Priority tasks in the field of industrial safety for 2024
The Plan of Measures of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee for the Implementation of the Provisions of Directive of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 1 of March 11, 2004 "On Measures to Strengthen Public Safety and Discipline" for 2024 (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) has been approved by the Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Alexander Subbotin.
This Plan defines the main measures to ensure healthy and safe working conditions for citizens, strengthen law and order and labor discipline, and prevent deaths and injuries of people in case of fires and other emergencies.
Separate items of the Plan define measures in the field of industrial safety, the implementation of which is carried out by the State Industrial Supervision Service in accordance with its duties:
1. Conducting inspections of construction sites on compliance with industrial safety requirements.
2. Conducting control (supervisory) measures regarding agricultural organizations operating seasonal gas-using installations (grain drying complexes).
3. Controlling the readiness and accident-free passage of heat and power facilities through the autumn-winter period of 2024/2025.
The implemented complex of supervisory, preventive, and warning measures in the field of industrial safety makes it possible to contain factors affecting the risk of emergencies, including cases of accidents and injuries.
1. Inspection of construction sites.
In the Vitebsk region, 205 economic entities operate 972 lifting cranes, including more than 40 organizations engaged in construction activities or providing crane rental services.
During the inspection of construction sites where lifting cranes are operated, organizational violations are mainly identified:
failure of managers and specialists to fulfill their duties to ensure safe working conditions for subordinates and the safe operation of lifting cranes, namely:
- operation of cranes with expired technical inspection dates;
- insufficient number of slingers at work sites;
- admission of untrained personnel to cargo slinging operations;
- persons responsible for the safe execution of crane operations have not passed knowledge verification;
- in places of work, there are no slinging schemes, graphic representations of methods for slinging and hooking loads, or a list of main transported loads with their mass;
responsible specialists and personnel consciously, and sometimes under duress, violate the requirements of technological regulations and work safety projects:
- platforms and cargo storage areas do not comply with the work project;
- cargo slinging is carried out in violation of technological regulations.
At the same time, technical violations are identified that affect the safe operation of cranes and pose a threat to the life and health of the population, namely:
- absence or malfunction of the crane load limiter;
- absence of an anemometer;
- malfunction of the crane and trolley travel limiters;
- malfunction of removable lifting gear;
- non-compliance of the crane runway with the requirements of design and operational documentation.
Upon identification of these violations, enterprise management is issued proposals to suspend the operation of lifting cranes until the violations are rectified.
This situation at construction sites indicates that not all managers pay due attention to the organization of safe operation of lifting cranes, and the implementation of production control over compliance with industrial safety requirements is carried out formally.
For reference. In the Republic of Belarus, during 2023, 2 incidents and 10 accidents occurred during the operation of lifting cranes, including 2 fatal accidents.
2. Inspection of grain drying complexes.
There are 60 organizations in the Vitebsk region that operate 124 grain cleaning and drying complexes (hereinafter referred to as GSC), which use natural gas as fuel.
During the control of GSC by the State Industrial Supervision, violations are detected that are repeated annually, namely: the absence of trained maintenance personnel, the absence of contracts for the maintenance of gas distribution and gas consumption facilities, improper maintenance of operational documentation, training of employees on actions in case of an accident or incident (according to the accident localization and elimination plan) is not carried out. All violations are eliminated before the start of the harvesting campaign, and emergencies during crop drying are prevented.
To ensure accident-free and uninterrupted operation of grain drying complexes during the 2024 harvest period, the owner and (or) their authorized representative, before putting seasonal units into operation, must ensure the availability of trained maintenance personnel who have passed knowledge verification, and persons responsible for the safe operation of gas distribution system and gas consumption facilities, current repair of gas equipment and automation systems, scheduled preventive maintenance of gasified units and auxiliary equipment, inspection of the operability of smoke removal systems, availability of documents confirming the grounding and lightning protection inspection of structures, verification of measuring instruments at the gas distribution system and gas consumption facility, availability of plans for localization and elimination of incidents and accidents at gas distribution system and gas consumption facilities.
3. Preparation of heat and power facilities for the autumn-winter period (hereinafter referred to as AWP) of 2024/2025.
The Vitebsk region hosts 231 organizations operating 633 boiler houses under the supervision of Gospromnadzor (boiler houses with a capacity of over 200 kilowatts, regardless of the capacity of the boilers installed in them), of which 401 boiler houses provide thermal energy to the housing stock, social, and cultural facilities.
During control (supervisory) measures to inspect boiler houses for their readiness for operation in the autumn-winter period (AWP) in previous years, it was found that most entities approach the preparation of heat sources for AWP with full responsibility. At these enterprises, planned preventive maintenance of main and auxiliary equipment is carried out according to approved schedules, safety automation devices and instruments are timely checked, equipment is technically inspected, knowledge in industrial safety is verified for responsible specialists and maintenance personnel, and other regulatory work is performed. However, there are cases where violations are identified; boiler house owners are given a deadline to eliminate violations and receive negative conclusions, which indicate insufficient effectiveness of industrial control by persons responsible for industrial safety, and the failure of persons responsible for the proper condition and safe operation of boilers to fulfill their duties. Information is provided to higher organizations and local authorities for response measures. Based on the results of the work (elimination of violations), all heat sources receive positive conclusions.
To promptly receive a positive conclusion on the readiness of heat sources for operation in the autumn-winter period of 2024/2025, owners of this equipment must ensure they have a license for industrial safety activities, or contracts with specialized organizations, the proper technical condition of the main and auxiliary boiler equipment, technical diagnostics of boilers that have exceeded their normal service life and timely assessment of their technical condition, performance testing of boilers, inspection of safety and control automation systems for boilers, the boiler water treatment plant, a fuel reserve (main and backup) in a quantity ensuring uninterrupted heat supply, operational instructions for maintenance personnel, staffing of the boiler room in accordance with the design solution, verification of knowledge for responsible persons and personnel, the presence and proper functioning of boiler protections and automation systems, and a system for monitoring air for CO content.
Failure to comply with industrial safety legislation may lead to accidents and incidents at hazardous production facilities and (or) potentially hazardous facilities.