth, with his tongue inside her mouth. She did not object and was enjoying his tongue in her mouth, pushing in and pulling out non-stop and round and round in the mouth too. She held him tighter. He slipped off her panties and lay her on the floor and penetrated right in and began to push in and pull out. Later on, her mother who was having sex with her father in the bedroom put on a sarong and came into the sitting room to see how her daughter was doing. With her flush light, she saw her daughter in the arms of the tutor, flat on the concrete floor. The lightnings still flashed on the sky. She pretended not to notise anything and returned to her room. That was her own daughter, and she knew it was also the wish of her daughter too. When her hubby asked what was going on, she said that the kids were in the sitting room waiting for the power to be back to normal. She added: assuming the power is not back to normal for the whole night, we will have to allow that tutor to put up the night here until the morning. “ No problem about that as long as I’m also around here.” “ha, haha. You don’t trust me hubby?” “ How may I trust you. Women love to have sex with men who are under 20. Moreover, how many men had you entertained before you settled down with me? It’s not a matter of trust. Many women said it would be ashamed to commit adultery, yet, those who said so are the ones eventually committing it. You see, they lost the sense of shame at that crucial moment! Do you want to hear real incidents happened to my female colleagues ? They told me it happened so naturally and that they had no such plan before it happened! ” Regarding this student and her tutor, we were told that her tuition continued and every time before the tuition class started they would have sex and then went on with the tuition. Naturally she conceived and when the pregnancy was visible she had to leave the school. But it was few weeks before the Form 3 School leaving examinations. So she registered herself as a private student and was lucky enough to successfully passed the exams. The identity of the boy was kept confidential because otherwise his school would also sack him. This young lady got a licence to operate a restaurant and was able to earn enough for her child and herself.

The Cina Kebun Story

These fellows have to sell their houses, lands, pigs, buffaloes, cows, goats, and ayam segun to send their children abroad for higher studies. I think other races also suffer the same faith to a certain degree. One Kadazan told me his grandmother had to sell one big pig to provide the money for him to appear for the Senior Cambridge School Certificate Examinations. Those are very sensitive questions in my country. For my country, the natives are given the privileges. One of these privileges is the places of universities. More than 85% of those places are reserved for the natives. I had to compete with the nonnatives for the less than 15% places. And the competition is indeed very tough. Very few of the Cina Kebun children ever return to their home country after completing their studies abroad. At the foreign colleges, they were often asked the same question: Why do you have to come here to read for a degree? Don’t you have universities in your own country? Almost all of them either settle down in Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, or Singapore. Very soon, China would be a country of their choice too.The unique thing about these Cina Kebun is that they are well disciplined and are much appreciated by those foreign employers.

Brief Introduction on Meditation

The real problems people from all over the world face are in the deep-down ache of the heart, which do not go anywhere. They are always with us. These ups and downs of life remain, regardless of whatever religion you may profess, whatever fame or wealth you may own. Terrified and paralyzed with fear, they look for others who may have the power to remove their sins or ills. Negative thinking contaminates our mind and sends out negative force. Positive thinking emits positive energy and brings harmony and peace. Clinging hampers the body healing process and also causes new illness or worsen our physical condition. Remain neutral regardless of what you see, hear, smell or experience. Once the mind is concentrated, you experience joy and happiness. Speak at the right times, it must be truthful, sweet to the ears, beneficial and imbue with loving kindness. The physical brain matures as people age. But the spiritual mind must also mature. Meditation is one of the techniques needed to modify the habit patterns of the mind. The body is only a combination of elements or a group of changing aggregates. But each person has that Buddha nature which needs time to mature. As a person progresses slowly the Buddha nature too is developing. The flow of bodily and mental processes go on. The child is not the same as the adolescent, nor is the adolescent the same as the adult. Are they the different persons? The concept of an ego is an illusion; it is not real either in this life or in the hereafter. Don’t you agree the insubstantial clouds look solid to us? During times of disaster, sickness, and difficulties, mindfulness meditation may help you to tolerate them in a better manner. Meditation may cure migraines, and overcome drug addiction, and may lower systolic blood pressure from 5 to 8 mmHg for about 12 hours and the diastolic pressure by 6 to 8 mm Hg for about 8 hours. Relaxation create nitric oxide which opens up your blood vessels. Meditators have higher telomerase activity than non-meditators. Telomerase is the enzyme which helps build telomeres. Greater telomerase activity can translate into stronger and longer telomeres which enable us to live longer. Meditation puts your body into a state of deep rest, and is better at reducing pain than morphine. It could reduce pain intensity by 40%. Morphine & other pain relieving drugs reduce pain only by 25 %. Five benefits of walking meditation: endurance for practicing dhamma, endurance for walking long distances, (for example practitioners can walk up to three hours continuously on normal road, regardless of their age), good health, concentration attained is long lasting; more confident, calmer, wiser, find greater tranquility, a sense of wholeness, and able to face our fears For the advanced practitioners, after having transcended any sexual inclination, they experience an unprecedented pleasure, happiness and quietude. There is neither attachment nor aversion for any worldly object. He or she attains a level of perfect bliss. To lighten your kamma, you need to practice vipassana meditation. This practice is itself a good deed, and you expiate the previous bad kamma, and create new good kamma. Mindfulness can be practice the whole day. When we are not negligent, we are mindful. The devils love the idle minds. Mind must always have an object, bring it to the present. Those worldly objects actually imprison and ensnare the mind. Nimittas are the lights you see during meditation. These are metal signs. For most people, they are beautiful lights of various colours, e.g. while, blue, purple, grey, yellow, orange etc. Sometimes they are bright and unstable, vibrating of flashing and changing shapes, like the clouds.    Some people also see eye, eyes or faces when their r eyes are closed. These are very normal and we should not be attached to them for our own safety.   She only reached that level. For more advance practisioner, within few minutes after the nimitta, maybe few hours, days, months, or years, ( depending on how well you have practised so far)Jhana will happen by themselves later on.    According the the Buddha : for one who indulges in Jhana, four results are to be expected : Stream-Winner, Once-Returner, Non-Returner, or Arahant.

Political Essay

The electorate will always base their choice on emotion. The race, religions and social standing carry more weight than anything else. I am talking about the average guy on the street, which is where the majority of them are found. As we can see, during the past 62 years, power hungry politicians from many parts of the world were able to win one election after another even though the governments they came out with were corrupt, evil and inefficient. The unfulfilled promises of the former election manifestos were never to be taken care of again. The worse thing is that these corrupt politicians could simply point the crooked finger to accuse another race and win lots and lots of votes from his own race. He could simply say our religion is at stake and therefore he must win the election. The poor records on progress are always the faults of foreigners. They control the whole country by promoting fear, secrecy, polarization, and also through distracting people from their deeper purpose in life. They said : Your lands, jobs, savings, and retirement are no longer secure. You must vote for us or against us! They breed distrust, suspicion and paranoia so that the people can easily be manipulated. In a world where greed, hatred and delusion exist, it is indeed very easy to create political hay. Who is there to censure these corrupt politicians? One neurotic even suggested that crude oil must be used as weapons to fight the foreign powers, not realizing that these foreigners can also use the potatoes to fight back. Can we drink the crude oils? The reason why these politicians failed as economic planners is that they are not economists and worse still they allow soldiers to mess in politics. Can you name me a country which is led by a soldier and is in good shape?

Phlippines and China in South China Sea

The US recently pledged a US patrol craft to the Vietnamese navy. Was it because China had reclaimed over 2000 acres of land by 2015 in the South China Sea? Some of the ASEAN countries don’t wish to make a choice between China and the US, except the Philippines and Vietnam. The Chinese had also constructed a 3Km runway for handling fighter jets. The Chinese are merely catching up with rivals who have also built airfields and other infrastructure there on their own islets and reefs. Obama administration has no consensus answer to stop Chinese muscle-flexing. Why did the US invite a CNN crew on board a surveillance flight over islands claimed by China, and broadcasted the radio challenges by Chinese military on the ground? US aircraft’s crew rebuffed eight warnings during its flight, saying that was international airspace. US had violated the Chinese sovereignty. Why are US spy planes routinely patrolling China’s coast? Should US back Vietnam and the Philippines at any price? Vietnam and the Philippines have classified Beijing’s interests in the South China Sea as maritime and territorial ambitions, which is not true. Beijing was only protecting what was under Chinese rule for more than 2000 years. Under international law, a nation controls 12 nautical miles around islands and coasts. For the issues in the South China Sea, everyone has a different idea of where he stands between China and US. Lucrative arms business must be the objective of those who are fanning for wars in the South China Sea? Is China militarizing, or is it wrong for China to upgrade its armed forces? The Chinese needed to have better armed forces after the Mao-era. Beijing is beefing up its hold over hotly disputed islands, so why don’t you send your armed forces to attack China now? Why is the US pressuring China by publicizing a surveillance flight over contested islands in the South China Sea? Chinese dredging activity provoked a diplomatic protest from Manila in February 2015. If China is wrong, why are the Philippines not able to declare war on China now to solve this pressing problem, now that USA is fully interested to start a war with China? Can we be the technological and entrepreneurial powerhouse?

Work PLace Safety

Preface The shocked incident happened on March 23, 2005, at BP Texas City Refinery’s octane-boosting isomerization (ISOM) unit. The blow-down unit was vented directly to the atmosphere. A nearby idling pickup truck, caused the explosion and fires through the unit and the surrounding areas, killing 15 people, destroying 13 trailers, and damaging 27 others, some were parked 479 feet away. Safety standard of BP had always been very high on my list until 2005. The first question I asked was: Why was the pickup truck not fitted with a spark arrester? The next question was: why were the trailers allowed to parked at an area where combustible gas could present? If this sort of accident can happen to BP, just how safe are all the other engineering concerns and other work places? On 11 September 2017, two offshore workers on board Repsol Sinopec’s Fulmar Platform were injured by the collapse of a crane boom. One worker suffered a broken jaw and had to be airlifted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. The other worker suffered bruises. In Singapore, there were 55 work place deaths in 2016, all of which could have been prevented. In Singapore, for the year 2012, there were 56 workplace fatalities. In 2011, there were 61 fatalities. One example of which safety hardness were not used involved the death of a man while plastering a wall on the roof of a building.  In 2013, during April, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka killed 1138 workers. Less than 50% of the industrial accidents in most countries are ever documented or reported in the local media. If an accident happens, the victim is normally the one to be blamed and for the temporary workers, the employers simply terminate their service. Often, it is only when the nature of the accident which cannot be covered up, that the accident is covered by the media. How is your company’s Safety and Health Management System? One resident engineer openly said that he did not want to see accident reports documented because he wanted to show the number of accidents in his yard as zero for the whole year. Quite surprisingly, he was able to cover up all the accidents. No wonder there were cases where the corpses of illegal foreign workers were reported. The safety officer must report directly to a government body and not to the resident engineer (RE), because the RE can bias against the Safety officer since the RE may enjoy substantial benefits from the contractor like getting free lifts every day from house to office and vice versa. Other benefits are normally the payment of the house rents, the laundry bills and the bills from restaurant. At the moment, in many Asian countries most safety officers only appear on paper. They are actually people who are doing something else for the employers. Majority of our contractors still think of industrial safety as a burden and a waste of time and money. They must be educated to understand that industrial safety will actually increase their productivity and lower the production cost. As the average education level of the workers grows higher, a day will come when many of these workers are able to sue the employers for damages like noise-induced hearing loss, loss of eye-sight etc. The subsequent compensation claims could be very high. Non-compliance must be treated severely and the responsible parties heavily fined in terms of money or sent to jail for an appropriate duration. Otherwise, the Government cannot protect its citizens from unscrupulous employers. Stop work orders must be issued for any non-compliance audited. The construction yards or factories must be audited by the Government personnel at least once every two weeks. Containers which are meant for transporting cargoes must not be used as living quarters for the workers. Can you imagine how dangerous it could be for a 20-footer-container, 10 feet wide, and 8 feet high to be used as a quarter for 12 persons? During an emergency, how do the workers escape, since there is only one door? I saw only one electric fan and there were seven persons with lighted cigarettes in that container. All engineering courses in universities must include industrial safety as a compulsory subject and all undergraduates must undergo three-month industrial training on Safety with local companies before they are allowed to graduate. For the non-graduate, a ten-year industrial experience and a Secondary School Education must be the minimum qualifications a candidate should have before he / she is allowed to take an industrial safety course and to receive an industrial safety certificate. The industrial safety course must run for one year with every Saturday as a compulsory attendance for the candidate. The pass marks for all the papers must be 80% or higher. The local construction industry must liaise more closely with the Government and the Government personnel must go more often to the yards to carry out more thorough checks. For example, the local contractors use crawler cranes without safety certificates. But when the Government personnel went to the site office, the safety personnel were shown a bunch of certificates from somewhere else. If this sort of practice is allowed, then one certificate of fitness can be used for millions of equipment. Safety cannot be learned in the classroom. Just like the best training for soccer is to go into the field and practise. Safety is best learned in the field. Of course the safety officer must be around to train the workers. It is his/her duty to assist the workers to identify the hazards, to take precautions, to prevent and to carry out the protection from those hazards. The best trained workers are the ones having a good knowledge of the jobs, with good skills and experience. They are most valuable to the company because without them, the company will not survive. Each new recruit must be informed of the company safety policies and he/she must be shown around the new surroundings. The places where written entry permits are required must be briefed and those places clearly indicated. Every engineering concern must encourage its employees to audit/survey fellow employees on safety hazards and unsafe acts. Employees can also help to make their work place safer. For example, have you received enough training to effectively perform your job? Are all employees in your company tested for illegal drugs before his/her employment? Ask your senior manager: Is safety important to him? Unless contractors and their clients are prepared to accept the extra time and additional cost to buy that extra degree of safety, fatal accidents will keep on happening. When your engineers attend this course, they will not die inside a rotating drum, their oxygen cylinder will not explode, and they will not die inside a chopper which was dragged down by the wire ropes, or inside a tunnel because they were rushing around telling the workers to abandon the worksite. Minimum safety gears The minimum safety gears each worker has to put on every day are: safety hats, safety glasses, long sleeve shirt, trousers, and safety boots. For those working in noisy areas, the earmuffs or plugs must also be worn. For the workers working in dusty areas, the respirators (air filters) must be worn. These items are all provided free of charge. Any worker caught not complying would be given a first verbal warning. If he were caught again, he would be given a warning letter and told to leave the yard or worksite until he was able to come back with the appropriate safety gears. The same person if caught with the safety violation within the next 12 months, his service would be immediately terminated, and he would not be able to work in that company forever. Safety Hat Safety hat is not just used to shield your heard from falling objects. It is also useful when your lower your body to enter low places. After concentrating on your jobs for several minutes, you may forget there are obstructions above you. If you suddenly stand up, this safety hat will protect your head. Safety Glasses These glasses are only good to prevent foreign bodies shooting directly and horizontally towards your eyes. During a strong wind, the dust from the floors or decks can be blown up vertically to reach your eyes and cause injuries. Dark safety glasses are only good for outdoors use. When you are indoors, your vision is very much reduced by the dark glasses. Certificate of fitness I discovered some contractors who used crawler cranes were using a bunch of certificates which were not belonging to the cranes on site. Complaints to the authorities fell on deaf ears in some countries. The same thing happened for chain blocks used for lifting and pulling. They would send you a bunch of photo copies of certificates confirming the blocks were duly tested according to the requirement. But none of the serial numbers and tagged numbers tardy with all the blocks on site. One chain broke off but luckily no one was hurt. Wash Trough Design of a wash trough must be approved by a government body and it must be functioning every hour of the day. It is no use having a wash trough, when it is never used and whenever the DOSH (Department of Occupational Safety & Health) personnel come to audit the yard, they are told that the High pressure pump only broke down that morning. As can be seen from the photo, it is obvious the wash trough was not in working order. After washing the vehicle would be just as dirty as it came in. The road after the wash trough must be sealed with concrete so that the mud will not be sticking to the wheels of the vehicle. Silt Trap The silt content at the discharge must be not more than 50 mg per liter of effluent. Dissolved oxygen must not exceed 7 mg/Litre. Biological oxygen demand must not exceed 20 mg/Litre. As shown in the photos below. The silt trap for that construction site was obviously too small. During the heavy down pour at night, the trap was overflowing. The pictures were taken the next morning, after the rain had stopped for about five hours. Obstruction and Emergency Exit There were also cases of the stems of gate valves installed overhead with a less than 6.5 feet distance from the ground or platform. These stems which were installed horizontally must be seven feet or higher because they would pose as hazards for people walking along the area to knock the head on the stems. There must be at least two emergency exits for a work place. More than two would be needed if the two exits are not sufficient for all the workers to evacuate safely. The exit signs must be permanently lit and the exit doors must never be locked. If for some reason, it must be locked, then a worker reaching the door must be able to slide a bolt easily to open that door. Each exit route must be at least 28 inches wide. For the stair, the width must be at least 22 inches wide. There must be no obstructions on all the emergency exits. Gondolas They must be designed by professional engineer and licence from the authorities must be obtained before they are to be used. The safety hardness must be fastened to the lifeline and not to the handrails. The safe working load must be clearly stenciled on the gondola, with the tagged number of the unit properly secured on the unit. Never cheat by using a gondola which has not yet been load tested and confirmed safe for use by the authority. Some contractors stenciled the following sentence on a plate and try to cheat the authority: “This gondola is not safe for use” but his workers are using it to transport materials and people. The trick is when a safety inspector comes along, the contractor simply says that the labourers were not able to understand English and they used the gondola by mistake. Hot-work Permit Workers working in areas where they could be combustible gas leakage, must have the areas gas tested first before they are allowed to do hot work there. The hot work permits must be re-validated if the worksite has been abandoned for four hours. Only qualified personnel should be allowed to certify an area is gas free. The instruments used must be certified by a qualified agency. It is common for companies wanting to save time and money to say that the areas were tested gas free the previous day, and therefore they must be safe today. This sort of assumption can cost lives, injuries or property loss, and in one plant, a fire was actually started. This happened because the superintendent requested a welder to carry out welding job at the crude oil terminal, without a relevant hot work permit. It was by the side of a clogged drain. Few minutes after the welder started work, there was an explosion. Obviously, the fire explosion was caused by the welding sparks, and the presence of combustible gas produced by the rubbish in the drain. A fire watcher with proper fire-extinguishers must be onsite until the hot work has been completed. Some welders argued that because they have the hot-work permit, they were allowed to light up cigarettes on site. If they are not able to go without cigarettes until their tea breaks and meal breaks, it is best to have them terminated and not allowed to join your team forever. Your own life is at risk and so are the lives of many other innocent people. In some countries, the port authorities issue a hot work permit to any ship wanting to carry out hot work if all the surrounding ships do not contain explosive substances. However, this fact does not mean then you may do any hot work on board that ship. A ship has many decks and it is for your own safety that you apply for an in-house hot work permit from the safety officer of that ship or the captain of the ship. People were killed when the sparks from the welding caused an explosion because the painters were doing spray painting nearby. Arc Welding and Grounding for Welding Machines To avoid serious damage to electronic equipment, disconnect all instrumentation and electrical connections before arc welding. Screens will also be needed so that the arc rays will not damage the eye sights of the people around the welding site. The infrared radiation will burn your retina and it will also cause cataracts. Over exposure to arc radiation may also cause skin cancer. The welders must wear eye, ear and body protection to protect themselves from Ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Helmets and hand-held face shields offer the best shading against arc radiation. It is also a good idea to wear ear muffs to keep flying sparks or other foreign bodies out of your ear. The noise from the welding machine is about 85 db. It will definitely damage your hearing system after a certain period of time. Keep flammable materials at least 36 feet away, examples: gasoline, oil, paint, thinners, wood, cardboard, papers, acetylene and oxygen. Do you know where the fire alarm and the fire extinguishers are when you want them? Also check to ensure the earth ground connections of the welding machines are tight, and that the electrode holders and welding cables are in good condition and well insulated. Over exposure to fumes and gases can be fatal. The most recent incident I came across was people using diesel powered welding sets not willing to provide grounding for the machine. It took only one copper rod, 0.5-inch dia, and 12 inches long and a piece of high-tension cable 1.5 meter long to ground the machine and make it safe. I was told those people were doing the jobs during the past many years and they never had a problem. I had to tell the employer it was mandatory to have the welding machine provided with adequate wiring for grounding. For those who connect the grounding cable by bolt and nut to earth, do not forget to unscrew the grounding cable when you want the machine lifted to be used at other locations. Damages had been done just because welders who moved the machine to other site did not disconnect the grounding cable while the machine was being lifted by a crane. Grounding regulations vary considerably between different countries. If in doubt, check up with the local authorities. The body can sense a current of 1 mille ampere. A current of 20 mA or so could prove fatal by contraction of the heart muscles. The joint on the right side of the red clamp was definitely poorly welded. It was done by a semi-skilled welder, which legally must not be allowed to do any welding job on any oil and gas rig. Permit to Work All the jobs in the plant and the yard must be properly coordinated. Only one coordinator must be allowed to approve permit to work system daily and an area where the approved job is not in progress for more that 4 hours needs a new permit. Testing of Safety valves All pressure relief valves must be re-tested every two years and the pressure at which the valve will open, and the day the valve was pressure tested, must be clearly engraved on stainless steel plate and fastened on the body of the safety valve. It is no use putting on safety valve only to find later that the explosion occurred because the valve was of a very much higher rating and therefore it did not open when the pressure in the vessel went beyond the safe range. Pressure Gauges Ensure that your pressure gauges are serviced by qualified personnel regularly. People were killed when the pressure gauges on the pressurized vessels indicated “0 PSI” and they were opening the doors which provided access for workers and tools. Those pressurized doors would be blown off once the nuts which were holding them down were removed. To get a feeling of how dangerous a pressure can be. Think of your car tyre pressure. It is normally around 30 psi. Safety Hardness Falling from height is the most common cause of dead in every country. Authorities are only getting serious recently. For most countries, safety hardness is required if the height is 6 feet or more. For scaffolders, fall protection is not required until they are 10 feet off the lower level. What is the minimum height a worker must wear the safety hardness in your country? Workers working on high areas must be provided with safety hardness, and not just a safety belt. The safety hardness must be tested and certified by qualified personnel at least once a year. If a safety hardness is defective, do you still want to use it? If you don't, then discard it to prevent others from using it. During a fall, the safety belt can prevent the worker from dropping to the ground. It cannot prevent the worker from breaking his spinal cord. During job interview, recruits who were expected to work on high places must be told the truth. Some people cannot climb height and these were the people most likely to get hurt if they were told to work at high locations. Mobile Crane & others The maximum lift capacity must never be exceeded. Joystick controllers and other instruments must be inspected and tested on a regular basis. Is the leveling indicator functioning properly? Is it fixed on your crane? When was the last time those wire ropes on the crane load tested? Are the rollers in good condition? Are all the certification documents in order and still valid. Is your crane operator certified? For tower cranes, I would suggest they must not be in operation again if they are more than 10 years old. If you must use it, have the unit recertified by qualified persons. People not involved in the lifting job must be at least 30 meters away from the crane. Lifting slings & tag lines All lifting slings must be load tested and a safety certificate issued. The safe working load for the sling and the date it was tested must be engraved on stainless steel plate, or other hard-wearing substances, and attached to the sling. The certifying authority stamp and the identification number must also be clearly marked. The same procedures apply to shackles and spreader bars. A qualified surveyor must inspect the slings (fiber or steel), shackles, and spreader bars, once a year. Any item, which is not safe, for use must be destroyed and discarded. The next due date for inspection and testing must be tagged on the equipment. Before lifting, inspect rigging for interference with equipment. Adequate protection must be provided to prevent damage to slings and equipment. Manila ropes must not be used for lifting. Riggers involved in lifting and shifting of heavy items must attend a basic course of safety on lifting. They must be taught the proper use of tag lines on each end of the load for complete control during maneuvering because it is human nature to move close to the load and use the hands to push or drag the load to the desired location. In cases where the load is not within the length of your arms, the load would be left out of control. If it is a very heavy load, e.g. two tons or more and with pointed ends (e.g. I beams, Angle Irons etc.), this load can cause a lot of harm like puncturing the oxygen and acetylene cylinders, knocking off the scaffolding nearby or crushing into the workers in the surrounding areas. Lives have been lost because people believed by not putting on the tag lines, they saved a lot of time and money. The following photos shows the oxygen and acetylene cylinders were placed in the unsafe manner. They should be secured inside a rack, or to a trolley, for further handling to a lay-down area. When moving oxygen, acetylene and nitrogen cylinders, the dimensions of the whole package, and the total weight, must be clearly indicated. These cylinders must never be dropped from height thinking that the soft cushions at the lower level can prevent them from being damaged. The tension on the wire rope of the crane increases as far as ten times if the load is allowed to swing from one end to the other end. Cranes with this problem had crushed down, the boom and the load, killing people around it or injuring them. As can be seen from the two photos below, the wire ropes were definitely no longer safe for lifting purposes. According to the construction safety standards, they should have been cut and discarded. One engineer was killed with the pilot of the chopper he hired to install a structure on top of another structure and the lifting sling could not be released from onboard the chopper. Not many chopper pilots are trained or licensed to airlift construction equipment and assist the installation on sites. In 2005, a container-truck driver was crushed to death in Singapore when a crane operator accidentally released a container on the driver’s cabin. In 2013, also in Singapore, a container smashed on to the driver’s cabin killing the driver. Most likely it was because one of the four slings broke causing the load to swing to one direction. If tag lines were use, the riggers could have stopped the load to swing to one side. Battery Maintenance Battery acid (electrolyte) and oxidized terminals are very corrosive. Severe injuries will occur if they contact the eyes or skin. Battery electrolyte can cause blindness. When removing battery cables, always make sure all switches are switch off, and remove the ground cables first. Wear the proper PPE (safety goggles, and rubber hand gloves) while doing the battery maintenance and do not smoke. Lead-acid batteries produce flammable hydrogen. If ignited, it will explode. Immediately flush with water and seek medical treatment when exposed. When handling batteries, avoid excessive vibration and heat, and never overcharge a battery. Charge the batteries in well-ventilated area. If there is evidence of damage on a battery, replace it immediately. Batteries life can be prolonged or shortened, depending on how you maintain them. When a battery is completely discharged, it must be recharged immediately to avoid permanent damage. The normal temperature of the battery electrolyte is between 15 degrees and 38 degrees C. The battery terminals, and covers must be dry and clean. The terminals must not be corroded. Trenching When workers have to dig trenches with machine, they must be provided with drawings showing the locations of where the underground cables are and that they must know the depth of the cables. When the excavator (Trench Hoe) has removed the top portion of the soil, the workers must manually shovel the remaining layers of soil by spades and hoes when the cable is 6 inches below the excavated area. There was one incident where the people excavating above the high-tension cable were not briefed about this and the Trench Hoe pulled up the high-tension cable causing a major black out. The management concerned thought it would be faster using the Trench Hoe to dig until the cable was visible. That was a very expensive lesson. Even with a map to guide the workers, it is still necessary to have a person qualified to use a cable detector to reconfirm the exact location and the direction of the existing cables. Trench five feet deep or more must be shored. Planks and trench jacks must be used to support the braces from falling down. Always remember that the earth will not always fall from the top or the sides of the trench. It can bulge from under your feet. Many people in some parts of the world died because the earth under their feet moved for some reason causing the shoring to fail. Excavated materials must be placed at least 0.65 metre away from the trench wall. Where the depth of the excavation is greater than the width, and the maximum depth is not more than 15 feet, ordinary shoring can be used. For excavation greater than 20 feet, OSHA requires the protective system to be designed by a registered professional engineer. Radioactive materials Commercial radioactive sources are usually metallic in nature, for example Cobalt-60 which has an effective penetrating power of 225 mm of steel plate. This source must be encapsulated in protective covering, which may be a thin sheath of stainless steel or aluminum. By containing the radioactive material in a capsule of this type, it prevents the possibility of accidental mishandling. The encapsulated source must be housed in a lead line steel container and is to be left in isolated location with fence surrounding it for safety reason. When the X-ray is in progress, a sufficiently large area must be roped off and warning signs posted to keep all personnel outside the danger area. The currently accepted dose for classified workers is 1 mSv (0.1 rad) for a five-day working week and the maximum dosage for a year is 50 mSv (5 rad). Scaffolding Scaffolders must be trained on site. Scaffolding timber boards must not be painted because the paint would cover up the defective portion and can endanger workers' lives. Toe boards and handrails must be provided. According to ANSI A10.8, the light duty scaffold is designed for 25 lbs per square foot. Equipment and material storage on the scaffolds are not allowed. The Medium duty scaffolds are designed for 50 lbs per square foot. Light materials like bricklayers' and plasters' works are allowed to be left on board. The Heavy Duty scaffolds are designed for 75 lbs per square foot. Masonry items or materials are allowed to be stored on these scaffolds. When scaffolds are completed, a qualified inspector must be called to certified that the scaffolds are safe for use. Again this will cost money, which stands at US$ 800.00 per visit for the inspector. There are many contractors who put up scaffolds illegally. And they put a tag at the bottom of the scaffolds saying: This scaffold is not safe for use. But then the workers are using that scaffold to work on heights. When an auditor happens to notice that, the employer simply says: We were going to call you for certification. The workers were not able to read and write. They used it before we gave them the permission. The following photo shows an example of a poorly constructed scaffold. Working Over time All workers must be given a period of continuous rest of 8 hours per day. This is mandatory as most of the industrial accidents are caused by workers who were over exhausted. It is better to engage more workers if you care about the reputation of your company. The infringements will be very expensive. Safety Hat An average safety hat is only effective for three years because of ultra violet degradation or other factors. It must be able to withstand an impact of 5 Kg object from a height of 10 meters, dropping vertically downward. There are products in the market which do not conform to this standard. If you need different hardhat colours to identify your workers, talk to the manufacturers or their representatives. It is very dangerous to paint those hardhats with the colours you wish. The industrial paints will certainly weaken the strength of the hardhats. If you need to work in noisy areas daily, it is best for you to have a safety hat with mounted ear muffs. Safety on Grinding There were also incidents where I had to tell workers to put on the face shields when they were grinding with pneumatic or electrical tools. In many cases, the face shields were available at the grinding locations. But there were few cases which the face shields were not available at all. How did the employers get away with this safety issue? A proper grinding guard for the grinding wheel is a must. If the wheel breaks, the fragments will hit the worker unless a guard has been installed. A worker doing the grinding job must also wear a dust mask, a hearing protection, and a hard hat. And lastly, he must be on protective clothing with steel toe boots. Safety Glasses Most of the safety glasses found on the market are only good enough to prevent dust or foreign bodies coming toward your eyes from your front and right or left sides. They are not constructed to prevent objects coming vertically from above your head or below your head. Go and shop for a pair that is good for you. If I tell you the brand, the other makers would be very much offended. In dark places, dark safety glasses would not be suitable. They would only cause more problems. Employees working at night, or at dark places must not be using dark safety glasses. Safety goggles I had also come across many cases which the oxy-acetylene cutter refused to use the safety goggles provided. In many cases, contractors also failed to provide the goggles. Handling of Oxygen & acetylene bottles At many construction yards, I came across workers dropping the oxygen and acetylene cylinders to the cement floor from the lorries. They could not believe this act could damage the cylinders. The screw caps for the cylinders were also never used. The excuse was that even the suppliers did not provide the caps. The caps are needed for safety reason. For example, the cylinders are left in the standing position, there could be oils or grease dropping onto the screw heads at the top of the cylinders causing explosion. Workers have been killed because the valves on the cylinders shot off suddenly. The wounds were more horrible than those of the gun shots. Cylinders must not be placed less than five meters away from welding sets, compressors, and generators etc. The Use of Respirators: In dusty areas or areas with fumes, respirators must be worn. Fine asbestos dust is produced during the manufacture of asbestos products, or while these products are being used in the construction yards. The nasal hairs in your nose wave back and forth from 8 to 12 times per second. Up to a certain extent, they help to filter the air you breathe in, blocking dirt and dust from getting into your lungs. They sweep the bacteria and other pollutants that enter the nose, with the mucus to the back of the nose where we swallow them. The bacteria are killed by the acid in the stomach. However, unfortunately, for asbestos dust, these hairs are simply not effective. For this reason, people working with asbestos must wear respirators. Asbestos dust must be washed with water and never be blown with compressed air. The surgical masks used by medical doctors are to prevent the substances from the doctor’s nostril dropping on to the patient. They cannot prevent the asbestos dust, which can be less than 1 micron long, from going into the nostrils. The average diameter of the human hair is 50 microns. You need electrostatic respirators to capture particles which are less than a micron in diameter. Most of the respirators on the market are not able to do this. Find out from your safety officer. The US employers made this mistake before and many of them are still paying compensation today, (2004). In the U.S., a privately funded, government-run USD 140 billion trust had been created to pay work-related asbestos claims and it is estimated that this amount of money will not be able to pay all the valid claims. Are there no work-related asbestos victims in Asia? Old partition walls built in Singapore before asbestos materials were banned in 1989, must now be removed before any demolition can be done. And can only be done by Approved Asbestos-Removal Contractor (AARC). The contractors must ensure workers are aware of the dangers of and they must know what precautions to take. Asbestos dust can cause lung diseases especially lung cancer. The new rules are in line with international practices. Those who do not comply with the regulations face a fine of up to S$20 000.00, two year jail, or both. Japan was the only Asian country so far that came out openly with a documented record of the deadly carcinogen which caused mesothelioma, a cancer caused by carcinogen. During crushing of granite rocks, sand-blasting, removal of sand sticking to metal castings etc., fine particles of silica are produced. The proper use of respirators with very fine filters, will prevent the silica and asbestos dust from going into the lungs, and the wood dust into the nostrils. The silica can cause fibrosis of the lungs and the asbestos dust can cause lung cancer, while the wood dust can cause nose cancer. When woods are swan, it is advisable to require the carpenters and those exposed to this hazard to put on the correct respirators. Smoke Extractor Smoke extractor must remove all the smoke in the room within 60 seconds because a person in that room will die within five minutes. Make sure it is in running condition and confirm it once every two weeks. High sound pressure level The next incident I had to solve was people had to work in enclosed areas where the noise level was dB(A) 88 or above all the time. These workers had to work 12 hours per day, six days per week. Without using the earmuffs or earplugs, people would start to lose their hearing capability within a few weeks. It had been confirmed that a decibel level of 90 or more continuously for 8 hours would damage the hearing system slightly on a permanent basis. The decibel level from live rock music is 120, the same from power tools like those use to hack concrete when three hackers are operating at the same time. For chain saw, it is 110 and for normal office conversation, 60. In many countries, there are no laws to prevent the contractors to use three power tools to hack the same cement floor in the same building. The high pressure sound level is very damaging to the hearing systems even if the workers are wearing hearing protection. What about the others who have to be in that area at the same time. Is it fair to them? When they found out it was always too late. All workers who have to work in high Sound Pressure Level area, dB(A) 85 and above, must be briefed on the hazards of noise exposure. I also came across workers in these areas not willing to put on the earmuffs provided, giving the excuse the earmuffs would make them sweat more profusely. They also cited that they worked for many weeks there and non-of them had hearing problem. Noise level must be maintained below 65 dBA during the day time. The use of noise buffers such as hoarding must be encouraged. Noise level must not exceed 55 dBA during night time if the workers are sleeping near the construction yards. If a worker must be exposed to a location where the noise level is 80 dBA or higher, for more than one hour, protective earmuffs must be worn. A sound level of 120 or more could cause a fatal heart attack, for example, myocardial infarction. Jack-in piling machine produces 100 dB within one meter radius. A jet plane taking off produces 107 dB 300 meters away. At 30 meters it is 150 dB. Companies in Singapore violating noise limits face a fine of $40 000.00. Excessive noise may also disrupt the growth and development of premature infants, raise blood pressure, loss of sleep, and changes in brain chemistry. Noise can lead to social hardship, reduced productivity, decrease performance in learning, absenteeism in the workplace and school, increase drug use and accidents. If you must work in high noise pressure areas and your employer is not willing to provide you with earmuffs, you simply have to buy your own or refuse the job. The following photo shows people working at high noise level area without using the earmuffs. Radioactive materials Commercial radioactive sources are usually metallic in nature, for example Cobalt-60 which has an effective penetrating power of 225 mm of steel plate. This source must be encapsulated in protective covering, which may be a thin sheath of stainless steel or aluminum. By containing the radioactive material in a capsule of this type, it prevents the possibility of accidental mishandling. The encapsulated source must be housed in a lead line steel container and is to be left in isolated location with fence surrounding it for safety reason. When the X-ray is in progress, a sufficiently large area must be roped off and warning signs posted to keep all personnel outside the danger area. The currently accepted dose for classified workers is 1 mSv (0.1 rad) for a five-day working week and the maximum dosage for a year is 50 mSv (5 rad). Cigarette Smoke Ideally, cigarette smoke should be prohibited from all work sites. In a non-smoking environment, the workers will be healthier and productivity will be higher. Second hand smoke contains over 50 cancer-causing chemicals. Good ventilation systems will not get rid of second hand smoke. Second hand smoke also cause diseases and pre-mature death in children. Even the non-smoking adults will not be spared. The risk of developing cancer and heart diseases is between 25 and 30 %. Children living with smokers have a higher risk of asthma, ear problem, respiratory problems and sudden infant death syndrome. Ventilation System The ventilation system should actuate an alarm when there is a breakdown in the pump room or engine room, or any other rooms where there are people inside. A physical check procedure must be carried out immediately. Safety Procedure check list All equipment must be provided with a safety check list and the list must be checked accordingly by a qualified person. His name and the checked date must appear on the list. All unsafe equipment audited must be duly recorded to prevent others from using them. Live Electrical Cables The cables must be tagged clearly. If they are laid underground, the exact locations and the depths must be clearly indicated above the ground. The startup buttons of equipment must be locked to prevent unauthorized use of those equipment. Emergency Shut down For some plants, especially on oil and gas fields, emergency shut down knobs are provided. If there is an emergency, example, a fire and your life is in danger, just push or pull the shut-down knob to prevent more oil or gas from escaping. Hundreds of people were burn to death just because a few workers were afraid to shut down the platform when a certain location of the platform was already burning. Ask yourself, can the big brother who is authorized to shut down the platform come out to do it? What happens if he is already dead? Don't you want to stay alive? Can money bring back those dead people to life? Entry to Confined space: All workers who must work in confined space must be trained. Before any one is allowed to enter the confined space, the place must be certified free of combustible and toxic gases. The detectors used must have a valid certification from an authorized authority. If the confined space is not properly flushed with water and compressed air, the people who want to enter the area must be equipped with breathing apparatus and each cylinder must be able to supply enough air for the person to go in and come out safely. The normal air requirement for an average person is 10 cubic feet per minute. If a worker must enter a confined space without breathing apparatus, he must have the place tested to make sure the oxygen at that area is not at the dangerously low level. An oxygen gas detector is obviously needed. And that detector must come with a certification certificate. That certification certificate must be still valid. The above was a photo of my hotel room in India. When I checked in in the evening and found that out the hotel refused to have the air-conditioner repaired and also to allocate me another room. They said all rooms were occupied. When in India, never book any room and pay for it before you move in. The device on the floor was their fan, to keep the air cool in the room. So I had to sleep with my hotel room door open! If workers must work in the confined space, the space must be flushed with water and compressed air for at least 4 hours continuously and be certified safe by a qualified gas tester. For example, if a fractional column has a base of 10 meters in dia. and a height of 90 meters. We shall need a compressor that can produce one cubic meter of air per second at 150 psi to flush the column continuously for 4 hours. This inlet air supply must be plugged at the lowest point at the base of the column with a one-inch connection to the compressor outlet. The outlet for the air to escape must be at the highest point of the column. Do not enter without breathing apparatus if the oxygen level is 19.5% or less by volume. However, if the level is 23.5% or more by volume, it is also not safe to enter because at this level, it is explosive. Combustible organic compounds inside a tank can be as high as 30%. A combustible gas meter analyzer must be used to confirm the volume of the combustible gas. Many years ago, a technician was inspecting a vessel for petrol storage. He was carrying a lighted electric bulb. When the lighted bulb was accidentally broken in that vessel, he died on the spot because of the violent explosion. The most recent work-related death because of negligence was documented in 2005 when an engineer went inside a compartment on board a ship for inspection. He died in that compartment. The hatches for ventilation were all closed. The next time you are asked to enter a confined space, ask yourself the following questions: Who are the people qualified to approve permit for vessels and confined space entry? Are the gas testers qualified? Are the instruments used for the testing in good condition? Are the certification still valid? Spray painting: No smoking signs must be displayed at all the areas where people can come near. The working area must be barricaded. The painters must be provided with respirators. No smoking should be allowed around the painting areas. In the past, explosions had occurred causing lives and properties. Should we allow history to repeat? For workers with exposure to peeling lead-based paints, the respirators must be of the standard which can stop the lead dust from going into the human noses. Explosive Metal Powders Because of their high surface to area volume ratio, metal powders are explosive, particularly aluminum, magnesium, titanium, zirconium and thorium. When handling explosive metal powders, note the following: Grounding the equipment, Preventing sparks, Avoiding friction, Avoiding dust clouds, Avoiding open flames, Avoiding chemical reactions Forklifts: All forklift operators must be properly trained. Especially during the reverse, some operators never see what was behind. They assumed it was empty. This sort of assumption resulted in one death in 1974 when a worker was standing against a wall and an operator reversed toward him crushing him to death on the spot. Another case happened when the operator did not see behind and ran his fork on a pavement, breaking the vertical portion of the fork beyond repair. Whenever a reverse must be done, the fork must be raised at least 12 inches from the ground, to avoid damage to the fork and other materials on the ground. The maximum weight and dimensions of a load must be adhered to. Even if the load is not beyond limit, the dimensions may be too large for that forklift. Your forklift operators need to adhere to the risk assessment and safe procedures. In Singapore, for the year 2006, 9 workers died because of forklift accidents. Whatever brand of forklift you are using, they all have the minimum standards. Forklift must be inspected every day before use. If repairs must be carried out, they must be done by qualified technicians. If your company must use forklifts many hours per day, it is best to provide pedestrian barriers. Are your forklift operators trained to the OSHA standards? In some companies, the forklift operators are not authorized ones. Whenever, the inspectors from the ministry of manpower appear, the operators disappear, because the inspectors could not walk through the guard house without having themselves registered. Compressed air: Workers must not use compressed air to clean the bodies. Compressed air must never be used to test for leaks in pipes and vessels. Incidents had happened in the past and people were killed or badly injured by compressed air. Petrol: Workers must not use petrol to clean the hands and paint brushes. Petrol must never be left unprotected. Check with your local authorities regarding the maximum quantity or volume you may be allowed to stock in your plant or workshop, and also the necessary precautions you have to ensure, like the containment, fences etc. Lead Poisoning It has been confirmed that children whose blood stream contain five times or more than their healthy peers are less intelligent, with lower IQs. They may have impaired kidney, anemia, severe stomachache, muscle weakness, and brain damage. The extent of damage depends on how long they have been breathing in lead-contaminated air, and consumed lead-contaminated water and food. Other sources of lead dust are from industrial paints, gasoline, and lead oxide fumes. For both children and adults, lead poisoning impairs brain function, making them irritable, and affecting the ability to concentrate and remember. People who live near manganese, zinc and lead smelters were found to have as much as 499 micrograms of lead per litre of blood; the normal safe limit must not exceed 100 micrograms. For adults, it causes high blood pressure, infertility, impotence, nerve disorders, muscle and joint pain. An adult in advanced country would not normally have more than 20 micrograms of lead per litre of blood. Continuous exposure to lead for more than a few weeks may result in nerve damage, inhibiting electrical signals and slowing the transmission of oxygen to the brain, resulting in lower intelligence, irreversible learning disabilities, behaviour problems, and mental retardation. If you live within five hundred meters from a smelter, you can see a fine layer of lead-dust on your surrounding. When the lead level in the blood is excessive, complications such as convulsions, coma, and death will result. It is now possible to treat lead poisoning with drugs, e.g. succimer. This medicine binds to lead and removes it through urine. Prolonged exposure leads to accumulation of lead in the bones, which will be a reservoir to poison the rest of the body. More than 95% of lead in the body accumulates in the bones. Consult your doctor to decide whether you need treatment for lead poisoning. Ordinary masks to prevent dust from entering your nose are not helpful when it comes to lead dust. Do not be fooled by the manufacturers. Tell them to write down exactly the smallest particle their mask can hold. Otherwise you might as well tie a handkerchief over your nose! Marine: Life jackets must be worn when workers have to work at places above deep water and the chances to fall into the water are high. There must be a life-jacket for everybody when your workers have to cross a mass of water and they must be taught the correct method to put on the life-jacket. The life-jackets must be genuine products and each jacket must be able to keep a person afloat for at least 24 hours. Welding Shop: In a welding shop, each welder's work area must be surrounded by blinds to prevent the light of the welding arcs from reaching the people moving around these areas. The welding arcs can cause permanent blindness if a person is exposed to them sufficiently long enough. For light duty welding, normally 200 Amps or lower, the following protective items are considered adequate: woolen or cotton clothing, cloth gloves, and welding helmets. For Heavy Duty welding, the following items are needed: leather gauntlet gloves, leather jacket, leather apron, spats, safety shoes, and welding helmets with filter glasses. Welding fumes can cause shortness of breath and other diseases. Welders who work in confined space conditions are the ones who will suffer this disease. Air blowers must be used to remove the fumes To avoid serious damage to electronic equipment, disconnect all instrumentation and electrical connections before arc welding. In the welding shop, brazing, cutting, and welding would be done. Those workers are exposed to metal fumes, and ultraviolet radiation, resulting in burns, eye damages, electric shocks, crush fingers or toes. Safety Shoes They must be worn at all times when you work in the fields. If you are exposed to corrosive substances, slippery surfaces, and other hazards, make sure that your safety shoes or boots are incorporated with steel caps to protect your toes and your feet are also protected from those corrosive substances. It is necessary to replace your safety shoes once every six months. Industrial Effluent In most countries, the effluent that is drained into public places, drains, rivers, seas etc. must not contain more than 15 ppm of oil. It is very expensive to stick to this target. But the resulting fines would definitely be more expensive. Your company may be able to get away with it at the moment because of the existing corrupt governments. But how do you make sure the next government will be just as corrupt? Don’t you think an incorruptible government may be elected next? By then, the fines will be many times more expensive than the expenses you have to spend on treating the effluent properly before dumping it into the sea. (Shoudn’t the governments reward people who come forward to report abused cases?) According to a Smithsonian Institution report, in 1995 alone, 363 millions gallons of used oils ended up in the oceans as run-off from land, municipal or industrial areas. In a polluted river, the water is smelly and discoloured. When oil enters a slow moving river, it forms a rainbow-coloured film over the surface. This layer prevents oxygen from entering the water, killing the animals in the river. Even birds are affected. The feathers of water birds can be contaminated and when they preen, the oil enters the gut, thus killing them. It does not take a specialist to confirm a biologically dead river. Just stand at the river mouth, facing the sea. Can you see trees or creatures three hundred meters from your left and right? Oil pollution disrupts sea and shore life for thousands of miles in Asia. The beautiful coral reefs and mangroves, once existed at those areas are gone. Didn’t they have a chance to exist too? In September 2007, 378 000 volunteers from Ocean Conservancy, scoured 33 000 miles of shorelines and collected 6 million pounds of debris, from Bahrain to Bangladesh, and in 45 U.S. States, from Southern California to Maine. Why didn't they include South-East Asia in the project? A healthy earth will surely result in more healthy humans. How many more years do we have to wait to see some concrete projects being put into practice? How many years do we have to wait before the whistle-blowers are protected? Potable water A pH lower than 7 indicates the water is acidic. If your potable water comes from doubtful sources, send the samples for lab analysis every week. It is also advisable to analyze the water for lead content, and other contaminents. Toxic Gases Don’t you want to know the over 24 types of gas that can kill or harm your employees, or you, and how to handle them? The following 13 gases are dangerous to handle unless you are trained to do so. If in doubt, seek professional guidance. Ammonia Chlorine Fluorine Bromine Hydrogen chloride Hydrogen cyanide Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) Hydrogen fluoride Carbon monoxide Sulphur dioxide Carbon dioxide Nitrogen dioxide Nitric oxide Combustible Gases The following (not exhaustive list) 11 gases are combustible. How do you make sure your worksites will not be blown up by one of them? Do you know that the gas testing must be done at regular interval? Methane Carbon disulphide Ethylene oxide Benzene Acetone Acetylene Hydrogen Oxygen Propane Methanol Glycol Methyl Bromide This substance is very effective fumigant, readily penetrating soil and timber. It is highly toxic. Symptoms of poisoning are: resemble drunkenness, may be delayed for several hours. A victim may take years to recover. The gas is first smelled when in a concentration of 10000 parts per million and by then it is too late, poisoning having occurred at 35 ppm. An area should not be fumigated with methyl bromide until it has been searched and evacuated. Metal Chips Metal chips from milling or drilling machines are razor-sharp and should never be removed with your hands or compressed air. The flying chips may injure you or those nearby. One technician had his eye removed because metal chip was found in his eye and it was too late to save that eye. Would you like this to happen to you? The cutting oils used for machining can create a highly flammable oil mist if compressed air is applied to them. This mist can be ignited by an open flame causing an explosion. It is therefore best to remove the accumulated chips by a paintbrush. Sanitation In the developing countries, this is the most neglected topic. Workers are expected to excrete and urinate in the wood. For hygienic and safety reasons, when there are less than 50 male workers in the yard, the following are needed: Water closet (2) Urinal (3) Wash basin (3) The number of water closets, urinals, and wash basins must be increased proportionately as the number of workers increases. There must be 24- hour supply of water in the toilets and the toilet facilities must be cleaned daily. The OHSA standards say there must be at least one toilet for every site with 1 to 15 male employees. The same standard applies to the female employees who should never be told to share the same toilet for the males. I came across one shipyard where some employees had to walk at least 200 meters to use the closest toilet. Litter Litter must be removed from the yard once in the morning and once in the evening before the workers leave the yard. The litter must be dumped at designated dumping ground. If you are working on board ships, the garbage must be collected and duly discarded onshore. Garbage Container This container need not be provided with metal cover as it is more a safety hazard to the workers when they are opening the cover to throw in the garbage because the cover may fall on their arms or fingers thus injuring them. Pest control, Mosquitoes & Houseflies Mosquitoes must be fogged at least once every month. Stagnant pools of water must be removed immediately. Do you know where the mosquito breeding sites are? Most of the breeding grounds are in the construction sites. Errant contractors must be fined so that enforcement actions can be effective.   Chikungunya first started in Singapore in 2008. By 2009, over 1000 people were infested. This disease is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, which also spread dengue fever. By March 2013, more than 2500 people in Singapore have been infested by chikungunya.   Worldwide, there are 2500 different species of mosquitoes. In the USA alone there are 150 species. Mosquitoes must have stagnant water to breed. Only the adult female mosquitoes bite men and other animals, like cattle, horses, goats, deer, rabbits, snakes, lizards, frogs and all types of birds. The males feed on plant juices. These buzzing little mosquitoes are disease transmitters, and can cause your cat and dogs to contact heartworms.   WHO estimates there are 50 million cases of dengue and malaria around the world every year and of this, at least 125000 people die yearly. These diseases become more prevalent as the ambient temperature rises. Anopheles mosquitoes are the ones which transmit malaria to man.   Dengue and malaria are no longer seasonal. Their presence is now continuous. So beware of disease traps like discarded tyres, or tyres used to weigh down roofs in the shanty areas. Industrial equipment which are left in the yard, without proper covers or shades can collect rain water for mosquitoes to breed.   For dengue alone, there are four strains of viruses at the moment.  The main strain is the Den-1. A person will need to take four doses of the vaccine, six months between each dose. A person who has been infested once is only protected against that strain. If he is bitten by mosquito carrying a different dengue strain, will fall ill again. Isn’t prevention better than cure? Dengue is now endemic in more than 100 countries.   By June this year, within a matter of less than six months, 7100 people in Singapore have been infested by dengue. Within the same period there were 33 500 cases ion Malaysia and 22 000 cases in the Philippines.   At cooler climates, mosquitoes mate during autumn. But in the tropics, they mate whenever they become adults. After mating, the males die but the females hide in leaf piles, loose barks, or cracks in buildings. So clean up your bushy areas, but do not destroy the bushes as these bushes attract the small birds which feed on the mosquitoes.   Another smart thing to do is to allow bats and birds to live around your area, possibly putting up bird and bat houses for them to roost. Bats are living bug zappers. One bat can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes per hour.   Another thing you can do is to request your local health authorities to carry out fogging at your area regularly if it is justified and if you are living in a country which cares. Disease-carrying mosquitoes have spread to cooler climates and are now a global problem.   Other areas to clean up are the possible sources of standing water such as discarded bottles, containers, flower pots etc. If you have a large pond, put fresh water fishes like mosquito-fish or bleeding heart tetra. These fishes feed on mosquito larvae.  Most other tropical fresh water fishes also feed on larvae. You can experiment on this yourself.   Mosquitoes remain within a mile or two of their source. But some are found to have traveled 75 miles from their breeding source. Most males live for about a week but  the females live up to a month.   Andes mosquitoes attack during the day. These are the ones spreading the dengue fever. The disease is transmitted when the andes bites an infested person and then bites someone else. They prefer to bite humans and can fly many miles from their breeding sources.   Culex  mosquitoes attack at dusk and after dark. They prefer domestic and wild birds. They can transmit sleeping sickness to man and horses. The females which emerge in late summer search sheltered areas to hibernate until spring.   Culiseta mosquitoes attack in the evening or in shade during the day. They mainly feed on birds and mammals, and occasionally humans. Why not invest on black-light traps or gravid traps? Surely your life will be more peaceful without mosquitoes? Cats and dogs must not be allowed to run around in your worksites, or to breed there. One male and one female flea can multiply to 1000000 fleas within 100 days. Your workers' health may be affected and thus efficiency will definitely go down. Majority of the contractors still think industrial safety is a burden and a waste of time and money. They must be educated to understand that industrial safety will actually increase their productivity and lower production cost. Grit-Blasting During grit-blasting, some portions of the steels actually turn into powder. This powder can travel up to 100 metres or farther depending on the speed and direction of the wind. It is no use putting up canvas 8 feet high in the form of a fence, giving the workers that false impression of safety. It is best done at night, when majority of the workers are off-duty, if a confined space is too expensive to erect. When the metal powders go into the lungs, there is no way to get them out. Though the results will only be noted many years later, the workers and the victims can still sue the employers if the evidences are available and the lawyers who are well-versed in this field are willing to take up the cases. Ear-Muffs: As the average education of the workers grows higher, the day will come when many of these workers will be able to sue the employers for damages like noise-induced hearing loss, and occupational loss of eyesight, lung cancer, welders’ diseases etc. The subsequent compensation claims could be very high. Moreover, this course will minimize or avoid the environmental liabilities many of which may carry civil or criminal penalties in future as the governments of the countries you are working in become more and more transparent every day. Arc Welding To avoid serious damage to electronic equipment, disconnect all instrumentation and electrical connections before arc welding. Screens will also be needed so that the arc rays will not damage the eye sights of the people around the welding site. The infrared radiation will burn your retina and it will also cause cataracts. Over exposure to arc radiation may also cause skin cancer. The welders must wear eye, ear and body protection to protect themselves from Ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Helmets and hand-held face shields offer the best shading against arc radiation. It is also a good idea to wear ear muffs to keep flying sparks or other foreign bodies out of your ear. The noise from the welding machine is about 85 db. It will definitely damage your hearing system after a certain period of time. Keep flammable materials at least 36 feet away, examples: gasoline, oil, paint, thinners, wood, cardboard, papers, acetylene and oxygen. Do you know where the fire alarm and the fire extinguishers are when you want them? Also check to ensure the earth ground connections of the welding machines are tight, and that the electrode holders and welding cables are in good condition and well insulated. Over exposure to fumes and gases can be fatal. Training site in the open sea, not safe, strong current Trained Safety officers Fake safety officers are common in some companies. The guys with safety certification allowed their certificates to be filed on site by the employer. That safety officer working in the fields is a fake one. He is also the company driver and helper. When an auditor comes to site to carry out the auditing, the guy with the Safety certification would be on site too! Trained 6G welders The certification of welders at your job site is a serious issue. The following photo shows a lab container welded by semi-skilled welders. There are four lifting lugs on the roof. You can see the two yellow ones on the right-hand side. There are two more on the left-hand side. All these lifting lugs must be welded to the container by 6G welders. The semi-skilled welders can surely weld the lifting lugs on to the container. The danger is the lugs may fail during lifting, causing the loss of life or other damages. Before they are installed on the container, they should have been load tested accordingly, depending on the maximum weight of the container when it is fully loaded with all the equipment on the roof and the interior of the container. The design and construction of the container must be done according to BS EN 12079 Standards. Semi-skilled welders doing the jobs of 6G welders The following photo shows a poorly welded joint, which was obviously done by a semi-skilled welder. The poorly done joint is on the right-hand side of the red clamp. This equipment is a kill pump. It is used in the oil field to pump cement into an oil well which may be as deep as 29 000 feet underground, to stop an oil fire if there is one. The pressure gushing out from the burning well may be as high as 10 000 psi. That kill pump will need to pump at pressure more than 10 000 psi, for the cement to go down into the oil well. Do you think that poorly welded joint will not fail? Public address system One engineer died inside a tunnel, because the tunnel was about to fail, and he rushed in to request his workers to rush off immediately. If your site does not have a public address system, you will need to talk to the management about it or consider working for others. The public address system must be linked to the fire alarm panel, and must be able to execute broadcasts for evacuation when it is necessary, 24 hours per day, and 7 days per week. It must be tested daily at a specified time to ensure it is functioning. A Wireless Alert Siren System would be a better choice. The Wireless Alert Siren can come with a four-button remote controller, allowing the manager, engineer, supervisor and foreman to trigger the sirens and flashing lights whenever there is an emergency. All the workers must be told about the emergency assembly area so that during an emergency they know where to go and report to. For the oil and gas fields, the public address system or the wireless alert siren system must have intrinsic safety. Intrinsic safe system also applies to those used in the coal mines, and sewers. The wireless alert siren may not work efficiently for the coal mines, underground tunnels, and sewers because the signal will be hitting the walls and be absorbed. Your Site Office You have the correct fire extinguishers on site? Do you know how to operate that extinguisher? What about the toilet facilities? Do you have enough running water? Your Office at high-rise building You have the correct fire extinguisher on site? Is there an emergency door for escape if your main entrance is on fire? Are the emergency doors for escape locked? One hotel chief engineer told me he would come to unlock the doors when there was an emergency. What would happen if he was the first one to die because of the fire? Obviously, it was illegal for him to have all those emergency exit doors locked. What he could have done was to use the straight door bolts to lock those doors. During an emergency any person reaching the door can easily slide the bolt to open the door. Your offshore Emergency Craft for escape (Offshore Survival Craft Training) Is it functioning at any moment? Do you know how to lower it to the sea and operate it to move away from the burning platform? Many employees are only able to move the craft round and round on the same spot. Is there enough fuel to run the engine for the next 24 hours? How do you attract attention so that the rescue helicopter can find you? How many minutes must you wait at the survival craft if some of your colleagues don’t turn up? With the fires raging in every direction, how much time must you hang on before lowering the craft to the water and sail off? Vehicles on site Are they licensed to be on the road? Are the drivers authorized? Are the insurance certificates still valid? I came across a contractor with a fleet of more than 12 lorries, which were all without road tax and insurance, and without licensed drivers. He could only move his fleet away to another site at 3.00 am in the morning. What will happen to you if you are driving a company vehicle without road tax and insurance, and you happen to kill someone on the road? Your employer will deny that was his company car, and that you were not on company duty when that fatal accident occurred. The dead person’s family can bring you to court, and you have to pay for the compensation and all the legal fees incurred. HUET: Helicopter Underwater Escape Training In this training, they put you in a dummy helicopter, and submerge that helicopter completely in the water, rotate it upside down. Then you release your seatbelt and get out of the helicopter to swim away. This must be done in a pool and not in the open sea. There was once when this engineer was offered an offshore job abroad and he had to qualify for the Helicopter Underwater Escape Training. He was told to attend that course one morning. When he reached there. The training was to be done in the sea and it was a winch on a jetty that lowers or raises the dummy. The poor engineer thought his life was more valuable than money. He walked away and naturally he could not report for his job abroad. His reason was that should a trainee become unconscious and is carried away by the water current, would the life guards be able to assist? The life of the life guards too will be at stake. The normal sea currents travel at about 12 inches every three seconds at the South East Asian region. If an attendee is washed away by the current, his family will not be able to claim for any compensation because the training centre can simply destroy the relevant documents and just say that engineer never turned up. Haze Problems Your life is in your own hand. When the haze is serious and you are told to work outdoor, you need to negotiate with your employer. In South East Asia, haze is a common problem during the dry season. Blanket of haze can shorten your life. The statements from the authorities are fake. According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 7 million people died every year because of air pollution every year. Surely, the main causes are from smog and haze. Governments don’t give you true statements about smog and haze. Errant residents and firms must bear the brunt of law if they flout it now. In the past the laws only appeared on paper. Clearing land by burning is crime against humanity. No one must be immune from the law. Almost all those fires were started by local farmers and the plantation owners. Licences of errant plantation owners must be revoked and the owners put in jail. Otherwise, the haze will never be resolved. The Air Quality & Pollution Measurement uses the term PM 2.5 to refer to Particulate Matter (PM) also known as atmospheric aerosol, which are two and a half microns or less. Exposure to PM2.5 even for a short while can be highly hazardous. For some, even for just one hour can result in heart attacks. Those with asthma will worsen if exposed to PM2.5 for a few minutes. PM2.5 enters the lungs. It is the majority of haze particles that are about 0.15 microns in size. PM stands for particulate matter which is the main air pollutant in the haze. Each of these particles is less than 2.5 microns in size, and is equal to one over thirty of the diameter of a strand of human hair. These PM 2.5 can travel hundreds of miles away from their source. Those sources are normally the wildfires or the volcanic eruptions. The more PM 2.5 is in the air, the more hazy the atmosphere becomes, and visibility is very much reduced. When the PSI reading is from 1 to 100, it is normal. From 101 to 200, it is unhealthy. From 201 to 300, it is very unhealthy. From 300 and above, it is hazardous. It is believed N95 masks can prevent PM 2.5 from getting into your lungs. I have not seen or read the confirmation statements from its manufacturer. My inquiries with two other brands on the market have also not been replied to. To carry out real and effective changes, the authorities should begin with the pulp and palm oil companies. These companies have the no-burning policies which of course appear only on paper. For example, companies that burn protected forests would get 10-year jail and a fine of up to 15 billion rupiahs. But until today, this law has yet to be carried out. Each of these companies slash- and-burn several hundred thousand hectares of land per year and they must be brought to court. The number of hot spots has been increasing in Indonesia year after year and by now it is clear that the Indonesian government is not able to stop it. What can the green activists do? It is common for farmers to own 5000 hectare plantation in Indonesia. To flatten and clear one hectare of land for cultivation, a farmer will need to pay about US$1500.00.How many of them can afford it? The livelihoods of the farmers are involved. How does the police carry out the enforcement? Burning is the cheapest way. They just have to light up some dried grass or leaves, and the fire will raze on for the next many days. Indonesia must have the one map policy with clearly marked all forest boundaries and concessions so that culprits cannot deny it is their areas which are burning. Clear responsibilities for law enforcement officers must also be implemented to avoid confusion regarding whose responsibility it is to nail down the culprits. Farmers and companies involved in slash-and-burn method to clear the land must be controlled. Fire permits must be regulated to limit a certain acreage burning at any one time so that we don’t have millions of acres burning on the same day. In Indonesia, during the dry season, it is common to see charred plots of lands, for every few kilometers you travel. Owners who breach the terms and conditions of their licenses must be fined or put in jail. Unless they are accountable for their greed, they will continue to take the easy way out and the haze will continue every year during the dry season. Do you have a better idea to prevent haze? Fighting persistent fires in rural areas is not an easy job. Peat fires burn underground and are more difficult to extinguish because large amount of water is needed to put out the ambers. These pockets of peat fires are still igniting hundreds of hectares of burnt out farmland, releasing billowing smoke into the air because the fire fighters cannot reach some of those places. Offenders in Malaysia face a fine of RM 500 000.00 or a jail term of not more than five years. This law is widely flouted with convictions unheard of. The main cause is that there is more money in agriculture now than in the past. And fire is the cheapest way to clear your land. It will cost less than 1% of the money you need to spend to employ others to do the clearing, not to mention the cost of machinery involved. If you pay the police and firemen not to touch you, you can also get the job done faster. Within five working days, any parcel of land will be totally clear and you don't have to provide land space to hold the dead trees and leaves. Twin Stepladder When you are given this ladder to climb height to replace a ceiling bulb or to carry out other job, never go up to the top rung and think that you can be safe standing there to work. The top cap is not for climbing, sitting or standing. You are not a gymnast from the circus. It is most unsafe. You must also make sure that the anti-slip safety shoes of the ladder are in good condition. Common injuries made by ladder climbers are bruises, bone fractures and head injuries. Lead, Cyanide and Food Poising In many food courts, the cooks use these files to sharpen their knife. So there is a chance that you will consume some portion of the poison, though the amount may not be critical at the moment. Other chances of cyanide ingestion are from household fires, when rubber, plastics or silks are burn. Unless you work with a company which has its own canteen, there is very little you and do about cyanide and lead poisoning. But if your life is at stake, why not be a whistle blower? In many parts of the world, flat bastard files are used to sharpen choppers, knives etc. The teeth of these bastard files are grooved diagonally in both directions. They remove metal rapidly and are very convenient and effective for sharpening tools. Unfortunately, the metal surface of these files are hardened with cyanide, which is a deadly poison. With cyanide in your blood stream, your body is unable to use oxygen, and life cannot be sustained. The symptoms of cyanide poisoning are: general weakness, confusion, bizarre behaviour, excessive sleepiness, comma, shortness of breath, headache, dizziness, and seizures. If the ingestion is acute, the onset is immediate and it affects the heart, causing sudden collapse. The heart beats will be extremely fast or extremely slow. If a casualty has some of the above symptoms, seek medical treatment immediately. It has been confirmed that children whose blood stream contain five times or more than their healthy peers are less intelligent, with lower IQs. They may have impaired kidney, anemia, severe stomachache, muscle weakness, and brain damage. The extent of damage depends on how long they have been breathing in lead-contaminated air, and consumed lead-contaminated water and food. Other sources of lead dust are from industrial paints, gasoline, and lead oxide fumes. For both children and adults, lead poisoning impairs brain function, making them irritable, and affecting the ability to concentrate and remember. People who live near manganese, zinc and lead smelters were found to have as much as 499 micrograms of lead per litre of blood; the normal safe limit must not exceed 100 micrograms. For adults, it causes high blood pressure, infertility, impotence, nerve disorders, muscle and joint pain. An adult in advanced country would not normally have more than 20 micrograms of lead per litre of blood. Continuous exposure to lead for more than a few weeks may result in nerve damage, inhibiting electrical signals and slowing the transmission of oxygen to the brain, resulting in lower intelligence, irreversible learning disabilities, behaviour problems, and mental retardation. The latest case on dead after consuming food I heard was a four-year-old-boy who died after eating tainted food. So the inspection of food establishments must be done more thoroughly and those officers must be independent hygiene inspectors. Do they know the food handlers are using bastard files at the eateries? Vegetables packed in the farm are sent directly to the food stall owners. These owners do not wash the vegetable before chopping and cooking them. This is another serious issue. Your Personal Car Because of your refusal to accept corrupt deals, you may have rubbed on another person. A thug can be hired to hide in your car boot and reach your home without you knowing it. For the ladies, your physical body may have attracted an uninvited guest. Another factor is kidnapping for ransom. Check your car boot often before your drive home. If you drive into another country, it may be good idea to drive your car to a police check point where they may be able to check if there is heroin in your car. A packet of heroin can be fastened to the bottom of your car, using a magnet. If you are caught by the authorities, it is very difficult to prove to them it was not you doing that job. In many countries, possession of heroin of 15 grams or more carries a death penalty. One-night Stand If you come across this offer, politely decline it. There is no free lunch. Once you commit it, you have to do as you are told. Many contractors use women to and money to carry on with their corrupt deals. Moreover, you don’t know the motive of the woman. While your sex session is going on, many men may force their way into your room, with movie cameras and so on. One guy can claim the woman is his wife, and that you have to compensate him for bringing shame of him. Can you walk off unhurt? The compensation will not be cheap. Even worse than that, she could simply shout rape and call the police. The police will normally believe that. Who is there to prove it is not true? They will try to invite you to participate in their corrupt deals. They will ask you just until when have you got to work if you simply depend on your basic salary. Traveling by sea If you must travel by sea, buy an inflatable life jacket, and carry it in your bag every day. An inflatable life jacket is the best choice because it is occupying very little space when it is not inflated and it is also very light. If you must travel by ship to an offshore platform or rig to work, make sure your ship is constructed of steel. When there is a fire at the rig or platform, the sea water surface would be burning. Can your timber boat carry you to safety? During your next trip by ship, have a good look at the ship you are going to board. Is it well maintained? Is it too old to be safe? You decide whether to board that ship or not. For some reason, ships without life jackets and valid certification are running in many countries. Your life is in your own hand. You decide if you wish to risk it. The owner would surely say his ship is seaworthy, and that he has a valid permit. If he has, he will be proud to display it at a place where everyone can read it. You also need to check if all the passengers are manifested because your own life may be at risk. More passengers mean more money. Why would a captain turn down the remaining passengers even though he knew the ship would be overloaded? In one incident, the fire started from the engine room. The crew abandoned ship, leaving the about 100 passengers to fence for themselves. Working in the sea or river At some parts of the world, the water level during low tide and high tide exceeds three meters. It would be unwise to go too far during low tide because when you want to return, you may have to swim instead, as by then the water level may be above your head. You may be able to swim back. But the water current may be very swift. People have lost their life because they walked offshore, the tide was low. When they wanted to return, the tide was high. Only very good swimmers could make it. But the current might be stronger than the swimmers. Don’t expect life guards to be on all public beaches, nor can you expect warning signs to be erected at those dangerous spots. One incident I heard about drowning was on Saturday, October 13, 2007. Four of the passengers were confirmed dead and three were missing. This sort of ferry accident happens every year, not just in any one country, but global. People still don’t take notice of this to prevent accident from recurring. If you must travel by sea from point A to point B, find out from the captain if there are enough life jackets to go round should there be an emergency. See the life jacket for yourself, not just believing him. Many captains would confirm there are enough life jackets to go round, and that they are locked at certain places. Under safety law, life jackets must never be locked. He doesn’t lose anything by making the jackets visible. He can promise you the moon and all the other planets. Handling Heavy Pipes When your employer has a contract to construct a long pipe line. How do you handle, store, and transport those pipes to site? These are long, heavy and round objects. You will need a group of very experienced riggers and drivers to assist you. How do you avoid unsafe situations and accidents? How do you make sure those pipes are in perfect condition when they arrive at the job site? In most cases, you will need to move those pipes by trucks, trains, and vessels. How do you secure the load before it goes onto public roads? When transporting round and heavy pipes, the pipes must be supported safely and correctly, to prevent the coating and the pipes being damaged. It is also to make sure the pipes are of no danger to other public road users. Transporting pipes on vessels will be more complicated. Your sea fastening must be done well. When you store those pipes in the yard, make sure those wooden beams, sand berms, and chocks are in perfect condition so that the lower rows of pipes will not be pushed out of the stack. If you are not sure of the required skills, it is best to engage a consultant, to avoid future safety and legal problems. Installing Structure using Helicopter Many years ago, an engineer and a helicopter pilot died at a construction site because his chopper crushed there while he was lifting a structure on to the top of another structure. Not many helicopters are equipped with the proper facilities to lift construction structures to be fixed on another structure. Not many helicopter pilots are trained to carry out such jobs. The weight of the load is not a problem. They can be used to shift materials from point A to point B. It may be faster and cheaper. But to lift a heavy structure up vertically, remain at the same spot in the air, for several minutes for the workers to align the lifted structure on the desired location is not an easy job. What would happen if after fixing the load on to the desired position and the wire-rope cannot be released from on board that helicopter? Working on Running Equipment If you need to check on an equipment, it must not be running and the power for the start-up must be isolated. One incident happened at an offshore oil platform where an engineer from the Philippines who was trying to show the inspection team that he was working hard by loosening all the Lufkin gear box which was coupled to a Cat Engine. After loosening all the screws, he got a shock of his life because the alignment of the gears in the gear box was totally beyond the safety limit and there were metallic sounds of steels rubbing at each other. He was lucky because the emergency stop button was few feet away. He stopped the engine by pressing on the emergency button. And of course he blamed the local boys for not being able to align the gears correctly. If the gears were not aligned correctly, during the test run of 60 minutes, the gear teeth would have been burn off. Working the Nightshift From 11.00 pm to 3.00 am the next morning every day, your liver is doing the detoxification process, by neutralizing and breaking down the body toxins which were accumulated during the day. Unless you are asleep during this period of time, the detoxification process will not be carried out smoothly. However, your body may be able to hang on reasonably well up to seven days if you are aged 54 or younger. During the past 20 years, we observed four groups of people who had to do night shift for one week every month, from 11.00 pm to 7.00 am the following day. None of the employees ever have a problem because of the night shift work. Working Overtime The international standard is that you work for 8 hours per day. However, for some reason you may be requested to work for more than 8 hours per day. You have the right to object to working overtime. Moreover, legally, an employee must be give 8 hours of continuous rest every day. If your employer cannot stick to this rule, you may bring up the matter with the Labour Department of the country where you are employed. What is money compared to your health? Emergency Shower and Eye Wash Stations If you have to work with corrosive chemicals, emergency showers and eye wash stations must be available on site. Those units must be corrosion resistant and be located at locations where an average worker will not take more than 10 seconds to reach. For the eye wash, the water volume must be running at not less than 3.7 gallons per minute, (GPM). The shower head must be able to function at not less than 20 gallons per minute, (GPM), for 15 minutes. The water must be available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Lightening Arrester The lightening rod will provide a path for electricity to reach the ground safely, when a lightening strikes at your building. The wire used must be braided and be designed specifically for lightening protection system. Each of your office building must be fixed with a lightening arrester, including those portable cabins which are very common at construction sites. The number of groundings required for each building depends on the perimeter of your building. For building with perimeter of 250 feet or less, two groundings would be sufficient. Line Pipes These pipes must come a proper certification to be safe for use at the construction sites. Once they are buried underground, it is very difficult to see their defects. At a certain building, used pipes were installed for the LPG which was used for cooking and heating purposes. One of the pipes leaked and cause an explosion in the building killing two people and injuring many others. Those pipes shown in the photo were used by a contractor for the construction project. He got away with it because he actually also bought some perfect pipes for the job, with fitness certificates and so on. The pipes were also not stacked correctly and they were definitely a safety hazard for the work site. Unsafe Structures The following photos show a diesel fuel vessel, with badly corroded base. The base could fail at any moment, endangering the life of the workers. The tank was full of diesel fuel and the tank was not grounded with cable and grounding rod to dissipate the static electricity. The other photo shows a tank for storing lubricating oil. The supports holding up the tank could also fail at any moment. If you are working for this sort of contractor, you have the choice to resign and work for others. The Chinese always say: if you don’t want to work for the East, you can work for the West! Food Hygiene In the past three years I have heard of a few cases of people contacted salmonella septicemia after consuming food at food courts. This food poisoning happens because the salmonella (food poisoning bug) enter the blood stream. When hygiene standards are being compromised, the public must be rewarded when they upload relevant photos to the Internet and the relevant authorities must be willing to act against these irresponsible food handlers. Repeated offenders must be penalized heavily or their license terminated so that the health of the public is not at risk. The government must send out strong deterrent messages. Do we have to wait until many people are diagnosed with gastroenteritis (food poisoning) before we take action seriously? In all the food courts, food handlers put on a mask which covers the chin instead of the mouth, and they handle money when the gloves are still on their hands. The gloves are used when they prepare the food for sale. Many of them do not wash their hands after using public loo. They use receptacles which are not meant for holding food, or use plastic scoop as a ladle for hot soup, and household pails to hold boiling items. Utensils, bowls, plates, spoons which are dirty-looking, stained, cracked, or not washed properly must not be allowed. You see them every day. When was the last time a health inspector visited the place? Vegetables and ingredients left on the table are uncovered. Food handlers must not be allowed to rinse the vegetables in the basins outside public toilet. There are also many food handlers talking non-stop, in front of the food, without a mask on the nose and mouth. When they cough or sneeze, they don’t have the courtesy to cover the mouth and nose with a piece of handkerchief or paper tissue. Cutlery dropped on the floor is simply put back into the utensil holders. Shouldn’t they be washed again before being put back there? The cleaners in the food courts use the same piece of cloth to wipe the tables from morning until night time. You can see the cloth is definitely no longer safe for use. I just wonder how much bacteria and viruses are found on that piece of cloth? While buying your food, if you see hygienic lapses, won’t you write a few words and email them to the authorities? But if you happen to be in a country which the authorities are made up of the thugs, then there is nothing you can do. Some companies do provide their own canteens. In such cases, you are safe because you can contact your management if there is a hygiene issue with the food sellers. Stress at Work Are you dreading going to work every day? Do you have a fight-or-flight response? If you do, your body is pumping out adrenaline and other stress hormones which will definitely make you very sick or may even kill you in the end. Miserable work life may make you sick physically and mentally. The stress-inducing and unsupportive style of management practice by your boss may have nothing to improve individual performance or organizational productivity. But the fact that this boss is a bootlicker and there is nothing you can do to fight back. You will surely have an increased risk of heart attack. You may also end up with high blood pressure, sleep problems, and anxiety. Some others also end up with unhealthy behaviours like smoking, excessive drinking and overeating. Your boss may be hypercritical, inept, or one of those who always blame others for the problems he has. In some parts of the world, it is common to see bosses who are not ready for the job, simply because they belong to a certain political party or a certain religious group. Does he also hurl obscenities or make unwanted sexual advances at the work place? I have heard of sexual favours from all his female subordinates, if they wanted to remain working in that oil company! When this guy stresses you to a destructive manner, and there is no chance for you to request for a transfer, the best solution is to quit. What is money compared to your health? The evil and cruel boss is able to hang around partly because he is best in splitting people and playing favourites. He has a network of informers so that his subordinates don’t trust anybody. If you are on the bottom of his list, it is a routine that he will always dismiss whatever suggestions you have made, and he will magnify whatever errors you have committed. Political conspiracy and prosecution are not only confined to the political arena. In most parts of the world, they do spill into the boardrooms of the private concerns. Fire Water Pump & Fire Extinguishers Do you know where the fire water pump is? When there is a fire, can any worker run that pump? Is the pump functioning? Are there fire extinguishers around? Are they accessible? Can you find a fire extinguisher within few seconds? Are the fire hoses available? Are they in good condition? In this part of the world, it is normal for contractors to claim they have this and that onsite. But those things only appear on papers. I came across a case where the fire water pump was not functioning. Obviously, during auditing, the auditor kept his eyes closed. If your office building is over 1500 square feet in area, your fire water pump must be able to produce 250 gallons of water per minute. And this pumping must be able to continue for 40 minutes. The minimum volume of reserved water in the tank must be 10000 gallons. For more detailed information or regulations, please consult your local fire departments. Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) How does a person mitigate petroleum vapour exposer when he or she is collecting samples? Many people died in the past because of inhalation of hydrogen gases. Many of them were provided with respirators which were not suitable for high concentration of hydrogen gases, or for oxygen deficiency. Always tell the workers to wear the PPE provided when they need to open hatches of petroleum storage tanks. Hydrogen Sulfide (H2 S) is colourless, corrosive, flammable and extremely deadly. It is found in crude petroleum, natural gas, and also in microbial breakdown of animal wastes, or organic matters. For workers in the oil & gas production fields, portable H2 S detectors incorporated with an alarm may be the best solution for their personal safety. When the content of H2S reaches 100 ppm or more, it is deadly. The casualty dies on the spot. Therefore, the monitoring and detection system must be perfect and be functioning all the time. This H2S has a rotten egg smell. But by the time you notice this smell, you have few seconds left to live. Petroleum & Diesel fuel Never use gasoline as a cleaning agent. When its fumes are inhaled for prolonged period of time, your health will be severely affected. The most common result is it will kill the cells on your skin. According to OSHA, the maximum safe amount of petroleum products in the workroom air, for an 8-hour work day and 40-hour work week is 400 ppm. It is safer to use the proper clean agents approved by OSHA Depth of pile for Building One major factor on the safety of a high-rise building is the piling work. The attached photo shows a worker checking the depth of the borehole. The borehole must reach a sufficient depth as specified on the blueprints. Never cheat on the piling works by shorter piles to save time and money. The building may fail before you hand it over to the owner. Won’t your own life be at risk? Many years ago, one building with piles which were shorter than the recommended length toppled over and landed horizontally on the ground, killing many people. The amount of lateral pressure a building can tolerate depends on the depth and number of pilings installed. Defensive Driving When you drive, never hold the steering wheel at the 10 and 2 o’clock position. It is dangerous because when the airbag is activated, it will knock your hands on to your face causing injury. Whatever extra skills you may have learned in the past is useless unless you are able not to touch the hand phone while you are driving. People have been killed because they paid more attention to their hand phone while driving than to the road safety. Speed is another problem. Isn’t your life more important than speeding? Before you drive off, is your car braking system perfect? Is your safety belt functioning? Are the vehicle tyres in perfect condition? Always expect what the other driver in front and the one behind you may do. Keep a safe distance from the guy in front of you. Portable Tools All portable tools must never be carried by the cord or the hose. It is unsafe to pull the cord or a hose to remove the receptacle. Cords and hoses must be totally clear of oil, heat and sharp objects. Uncontrolled whipping of an air hose will occur if the air hose has been cut or punctured. These hoses may be damaged because of heat or chemicals. When you come across a whipping hose, cut off the air supply by closing the valve or switching off the air compressor. The air hose used to power your pneumatic tool must be able to withstand the pressure you are using on the tool. The price of a high pressure hose is many times higher than that for the low pressure. So, they are a lot of fake high pressure hoses on the market. Pneumatic Hammers It is common to see three workers, each with a pneumatic hammer, hacking the floor in a building together at the same time. It is illegal and the loud sound produced is very harmful to their health and ears, even if they are wearing the ear muffs. Emotional Stress Are you dreading going to work every day? Do you have a fight-or-flight response? If you do, your body is pumping out adrenaline and other stress hormones which will definitely make you very sick or may even kill you in the end. Miserable work life may make you sick physically and mentally. The stress-inducing and unsupportive style of management practice by your boss may have nothing to improve individual performance or organizational productivity. But the fact that this boss is a bootlicker and there is nothing you can do to fight back. If the long term stress has not been addressed correctly, you will surely have an increased risk of heart attack. You may also end up with high blood pressure, sleep problems, abnormal heart beat, hardening of the arteries, upset stomachs, weight gain or loss, changes in sex drive, skin problems, depression and anxiety etc. Some others also end up with unhealthy behaviours like smoking, excessive drinking and overeating. The stress from your work will also affect your family life. During a survey, over 70% of Americans admitted they experienced physical and emotional symptoms from stress. And another group confirmed the biggest source of stress was from their job. Your boss may be hypercritical, inept, or one of those who always blame others for the problems he has. In some parts of the world, it is common to see bosses who are not ready for the job, simply because they belong to a certain political party or a certain religious group. Does he also hurl obscenities or make unwanted sexual advances at the work place? I have heard of sexual favours from all his female subordinates, if they wanted to remain working in that oil company! When this guy stresses you to a destructive manner, and there is no chance for you to request for a transfer, the best solution is to quit. What is money compared to your health? The evil and cruel boss is able to hang around partly because he is best in splitting people and playing favourites. He has a network of informers so that his subordinates don’t trust anybody. If you are on the bottom of his list, it is a routine that he will always dismiss whatever suggestions you have made, and he will magnify whatever errors you have committed. Political conspiracy and prosecution are not only confined to the political arena. In most parts of the world, they do spill into the boardrooms of the private concerns. Benefits of Meditation If the medication your doctor prescribes for you is not effective, you may try meditation, which the Westerners only recently discovered. After some practice, many practitioners will experience tranquilized mind, and feel a sense of calm pervades the whole body. It is a mental discipline that eventually leads the mind to its purified state, as the mental impurity is dissolved stage by stage. It is a form of energetic striving leading to self-elevation, self-discipline, self-control, and self-illumination. It is a tonic for both your mind and your heart, because of the therapeutic value for stresses of daily life. Meditation activates endorphins, which helps the body to function properly, to flow and clear the brain to reduce physical or mental stress. The mind will be calm, peaceful, balanced, full of love and compassion and will age at a slower rate. Meditation enables you to raise your consciousness to a higher level. We withdraw the senses from the activities when we meditate. We leave the past behind and we don’t think of the future. Are we escapists? The deepest experience of life may be achieved by entering more deeply into life, not by escaping from concrete reality. The practice of meditation is like a child learning to crawl. After crawling he learns to stand up. Then he learns to walk, and then run. Later on, he will be able to jump. The highest wisdom is like electricity. We don’t know where it is but when we put all the components of the generator together, put in the fuel and run the generator, we have electricity. Your immune system will improve, and thus allergies, anxiety disorders, asthma, depression, and fatigue may be cured. The heart beat rate and breathing rate will slow down. The blood pressure will normalize and your use of oxygen will be more efficient. A turtle breathes only four times per minute and it can live up to 300 years. Psychotherapists and other health professionals now openly use meditation to help their patients. They confirmed that meditation accelerated the healing process, if not curing the disease Our body is subject to hundreds of diseases or other external dangers, and it can perish at any moment. Everything that we have, including the mind, must be maintained so that they continue to be useful. The minds are incessantly thinking, worrying, planning and complaining or fidgeting. When the mind thinks, energy is used. For some unfortunate people, when the mind thinks too much or too hard, mental trouble begin. Energy is used when you dream during sleep. Isn’t it why you feel tired after a long dream at night? Meditation is a way of counteracting and alleviating all the mental irritations and difficulties that have plagued us for so long. For an average person, don’t expect to have tranquility as soon as your start to practice. If you are one who is content with little, eat only what you need, sleep only when necessary and is satisfied with what you have, you will definitely progress after some time because when the mind is free from desires, concentration arises naturally. Meditation helps to develop the awareness and the energy needed to transform ingrained mental habit patterns. For your meditation course to be successful, you must abstain from immoral conduct. Purity of livelihood is essential for the practitioner who wishes to meditate. Negative energies are created by fear, anxiety, resentment, anger and guilt. They weaken your immune system, slow down the healing process and may feed cancer growth. The mind becomes impure through the arising of thoughts. So the senses must be restrained. Moreover, one needs to acquire mindfulness and self-possession, and also to be contented. During 1970s, University of Massachusetts at Worcester, U.S.A., started a stress-reduction program. This center for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) still exists today. By sitting still and following the movement of air entering and leaving your nostrils, your electroencephalograph reading will show that gamma waves which are associated with attention and learning are generated. Isn't this good for you? Your breathing and pulse rate will also slow down. If your breathing rate is 18 breaths per minute, during meditation it will reduce to 15 times per minute or even less. You pulse too will slow down moderately. If you practice vipassana meditation, you will breathe in cosmic energy and breathe out your defilements. This will actually expiate your bad Kamma which you created in the past lives, or during the past in this life. Moreover, when you have accumulated sufficient cosmic energy, you will be able to project your astral body and travel to anywhere in the universe, even to the sun or other countless universes. During the Buddha’s time, it was not uncommon for deities from other universes to visit Him. Nothing can stop you, the concrete walls, the deep oceans etc. But one level you will surely not reach, Nibbana. The ability to attain Nibbana crops up only when greed, hatred, and delusion are eradicated. The Chitta goes with the astral body and therefore, the body when it travels to other universe, can remember whatever the Chitta has experienced and return to this planet where it originated. Some meditators have to force their citta to reenter their body. If you encounter difficulties, you need to consult experienced practitioners. These people normally do not request money for assisting you. If they do, be aware. It is better to consult those who don't ask for monetary rewards. Meditation is a form of psychotherapy: mental culture or systematic mental development. The major hindrance to meditation is constant intrusive thoughts. The number of psychiatric patients is increasing rapidly and many hospitals can’t cope. Those people ended up in the hospital because they did not know how to cope with stress. They need to relax mentally. They are ambitious. They struggle too hard. The physical body can be sprained. It is the same with the mind. When the body is hot, we take a shower. When it is cold, we put on more clothes. When it is hungry we eat something. When it is tired, we have a rest or sleep. The mind does not look after itself unless it has been trained. During meditation, you will also be taught how to get rid of longstanding anger and hostility which weaken your lungs and speed up age-related decline. When the lung volume drops, you don’t get enough oxygen. Your energy declines, your immune system weakens, thus sickness and disease start to crop up. Moreover, women and men in their forties need not be miserable if they care to look after their mental health. I am talking about majority of the people on this planet, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, white, black or yellow. If rich people are not affected, then most people in the United States of America should be very happy. Are they? Happiness is a state of consciousness that does not depend upon physical appetites, passions, acquisition of material wealth, power, position, fame, or honour. Why do you think a multi-millionaire’s daughter would join the gangsters to rob a bank? Her parents could buy her any material thing on this planet. Surely there was something lacking? Even though you may be aged 70 or over, you can remain mentally as healthy as a 20-year old if you care to maintain your health. And one of the methods is meditation. Meditation, if practice persistently, may also prevent you from ending up with diabetes, high blood pressure or cardiovascular problems, because the elasticity of your blood vessels will be improved and your blood toned up, as during meditation, your anxiety and worry will be very much reduced. As you relax, your body creates nitric oxide, which opens up your blood vessels. Gastric ulcers, skin diseases and asthma, if not actually brought about by worry and anxiety, are surely aggravated by them. As a person thinks of compassion, his body system stimulates the cells to generate valuable chemical compounds to produce energy and vitality. So we can say metta has tonic effect on the whole physical constitution. A meditator can also generate more enzyme telomerase which replenishes the telomeres. These telomeres enable us to live longer. As a person advances in meditation, he will reach a level when he can neither speak nor utter a word of explanation, even after he has come out of that state. He will not be able to explain it clearly. Again this state is a by-product of meditation, like supernatural powers etc. The following are some of the other benefits of meditation: The brain’s frontal lobe, which is the rational one, will be more active. The activity in the amygdala, which is the fear center, is reduced. Getting rid of your tension and find some relaxation Calm down your worries and find permanent or temporary peace Develop the courage to face or overcome your problems Gain self confidence Help you to understand the nature of your fears Help you see the true nature of life (if you are heart-broken) Help you to be more focused and concentrated in your studies Help you to have contentment and not to harbor jealousy towards others Help you to overcome the fire of anger, hatred and resentment Help you to understand the danger of jealousy Help you realize how to overcome your dangerous habit Help you to reduce pain intensity by 40%. Morphine and other pain-relieving drugs reduce pain only by 25%. For those who practice meditation on loving kindness, they will enjoy the following benefits: Have sound sleep Waken fresh No bad dreams Loved by other people Loved by non-human beings Protected by devas Protected from burning by fire, harm by poisons or weapons Their mind is easily concentrated Their complexion is clear Death takes place in a full possession of the senses