Mar 13, 2023 | Blog, safety
Good housekeeping entails that everything must be kept in an orderly manner and in a clean condition ready for use. To be able to imbibe good housekeeping and maintain it, you need to be conversant with the 5S as developed by Tahichi Ohno during the 60s in Japan.
1. Sort – Remove materials that are not necessary, store the ones that are important and are needed on a daily and weekly basis, and archive old but vital ones for future retrieval.
2. Set in Order – The important materials you need should be set aside, labelled, colour coded and put in easily tracked locations. Ensure everyone knows the location of all materials
3. Shine & Clean – when setting materials into different locations, ensure they are cleaned and in good working condition. Repair broken items, and ensure your working area is constantly clean
4. Standardisation – Ensure that the new pattern of arrangement and level of cleanliness you have achieved are now standard. Put it down on paper so that anyone taking over will adhere to all housekeeping standards as prescribed. This will help to build consistency in the system.
5. Sustain – ensure that the standards are passed on to everyone to maintain cleanliness and locations of the equipment. Then, simple routine audits can be done to check if the standards are maintained, and equally ascertain areas that need improvement
These 5S are very vital when one wants to maintain good housekeeping. You also need to bear in mind that housekeeping you skip may cause a fall, trip or slip.
Mar 13, 2023 | Blog, safety
During the harmattan, due to the dustiness and coldness of the season, most people often come down with a cold. It was during this season that Esther’s neighbour’s four-year-old child, Tunde, had a terrible cold.
The little boy, Tunde, had a hacking cough that kept him awake through the nights, and the parents were too busy to take him to the hospital.
Esther had visited the family on a Sunday evening, and while conversing, she advised her neighbour, Tunde’s mother to take Tunde to the hospital for proper diagnosis and drug administration, but she said it was not necessary and that she had sent her younger sister to purchase a cough syrup from the pharmacy store.
Esther came back that evening, and she expressed her concern to her husband, Ubong. She feared that something might happen to the child. Esther opposes self-medication and despises it for children. Ubong calmed her down and reminded her it was just cough syrup, and nothing would happen. The next morning, around 4 AM, Tunde’s mother had begun to scream, calling for help and knocking on the neighbours’ doors.
Esther and her husband, Ubong, rushed to her apartment and saw her trying to resuscitate Tunde.
Immediately, Ubong instructed the wife to help Tunde’s mother to get Tunde outside. Then he dashed into his house, picked up his key, ran out and drove them straight to the nearest hospital.
When they got to the hospital that morning, the doctors tried to resuscitate him, but it was fruitless. Finally, they broke the news to Tunde’s mother, Esther, and her husband, Ubong.
Esther and Ubong were disheartened by the event, but Tunde’s mother was devastated. After some investigation, it was discovered that the syrup given to the boy had diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG). Esther could not stomach her pain, as she had a premonition that something bad would happen to Tunde. Mama Tunde went home that day with ‘had I known’ powdered all over her face in grief.
Vital Info: The World Health Organisation, on the 23rd of January 2023, released a report detailing cases from at least seven countries with 300 fatalities of children mostly under the age of five which resulted from the consumption of over-the-counter cough syrups contaminated with high levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. These contaminants are toxic chemicals used as industrial solvents and antifreeze agents that can be fatal even in small amounts and should never be found in medicines.
Note: When you want to purchase over-the-counter cough syrup, please check the content to see if it contains Diethylene Glycol and Ethylene glycol
Your health is your greatest wealth!
Mar 13, 2023 | Blog
Victor Ekpenyong, the CEO of Kenyon International West Africa Company Limited, has through its foundation, the Victor and Helen Foundation, awarded scholarships to 6 Ibibio teenagers for performing excellently at the Ibibio bible quiz held last Saturday, 28th of January 2022.
His aim is to encourage more young people to embrace their mother language to erase the stereotype of Ibibio as the language of the poor. Congratulations to the beneficiaries of the VHF initiatives. For more information, you can read the news articles and watch the video clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-mekyFRYIM&t=11s
Mar 13, 2023 | Blog, safety
Willie had instructed his team to conduct wellhead maintenance on the Xmas tree that was demobilised from the site back to the warehouse at the office. They had set out that morning after their toolbox talk and had gone ahead to begin the pressure-testing of the Xmas tree. Then they discovered that the coupling was not functional and the whip check they had in their caravan was faulty.
The whip check that was in good condition had been taken by another team that had gone offshore to conduct wellhead maintenance. Willie, being experienced in manoeuvring situations such as this, decided to go on with the operation as they were really pressed for time to deliver the Xmas tree to their client.
Prince, the assistant team lead, instructed the team to cautiously use the faulty whip check.
They fixed up the whip check in a way that it would serve its purpose for the time it would be used.
As they pressure-tested the Xmas tree up to 3000 PSI, the whip check could not hold the pressure anymore. The hose forcefully detached from the air compressor.
Unfortunately, it hit two technicians and Willie as well, and they sustained severe injuries that left them fighting for their lives in the hospital. Now, the report has reached the management’s table. What are the loopholes you observed in this operation and in this company?
Mar 13, 2023 | Blog, safety
For a while now, the new employee at X-Welding Company, Samson, had been feeling uncomfortable using the eye shade that the HSE officer provided for him. He complained that the eye shade seemed dark, but the HSE officer, Olumide, advised him to keep wearing it to protect his eyes.
One day, he decided to try out the lower eye shade labelled shade 6, and it seemed clear and comfortable for him. He then decided he would be wearing shade 6 instead of shade 11 as was recommended by the HSE officer.
After a week of constantly welding pipelines, his colleagues noticed his eyes had reddened so much.
Samson thought it was just a usual case of eye redness, and he felt it would clear off after a couple of days.
He kept on using the shade labelled 6. the next day, he woke up with swollen eyes. He went to work wearing sunshades to keep people from noticing the state of his eyes. He then sought permission from the HR manager to visit an eye clinic.
When he got to the clinic, Dr Amadi examined his eyes and asked him a couple of questions.
She asked if he was using the right protective gear for his eyes, and he responded affirmatively.
Considering he checked all the boxes in the doctor’s file, the doctor had to ask him if he had changed his eyeshade at some point. He answered affirmatively, stating he had used shade 11 for his welding jobs but felt it was too dark for him. Then he switched to shade 6 which seemed clearer and more comfortable.
Dr Amadi then instructed him to discontinue shade 6 and return to his original eye shade, as it had done a great job protecting his eyes. It was at that point that Samson understood the importance of abiding by the advice of the HSE officer.
He realised that no matter how uncomfortable protective gear is, it is built for one’s safety.
Dr Amadi prescribed some medications and advised him to go home and rest for a week so the eyes could recover.
Are there instances where you have witnessed similar scenarios in your life?
Please, do share with us.
