Regardless of all the constant talk about industrial safety, accidents continue at the same pace. This trend is in every country in the world. Workers and manager must work together and solve this problem everywhere.

The following mishap can pose significant and unnecessary risks. It is the dirty sight glass. A sight glass cleaning tool helps reduce this hazard. Because a dirty sight glass cannot give a proper level to the operator of the equipment and therefore is a useless device when not showing the proper level. But, the process industry often ignores these risks and does not allocate funds to clean them. Or put in simple terms, they weigh the risk today, fail to make sight glasses clean and pray that the inevitable accident occurs some other day, to some other workers.

Other methods of cleaning sight glasses have proven to be expensive or inadequate. One example involves using steam to clean a dirty sight glass. Since few managers quantify the costs of steam production, it may seem reasonable to use that steam for cleaning purposes. However, the cost of producing steam can be enormous. Consider the fuel costs to make steam from boiler feed water. Furthermore, today emissions from steam plants and boilers must also be considered. Additionally, the safety of using steam in close proximity to workers must also be weighted against the risk of injury to workers.

Process industries have a duty to operate safely. There are many reasons for this. When considering the dirty sight glass the reasons are obvious. One accident can devastate a plant and the plant’s owners. Often times it is the shareholders who will suffer in the end. But at the beginning of the accident is the chain of pain. It is the pain suffered by the worker, hurt in a preventable accident. The family of that worker also suffers. The pain extends in other ways to the other workers, when the inevitable investigation follows. When workers suffer injuries, companies suffer loss of productivity. How much time will be lost investigating the accident? How many man-hours are wasted to find the root cause of the mishap? How much process production is lost following an accident? Can you put a price on the destruction of company reputation? The shareholders definitely feel it, if the accident is big enough. Adding up all these costs and it’s easy to see that a clean sight glass is the cheapest alternative.

Consider all these risks and it’s easy to see why having a clean sight glass is much less expensive than not having one. Hopefully, manager can consider the long-term consequences and realistic costs of industrial accidents. It is the best thing for their workers, companies and profitability.

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