Raja Usman 
TL;DR — What Employers Need to Know A DSE assessment is a structured evaluation of how an employee interacts with their entire workstation — display screen, keyboard, mouse, chair, desk, lighting, and working patterns — carried out to identify health risks from prolonged screen use and determine the controls needed to reduce them. Under the … Read more
The first LOLER thorough examination report I ever signed off was on a 20-tonne overhead gantry crane in a steel fabrication shop — running two shifts, six welders below it at any moment, a magnet attachment swinging coil after coil onto cutting beds. The maintenance manager handed me a PUWER inspection certificate from three months … Read more
Regulation 5(1) of DSEAR 2002 reads that the employer “shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks… which arise from” a dangerous substance. Three phrases in that clause — suitable and sufficient, before work is carried out, and arise from that substance — have carried more weight in HSE enforcement than most duty … Read more
TL;DR I was halfway through a steel erection walkdown on a commercial build in the Midwest when I saw a connector working two stories up with a harness on his back — unclipped. The lanyard was coiled over his shoulder like a garden hose. When I stopped the job, the foreman told me the crew … Read more
Three years into a role managing process safety at a gas fractionation complex, I sat through a corporate leadership review where an executive pointed at the facility’s Total Recordable Injury Rate — it had dropped to 0.24 — and declared the site “the safest in the portfolio.” The operations manager beside me shifted in his … Read more
TL;DR The crane was already rigged, and the crew was ready to lift when I arrived for a routine site walk on a refinery turnaround in the Gulf. I asked to see the lifting permit. The supervisor pulled out a crumpled form — dated three days earlier, issued for a completely different lift, in a … Read more
TL;DR — Fire Hydrant Essentials I was on a refinery emergency response drill in the Gulf when the lead pump operator connected a 65mm hose to the nearest hydrant, opened the valve — and nothing came out. Not a trickle, not a sputter. Dead dry. Seventeen seconds of silence while a simulated tank fire scenario … Read more
Imagine a maintenance technician with twenty years of experience. He knows the machinery inside and out. He has performed the same isolation procedure five hundred times. But on this specific Tuesday, he is tired. There is a production manager breathing down his neck because the line is down. He isolates the main electrical feed but, … Read more
As the crisp autumn air ushers in the vibrant hues of November, workplaces face a unique blend of seasonal challenges and safety considerations. This month marks the onset of holiday preparations, such as Thanksgiving, and encompasses important awareness campaigns like Drowsy Driving Prevention Week and Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month. Ensuring employee safety during this period … Read more
Cold stress is a serious occupational hazard affecting individuals who work in cold environments for extended periods, such as outdoor workers, unheated spaces, or workers handling refrigerated goods. Exposure to extreme cold or even mild cold with dampness, wind, or water can lower the body’s core temperature, resulting in cold-related illnesses like hypothermia, frostbite, and … Read more