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.
Separate points of the Plan define measures in the field of industrial safety, the implementation of which is carried out by Gospromnadzor in accordance with its duties:
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 allows for containing factors that influence 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 that carry outconstruction activities or provide crane rental services.
When inspecting construction sites where cranes are operated, organizational violations are mainly identified:
failure of managers and specialists to fulfill their duties to ensure safe working conditions for subordinates and organize the safe operation of cranes, namely:
- operation of cranes with expired technical inspection certificates;
- insufficient number of riggers at work sites;- admission of untrained personnel to cargo rigging work;
- persons responsible for the safe operation of cranes have not passed knowledge verification;
- in the places of work, there are no rigging schemes, graphical representations of cargo rigging and attachment methods, a list of main moved cargoes with their mass;
responsible specialists and personnel consciously, and sometimes under duress, violate the requirements of technological regulations and work production projects for safety:
- platforms and cargo storage areas 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 working motion 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 the enterprises regardingsuspension of operation of lifting cranes until violations are eliminated.
This situation at construction sites indicates that not all managers pay due attention to the organization of safe operation of lifting cranes, and the implementation of production control over compliance with industrial safety requirements 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: the absence of trained maintenance personnel, the absence of contracts for the maintenance of gas distribution and gas consumption facilities, improper maintenance of operational documentation, and training of employees on actions in case of an accident or incident (according to the accident localizationavailability of documents confirming the grounding and lightning protection inspection of facilities, calibration of measuring instruments at gas distribution and gas consumption system facilities, availability of plans for localization and elimination of incidents and accidents at gas distribution and gas consumption system facilities.
3. Preparation of heat and power facilities for the autumn-winter period (hereinafter – AWР) of 2024/2025.
In the Vitebsk region, there are 231 organizations operating 633 boiler houses supervised by Gospromnadzor (boiler houses with a capacity of over 200 kilowatts, regardless of the capacity of the boilers installed in them), of which 401 boiler houses provide thermal energy to the housing stock, social and cultural facilities.
During control (supervisory) measures to inspect boiler houses for their readiness to operate in the AWР of previous years, it was established that most entities approach the preparation of heat sources for the AWР with full responsibility. At these enterprises, planned preventive maintenance of main and auxiliary equipment is carried out according to approved schedules, safety automation devices and instrumentation are checked in a timely manner, equipment is technically inspected, knowledge in industrial safety is checked for responsible specialists and maintenance personnel, and other regulatory work is performed. At the same time, there are cases where violations are detected, boiler house owners are given a deadline to eliminate violations, and negative conclusions are issued, which indicate insufficient effectiveness of industrial control by persons responsible for carrying out industrial control for industrial safety, and non-fulfillment by persons responsible for the proper condition and safe operation of boilers of their duties. Information is provided to higher organizations and local authorities for response measures. Based on the results of the work (elimination(violations), all heat sources receive positive conclusions.
To timely obtain a positive conclusion on the readiness of heat sources for operation in the autumn-winter period of 2024/2025, 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 equipment, the conduct of technical diagnostics of boilers that have exceeded their normal service life and timely assessment of the technical condition of boilers, the conduct of mode-adjustment tests of boilers, inspection of safety and control automation systems of boilers, the boiler water treatment plant, the availability of fuel reserves (main and reserve) in quantities ensuring uninterrupted supply of thermal energy, the availability of operational instructions for service personnel, the staffing of the boiler room in accordance with the design solution, the verification of knowledge by responsible persons and personnel, the presence and proper operation of boiler protections and automation devices, the air monitoring system for CO content.
Non-compliance with industrial safety legislation may lead to accidents and incidents at hazardous production facilities and (or) potentially hazardous facilities.
Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus (GOSPROMNADZOR)
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.
Separate points of the Plan define measures in the field of industrial safety, the implementation of which is carried out by Gospromnadzor in accordance with its duties:
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 allows for containing factors that influence 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 that carry outconstruction activities or provide crane rental services.
When inspecting construction sites where cranes are operated, organizational violations are mainly identified:
failure of managers and specialists to fulfill their duties to ensure safe working conditions for subordinates and organize the safe operation of cranes, namely:
- operation of cranes with expired technical inspection certificates;
- insufficient number of riggers at work sites;- admission of untrained personnel to cargo rigging work;
- persons responsible for the safe operation of cranes have not passed knowledge verification;
- in the places of work, there are no rigging schemes, graphical representations of cargo rigging and attachment methods, a list of main moved cargoes with their mass;
responsible specialists and personnel consciously, and sometimes under duress, violate the requirements of technological regulations and work production projects for safety:
- platforms and cargo storage areas 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 working motion 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 the enterprises regardingsuspension of operation of lifting cranes until violations are eliminated.
This situation at construction sites indicates that not all managers pay due attention to the organization of safe operation of lifting cranes, and the implementation of production control over compliance with industrial safety requirements 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: the absence of trained maintenance personnel, the absence of contracts for the maintenance of gas distribution and gas consumption facilities, improper maintenance of operational documentation, and training of employees on actions in case of an accident or incident (according to the accident localizationavailability of documents confirming the grounding and lightning protection inspection of facilities, calibration of measuring instruments at gas distribution and gas consumption system facilities, availability of plans for localization and elimination of incidents and accidents at gas distribution and gas consumption system facilities.
3. Preparation of heat and power facilities for the autumn-winter period (hereinafter – AWР) of 2024/2025.
In the Vitebsk region, there are 231 organizations operating 633 boiler houses supervised by Gospromnadzor (boiler houses with a capacity of over 200 kilowatts, regardless of the capacity of the boilers installed in them), of which 401 boiler houses provide thermal energy to the housing stock, social and cultural facilities.
During control (supervisory) measures to inspect boiler houses for their readiness to operate in the AWР of previous years, it was established that most entities approach the preparation of heat sources for the AWР with full responsibility. At these enterprises, planned preventive maintenance of main and auxiliary equipment is carried out according to approved schedules, safety automation devices and instrumentation are checked in a timely manner, equipment is technically inspected, knowledge in industrial safety is checked for responsible specialists and maintenance personnel, and other regulatory work is performed. At the same time, there are cases where violations are detected, boiler house owners are given a deadline to eliminate violations, and negative conclusions are issued, which indicate insufficient effectiveness of industrial control by persons responsible for carrying out industrial control for industrial safety, and non-fulfillment by persons responsible for the proper condition and safe operation of boilers of their duties. Information is provided to higher organizations and local authorities for response measures. Based on the results of the work (elimination(violations), all heat sources receive positive conclusions.
To timely obtain a positive conclusion on the readiness of heat sources for operation in the autumn-winter period of 2024/2025, 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 equipment, the conduct of technical diagnostics of boilers that have exceeded their normal service life and timely assessment of the technical condition of boilers, the conduct of mode-adjustment tests of boilers, inspection of safety and control automation systems of boilers, the boiler water treatment plant, the availability of fuel reserves (main and reserve) in quantities ensuring uninterrupted supply of thermal energy, the availability of operational instructions for service personnel, the staffing of the boiler room in accordance with the design solution, the verification of knowledge by responsible persons and personnel, the presence and proper operation of boiler protections and automation devices, the air monitoring system for CO content.
Non-compliance with industrial safety legislation may lead to accidents and incidents at hazardous production facilities and (or) potentially hazardous facilities.
Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus (GOSPROMNADZOR)