Safety, health and environmental protection in the work is everybody's responsibility in order to achieve a better quality of life

By Isabel Chimal and Karina Olivier

When the word “safety” is used it is inevitable to mention accidents that happen sometimes during a process. The consequences that may be involved can be staggering. Statistically the total of all the accidents, 96%, are caused by human error; just 4% are due to natural causes (earthquakes, hurricanes, seaquakes). From all the accidents caused by human failures, organizations may have control 83% of these. In other words, companies are always trying to reduce undesirable events. Every year three quarters of a million people take time off work because of what they regard as work related illness. As a result, about 30 million workhours daily are lost.

“PROMASA offers to solve your problems about loss prevention, enviromental protection, occupational health and training, suggesting alternatives and solutions where together will get established objectives of your Company.”

Accidents and ill health are costly to workers and to their families.  Companies are also affected negatively. In addition to the costs of personal injuries, they may incur far greater costs from damage to property or equipment, and lost production.  The aforementioned emphasizes how important strict performance of safety procedures are in the work place.  The best way to achieved this is through having a training program for employees.

Our company is a Mexican firm that specializes in loss prevention, such as specialized safety courses, training (personnel, emergency response brigades), risk analysis in process, enviromental protection, occupational health and consulting. PROMASA is an established company in México City and has offices in other cities  near  the Gulf of Mexico. In the interest of  quality of life , we develop analytical studies and projects that focus on the performance and sustainability of the country's natural resources, technology, and culture. Our main responsability is helping the business to ensure the continuity of its processes in a friendly environmental way,  achieving  the highest quality standards. Our commitment is to help the business maintain a harmonious relationship with the planet and its future generations.

Our vision is to be a leading company providing services in the field of environmental conservation, loss prevention, occupational health, and personnel training; focused on all kind of industries, mainly oil industry.

We aim to prevent environmental pollution and mitigate the risks inherent in hazardous material handling, assuring quick and effective solutions to our clients needs and thus, promoting their greater participation in international markets.

We also seek to optimize production processes through risk analytical studies and engineering solutions.

We make  your company´s personnel become aware and to be able to respond faster to an emergency. PROMASA and its personnel are certified by the IADC (International Association of Drilling Contractors), we provide technical evaluation and assistance to your workers in the following accredited courses:

• Hydrogen Sulfide,
• Root Cause Analysis (RCA, Basic and advanced)
• Risk Analysis in the Process (RAP)
• Confined Spaces
• First Aid Brigade
• Work at Heights
• Rig-Pass
• Fire Brigade
• Search and Rescue Brigade in Industrial Areas
• Permit System for Risk Work
• Hazardous Atmosphere Identification
• Defensive Driving

It is reasonable to conclude that the growth of an industry depends on the technology, safety, personnel experience and  knowledge.

A successful safety program requires several ingredients. These ingredients are as follows:

• Safety knowledge

• Safety experience

• Technical competence

• Safety managment support

• Commitment

A safety program must have the commitment from the entire company to work toward improving and practicing safety. The most effective means of implementing a safety program is to make it everyones responsability. The older safety concept of identifying a few employees to be responsible for it is inadequate by todays standards. All employees have the responsability to be knowledgeable about safety and to practice safety. It is important to recognize the distinction between a good and an outstanding safety program.

• A good safety program identifies and eliminates existing safety hazards.

• An outstanding safety program has management Systems which prevents the existence of safety hazards.

The most commonly used managment systems directed toward eliminating the existence of hazards include safety reviews, safety audits, hazard identification techniques, checklists, and proper application of technical knowledge, to mention some of them.

PROMASA is aware of this situation and has designed strategies that make employees  aware through a work safety program and the importance of the functions development.

Engineering Ethics

Most engineers are employed by private companies that provide wages and benefits for their services. The company earns profits for its shareholders, and engineers must provide a service to the company by maintaining and improving these profits. The engineer is responsible for minimizing losses and providing a safe and secure enviroment for the company´s employees. The engineer has a responsibility to himself, fellow workers, family, community and the engineerig profession.

Property damage and loss of production must also be considered in loss prevention. These losses can be substancial. Accidents of this type are much more common than fatalities. "no damage" accidents are frequently called "near misses." This provides a good opportunity for companies to determine that a problem exists to correct it before a more serious accident occurs. It is frequently said the cause of an accident is visible the day before it occurs. Inspections, safety reviews, and careful evaluation of near misses will identify hazardous conditions which can be corrected before.

Safety is a good business, like most business situations, has an optimal level of activity beyond which there are diminishing returns. This results in increased returns due to reduced loss expenditures. If safety expenditures increase then the return increases more, but it may not be as much as before and not as much as achieved by spending money elsewhere. Each company needs to determine an appropriate level for safety expenditures. This is part of risk managment.

Our Company provides a variety of training courses that help to minimize risk to employees; we also can help to improve an existing management system to gain assurance. Promasa's courses include not only the text from following or existig norms,  an also a safety manual, and implementation guide with various other materials and information.

"PROMASA offers to solve your problems about loss prevention, enviromental protection, occupational health and training, suggesting alternatives and solutions where together will get established objectives of your Company."