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 in case of fires and other emergencies.
Specific items of the Plan define measures in the field of industrial safety, the implementation of which is carried out by the State Industrial Supervision Authority (Gosgortekhnadzor) in accordance with its responsibilities:
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. Exercising control over the readiness and accident-free passage of heat and power facilities through the autumn-winter period of 2024/2025.
The implemented set of supervisory, preventive, and precautionary measures in the field of industrial safety helps 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 by 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 certificates;
- insufficient number of slingers at work sites;
- admission of untrained personnel to cargo slinging operations;
- persons responsible for the safe operation of cranes have not passed knowledge verification;
- absence of rigging diagrams, graphical representations of cargo lifting and rigging methods, and a list of main movable loads with their masses at the work sites;
responsible specialists and personnel consciously, and sometimes are forced to, violate the requirements of technological regulations and work production projects for safety:
- cargo storage areas and sites do not comply with the work production project;
- cargo rigging 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 accessories;
- non-compliance of the crane runway with the requirements of design and operational documentation.
Upon identification of these violations, proposals are made to the management of enterprises 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 industrial safety compliance production control 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 cases.
2. Inspection of grain drying complexes.
In the Vitebsk region, there are 60 organizations that operate 124 grain cleaning and drying complexes (hereinafter referred to as GDC), which use natural gas as fuel.
During the control of GDC by the State Industrial Supervision, violations are identified that are repeated annually, namely: absence of trained maintenance personnel, absence of contracts for the technical maintenance of gas distribution and gas consumption facilities, improper maintenance of operational documentation, and no training is conducted for employees on actions in case of an accident or incident (according to the localization and accident response plan). Before the start of the harvesting campaign, all violations are rectified, 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, prior to commissioning seasonal installations, must ensure the availability of trained and certified maintenance personnel, as well as individuals responsible for the safe operation of gas distribution and consumption systems, routine maintenance of gas equipment and automation systems, scheduled preventive maintenance of gasified installations and auxiliary equipment, inspection of exhaust systems, documentation confirming grounding and lightning protection system checks for facilities, calibration of measuring instruments at gas distribution and consumption system facilities, and the availability of incident and accident localization and liquidation plans for gas distribution and consumption system facilities.
3. Preparation of heat and power facilities for the 2024/2025 autumn-winter period (hereinafter referred to as AWP).
The Vitebsk region has 231 organizations operating 633 boiler houses under the supervision of Gospromnadzor (boiler houses with a capacity exceeding 200 kilowatts, regardless of the capacity of the installed boilers), of which 401 boiler houses provide thermal energy to the housing stock, social, and cultural facilities.
During control (supervisory) activities to inspect boiler houses for their readiness for operation in the previous autumn-winter periods, it was established that most entities approach the preparation of heat sources for the autumn-winter period with full responsibility. At these enterprises, planned preventive maintenance of main and auxiliary equipment is carried out according to approved schedules, timely checks of safety automation devices and instrumentation are performed, equipment technical inspections are conducted, industrial safety knowledge is verified for responsible specialists and operating personnel, and other regulatory work is carried out. At the same time, there are cases where violations are identified; boiler house owners are given a deadline to rectify the violations and are issued negative conclusions, which indicate insufficient effectiveness of production control by persons responsible for industrial safety production control, and non-fulfillment of duties by persons responsible for the proper condition and safe operation of boilers. Information is provided to higher organizations and local authorities for response measures. Based on the results of the work (rectification of violations), all heat sources receive positive conclusions.
To timely obtain a positive conclusion on the readiness of heat sources for operation in the 2024/2025 autumn-winter period, owners of this equipment must ensure the availability of a license for industrial safety activities, or contracts with specialized organizations, the proper technical condition of the main and auxiliary boiler house equipment, technical diagnostics of boilers that have exceeded their normal service life and timely assessment of their technical condition, operational and adjustment tests of boilers, checks of boiler safety and control automation systems, boiler water treatment plant, availability of fuel reserves (main and backup) in quantities ensuring uninterrupted heat energy supply, availability of operational instructions for operating personnel, staffing of the boiler house in accordance with the design solution, knowledge verification for responsible persons and personnel, availability and proper functioning of boiler protections and automation systems, and air monitoring systems 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.