CHAPTER 5

5.0 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

5.1 LIST OF HAZARD FOUND

Further to the hazard identification method, inspection, risk assessment, risk

analysis, discussion and risk control, Listed are the 6 (six) hazards inclusive of 2
(two) health hazards that are commonly found in the fire fighting installation work by
Tyco:
(1) Working at Heights
(2) Hot Work Activity
(3) Radiation
(4) Lifting Activity
(5) Noise
(6) Ergonomic

5.2 MOST CRITICAL HAZARD IMPACT

Base on the equation of RISK = CONSEQUENCES x LIKELIHOOD, the

earlier highlighted hazards were prioritised and shown in TABLE 5.1.

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SAFETY No: Hazard Consequences Probability Risk Cost Impact Ranking
1 Working at 3 2 6 Human 6
Heights
2 Hot Work 4 4 16 Human & 1
Activity Property
3 Radiation 4 2 8 Human & 3
Property
4 Lifting 2 4 8 Human 5
HEALTH 5 Noise 2 4 8 Human 4
6 Ergonomic 3 3 9 Human 2

TABLE 5.1 Semi-Quantitative Risk Matrix For Tyco Fire Protection System

Installation Project

Further from the risk matrix shown in TABLE 5.1, the worst hazard for

overall Tyco fire fighting system installation project for MG3 is hot work activity

due to the fact that, fire and explosion due to hot work could result in death to

personnel and causes property damage of Tyco personnel and the others. The

likelihood is also high because the Petronas refinery plant itself has so many

flammable and combustible chemicals, added with spark from hot work could

easily cause an ignition to a flame or explosion. The second highest of overall

hazard rating is ergonomic, it is due to a lot of irreversible sickness such as back

pain, musculo-skeletal disorder (MSD), repetitive strain injury (RSI) and

numbness. The major cause to ergonomic problem is awkward work posture and

physical anatomy, ergonomics hazard is difficult to prevent because of economic

factor and the equipments’ nature itself. Other than that, radiation is also a big

threat, the reason being that radiation could result in latent sickness to the worker

and at the same time, may also jeopardise sensitive instrument in life plant such as

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low energy radiation sensor and flow meter for crude processing equipment,

should the high energy from NDT detected by the sensor, from past incident, the

processing will become haywire and will cause shutdown of certain equipment,

the start up cost for the equipment cost millions.

5.3.1 WORKING AT HEIGHT

Hazard associate with working at height is fall, it can be either human or material.

From the observation conducted, fall may possibly happen while working at a

platform or deep excavation. According to Petronas Technical Standard and MG3

Safety & Health Procedure, any work perform at 1.5 meter height shall be

provided with working platform to reduce falling risk. While for excavation, any

depth more than 1 meter shall be supported with proper shoring and the edge shall

be protected with a hard barricade. As an alternative to shoring, referring to best

engineering practices, a slope protection with a ratio of ¾: 1, 1:1 or 1 ½:1 may

also applicable according to type of soil.

Generally, the precautions that may be taken to reduce and control falling

risk by using a full body harness with at least a single lanyard, for a critical

workplace such as complicated pipe rack, double lanyard is inevitable. It the

responsibility of the workers whom performing work at height to hook their body

harness to the designated lanyard every time to ensure their own safety and it is

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work supervisor or foremen duties to inspect that their subordinate comply with

such rules.

Stated in the Factories and Machinery (Safety, Health and Welfare)

Regulation 1970 on working at height. Clause 12 of the regulation mentioned that

“Where any person is required to work at a place from which he will be liable to

fall a distance of more than ten feet, means shall be provided to ensure his safety

and such means shall where practicable include the use of safety belts or ropes”.

Clearly, workers in FIGURE 5.1 have not comply to work at height procedure as

they fail to use fall protection even though it was provided by the employer.

Therefore, it is wise to use a safe working platform (scaffold) should the

work perform at a height more than 1.5 meter as required by Petronas. According

to Petronas technical Standard, it is a must to ensure that the scaffold for ingress

and aggress and working platform shall be inspected and tag with a green colour

tag to indicate a safe scaffold works. FIGURE 5.2 and FIGURE 5.3 are without a

doubt is intolerable to be use.

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FIGURE 5.1 : Workers Fail To Use Full Body Harness Working at height (5 meter
height)

FIGURE 5.2 : Unsafe Work Platform (5 meter height)

Figure 5.3 : Unsafe Work Platform (3 meter height)

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5.3.2 HOT WORK

Hot works related to Tyco work activities at MG3 can be divided into cutting,

grinding or welding. Basically the main hazard of hot work is fire and explosion

risk, either as source of ignition for fire or explosion. Flying chip from cutting and

grinding can cause injury to personnel as well.

The hazard related to hot work mainly hot temperature and burnt. According

to MG3 safety & health procedure, the precautions for hot temperature is by

wearing suitable PPE for hot work such as face shield, fitter glove, long sleeve

jacket/coverall and apron FIGURE 5.4 show a non-compliance to safety & health

procedure on face shield. While for burnt precaution, it is necessary to:

- Inspect all the machine and tools before and after use

- Constitute competent chargeman to handle all the electrical machine

- Fire watcher standby full time during hot work activity

- Standby fire extinguisher

- Wear fire blanket to protect any spark

It is necessary to make sure that oxygen, acetylene and argon cylinders are

protected with safety cap to reduce the risk of explosion should the nozzle fall and

hit a hard object. The protective cap must be secure, during safety and health

inspection, it was found that a few cylinder were not equip with protective cap

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and also some cases insecure protective cap to cylinder neck as shown in

FIGURE 5.5.

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FIGURE 5.4 : Worker Fail to Use Face Shield for Hot Work Activity

FIGURE 5.5 : Insecure Protective Cap

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5.3.3 RADIATION HAZARD

For engineering works, inspection through the application of radiation technique

is inevitable. Radiation is a form of energy, which is emitted by atoms or

molecules and transmitted through matter as particles or electromagnetic waves.

The term radiation is very broad which includes light waves, radio waves, infrared

rays (heat), microwaves and X-rays. When radiation interacts with matter, it may

give up part or all of its energy. Microwaves and infrared rays for example, can

heat up or burned living tissues. One of the basic radiation protection is to

classified the work area into 3 basic classes i.e. control, supervised and clean area.

For pipe welding inspection works, only authorised personnel permitted to

operate radiographic test. Radiographic test through application of electron beam

machine that emitted x-ray or an application of radioactive source have been used

to inspect a welding work on pipe joint to ensure a reliable quality. The

application of radiographic test for Tyco fire fighting installation is required on

10% of the total pipes joint. As the radiation energy that being use to test the

pipes’ joint is high, it is necessary to ensure unrelated worker are cleared from the

radiographic test area, it is simply because the high energy use that can penetrate

thick pipe, it may as well endanger human being. For that reason, only permitted

personnel allowed to operate the radiographic test activity.

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 For radiographic testing, it is necessary to make sure that the unrelated

personnel are not to be at risk and the limit for the barricade area shall not more

than 2.5 µSv. In order to do that, it is essential for safety personnel to have at least

one set of radiation analog survey meter as shown as FIGURE 5.6. It also

essential to ensure that the vehicle use for transport by the radiographer shall

comply with Atomic Energy Licensing Act 1984, Transportation Regulations. The

vehicle at FIGURE 5.7 is a vehicle use by a team of radiographer is clearly fails

to comply with Atomic Energy Licensing Act 1984, Transportation Regulations.

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 Figure 5.6 : Analog Radiation Survey Meter

Figure 5.7 : Non-compliance to AELB Transport Regulation

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5.3.4 LIFTING

Hazard associate with lifting are collide and load fall. For MG3 project, lifting has

been classified into ordinary, heavy and critical lifting. Precaution for collide

whilst lifting are:

- Signalman must ensure area clear for crane movement

- Crane must have reverse alarm

- Put signage and barricade the area

While for load fall precaution, there are a few item that need to be observe as

follows:

- Check all lifting appliance in good condition

- Lifting area must clear from interconnected people

- Put signage and barricade the area

- All cranes brought into the project shall be inspected by safety & health

officer and/or mechanical department.

According to Factories and Machine (Electrical Passenger and Good Lift)

Regulation, 1970, Clause 14 (1) mentioned that every lift car shall comprise a platform, a

roof, a car enclosure, gate a door and a supporting frame. While Clause 15(1) clearly

point out that a door or gate shall be provided at every entrance to a lift car. Every car

door or gate when fully closed shall in the case of a good lifts, guard the full width of the

car entrance opening and when fully closed shall extend from the car floor to the height

of not less than six feet above the car floor.

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 Clause 17 mentioned on provision of an adequate permanent ventilation of every

lift car during the period such lift is available for use, and where ventilating fan or

blowers are used they shall be securely fastened in place and located above the car ceiling

or outside the car enclosure. Clause 18 (1) highlighted provision on illumination of lifting

equipment.

While Clause 19 (1) stressed that no glass other than toughened or shatterproof

glass shall be used in any car except to cover certificates, notices, lighting fixtures and

appliances necessary for the operation of such car. While Clause 19 (2) said that every car

shall be provided with an emergency signal that is operative from the car and is clearly

audible outside the lift well. Inside Clause 19 (4), stated that an emergency switch that

shall be provided on the top of every lift car which will prevent the car from being

operated when the switch is open. All the highlighted clause under the said regulation

was made compulsory to all crane came into MG3 project.

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FIGURE 5.8 : Unsafe Lifting Activities

FIGURE 5.9 : Insecure Lifting Area

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5.3.5 NOISE HAZARD

Noise can generally be described as an unwanted sound which, exceed

85Db. In construction, noise normally generated through operating of a machine.

But not all sound is noise. It is only the sound that we do not like that we call

noise. In recent years noise levels have increased, it is because machineries have

been produced more efficient and faster have directly increased noise levels. In

large open work areas, noise is widespread and can increase in intensity as

additional machines add to the noise level. The activity and machines that is

possibly to cause noise hazard as shown in FIGURE 5.7 and FIGURE 5.8.

The perception of noise is personal, however it is clear that any of us can

have our hearing damaged, in some cases irreparably, if the sound level is too

high. It is not only hearing that can be affected by noise. Noise can also affect

blood circulation and cause stress in the blood, it will then cause difficulty to

sleep. Generally, noise can cause:

- damaged to hearing

- masking (disturbing to conversation)

- irritation or annoyance

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 FIGURE 5.9 : Pipe Cutting Activity

FIGURE 5.10 : Grinding Activity Contribute to Noise Hazard

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5.3.6 ERGONOMIC HAZARD

An increasing amount of work is now being done by machines. This

increase in mechanization and automation means that the pace of work has

increased and that individual work assignments have become more diversified and

at times uninteresting. On the other hand, there are still many jobs that must be

done manually, with heavy physical stress.

Human beings have not changes very much during the course of recorded

history. While machinery and working routines are changing, people are not. This

means that technology is increasingly exceeding people’s ability to adapt, both

physically and mentally, to change. This has various negative consequences.

Technological progress has meant that manual work has been replaced by

machines and computers. Heavy manual work still occurs, but many modern jobs

require the repetition of simple operations or just the monitoring of a production

process. FIGURE 5.11, 5.12 . 5.13 and 5.14 show the none ergonomic equipment

and work process.

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Figure 5.11 : None Ergonomic Work Posture

Figure 5.12 : None Ergonomic Work Posture

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Figure 5.13 : Forklift Has Been Introduce to Reduce Injury Due to Manual Lifting

Figure 5.14 : None Ergonomic Work Activity (Manual Handling)

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 Many of our most common illness result from inappropriate people-work

relationships. If our bone and muscle structure is overloaded this can result

example, in back injuries or joint and muscle disorders. Many illnesses such as

stomach ulcer, high blood pressure and heart disease are the result of stress at

work. The following list is the most common ergonomics hazard:

- Working position – standings

- Working position – sitting

- Visual conditions

- Strenuous work

- Controls and tools

- Signals and panels

Reported Cases
Location of Accident 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Back 3025 1954 2563 2510 2527
Shoulder 2480 1972 2779 2440 2625
Upper Arm 521 433 513 551 457
Elbow 952 655 708 630 660
Elbow to wrist 1618 1163 1122 1068 660
Hand 11329 14299 10540 10975 11378
Fingers 24323 25316 20059 22969 23264
Total 45883 46857 39330 41921 42908
Total Reported cases 106508 86589 85338 92074 95006
Percentage 43.08 54.11 46.08 45.53 45.16
Table 1: Statistic Report on Accident Cases Involving Body Injuries

Sources: Pertubuhan Keselamatan Sosial (Perkeso) Annual Report

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