Publications

EIGA’s series of Human Factor Safety Information sheets are intended to explore Human Factors specific to the industrial and medical gases industry, raise awareness on these issues, and provide guidance. Hydrogen: Hydrogen is a unique gas that behaves in a different way to other flammable gases. People working with or near hydrogen installations need to understand and take extra care for these reasons. Target Audience: Any professional organisation dealing with hydrogen and related installations including designers and suppliers.

There are many terms that are used to describe how people contribute to safety events, including human failure and human error. In this publication the term ‘Human Reliability’ is used to describe an area of safety management that considers the human contribution to risk and the systems we need to reduce that risk. Human reliability assessment (can also be known as Human Error Analysis) is used to gather and present information on these factors in a logical way. Organisations use human reliability assessment to examine the extent to which they have these factors under good control. If the level of control (and therefore human reliability) can be improved, the assessment will point to how this may be achieved. This human factors safety information sheet gives an overview of the various aspects to consider and provides assessment checklists.

Human Factors Engineering is the application of human factors to the design and development of systems and services. Ergonomics is about ensuring a good ‘fit’ between people and the things they use. People vary enormously in height and weight, in physical strength, in ability to handle information and in many other ways. Ergonomics uses information about human abilities, attributes and limitations to ensure that our equipment, work and workplaces allow for such variations. This human factors safety information sheet gives an overview of the various aspects to consider and provides assessment checklists.

Safety culture is a subset of the overall company culture and societal culture. The culture and the style of leadership have an essential influence on safety culture and performance. The human factors safety information sheet gives an overview of the various aspects to consider and provides assessment checklists.

Organisation changes have an impact on the way that work is performed and have significant effects on the staff. This safety information sheet gives an overview of the various aspects to consider and provides assessment checklists.

Fatigue refers to the issues that arise from excessive working time or poorly designed shift patterns. Fatigue is a perceived state of ‘weariness’ caused by prolonged or intensive exertion. It results in slower reactions, reduced ability to process information, memory lapses, absent-minded slips, ‘losing the picture’, lack of attention etc. Fatigue can lead to errors and accidents, ill-health and injury, and reduced productivity. It is often a root cause of major accidents. This publication is intended for all personnel who are involved in managing shift workers.

EIGA’s series of Human Factor Safety Information sheets are intended to explore Human Factors specific to the industrial and medical gases industry, raise awareness on these issues, and provide guidance. Alarm management is an issue for any site or process where there is reliance on human response to an alarm to prevent or control incidents, as well as major accident hazards. Alarm management is relevant to: * simple sites as well as complex operating facilities; * sites with a small number of alarms, for example simple storage sites or cylinder filling site; * sites with a single control room with a DCS (distributed control system) such as an acetylene plant or stand-alone air separation plant; * Remote Operating Centres (ROC) from which multiple distant facilities are controlled. This Human Factors Safety Information sheet gives an overview of the various aspects to consider and provides an assessment checklist.

EIGA’s series of Human Factor Safety Information sheets are intended to explore Human Factors specific to the industrial and medical gases industry, raise awareness on these issues, and provide guidance. Communications are basically ‘messages’ which can be written, verbal or non-verbal. All messages need to be created, sent and then received. Human or technical problems at any of these stages may mean that the intended receiver of the message fails to take the right action. The quality of communications influences and reflects the company’s safety culture. Companies use many different types of communications for a variety of purposes, some examples are listed below. Important messages are often communicated in several ways to re-enforce and remind of the content. This Human Factors Safety Information sheet gives an overview of the various aspects to consider and provides an assessment checklist. Although the Human Factors Safety Information sheets are aimed primarily at supervisors and managers, they may be of benefit to others who work within our industry.

Plant managers and employees do everything they can to stop emergency situations such as fires or leaks from happening, but emergencies are still possible on any plant. The plant should have the necessary emergency plans and resources in place: designated workspaces, equipment and people organised to manage the potential emergencies so as to reduce harm to employees and public and damage to facilities.

EIGA’s series of Human Factor Safety Information sheets are intended to explore Human Factors specific to the industrial and medical gases industry, raise awareness on these issues, and provide guidance. Maintenance errors, failing to perform a task or performing it incorrectly during routine testing, checking, servicing or breakdown repair, can result in equipment malfunction or in an incident causing damage to plant or harm to people or to the environment. Human errors and violations in servicing and repair tasks have many of the same root causes as errors in other types of task. However, with maintenance, a fault introduced into the system by human error today might have no effect for several months and then cause a sudden unexpected hazardous breakdown or incident. This Human Factors Safety Information sheet gives an overview of the various aspects to consider and provides an assessment checklist.