Jewell Coke Plant Manager, Wayne Pruitt, addressing the coke oven production crew in a safety meeting.

These training sessions, held for both supervisors and hourly employees, have concentrated safety aspects such as safety inspections, hazard recognition, accident investigation, job safety observations, the nature, causes and results of accidents, basic principles of accident prevention, and company rules and policies.

Each superintendent of each plant is responsible for conducting regularly scheduled safety meetings and special safety meetings as needed. Supervisors are responsible for conducting spot safety inspections on a daily basis and having appropriate corrective actions taken to eliminate any identified hazards. 

Management and company safety personnel solicit comments from all employees directly affected in the development of any new rule, policy, or work procedure. The company’s engineering, maintenance, safety and production personnel are working closely together to eliminate hazards through design changes, equipment modifications, or revised work practices.

Currently, Jewell has one competition team and in 2005 the team participated in 6 mine rescue contest finishing 1st in the Post #5 contest in Morgantown, WVA.

Jewell has had mine rescue teams since 1975 and the teams have responded to at least seven mine fires or explosions occurring at mines belonging to other companies located throughout Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. Their most recent response was to a mine fire in Melville, West Virginia.

The winning posters were made into a calendar. For more of the winning posters please click here.

Managing Contractor Safety
Sunoco refineries are not the only organizations to implement management systems. With all three Northeast Refining (NER) facilities achieving RC14001 certification, the next challenge was requiring contractor management systems. To get the program started, NER focused on contractor companies already involved in the Contractor Safety Improvement Program (CSIP).

These contractors were required to develop and implement an HES management system.  To assist the contractors, Sunoco Safety Co-Operative group initiated a monthly meeting with the NER Safety Services and Sunoco OEMS Coordinators.  During these working sessions, an open forum was dedicated to answering questions, and providing guidance on the requirements of the program. 

Lessons learned were shared amongst the companies throughout the year and the companies were required to submit update reports to Sunoco. These updates were shared during the Monthly Contractor Safety Meetings and the Quarterly Contractor Leadership Meetings.

Twenty-two companies in the first tier program were verified by a third-party auditing firm as to having a functional management system by the December 31, 2005 deadline. With the first tier completed, the focus is now on the next group of contractors to implement management systems.

American Insulation employees have worked daily at the Toledo Refinery without an OSHA recordable injury for more than three years.

Industrial Hygiene at Sunoco
Sunoco's Industrial Hygienists and Health & Safety professionals perform numerous tasks to help provide a safe work environment. One such duty is conducting industrial hygiene monitoring to determine and confirm that the chemicals are being handled properly and to meet various chemical-specific OSHA regulations. During 2005, these individuals took 3,519 industrial hygiene samples for 99 different chemicals. Additionally, they also performed 130 noise monitoring tests.

Raising the VPP flag over La Porte.

Obtaining VPP Star certification was a management and employee joint effort.

The La Porte Plant and the nearby Bayport Plant joined their safety committees together to form a Houston Operations VPP Committee.  As part of this committee, a full-time VPP Coordinator was created to act as chair over both committees.  The VPP Coordinator position is held by an hourly employee and is rotated every 14 months. 

The La Porte Plant became the third Sunoco Chemicals plant to be named an OSHA VPP Star location, joining the Bayport and Haverhill plants.

VPP is an OSHA premier initiative to promote and recognize excellence in protecting workers’ health and safety. OSHA has named nearly 250 manufacturing plants as VPP "Star" sites in their chemical and allied products category.

Designed in 2005, the HES Supervisor Certification training was rolled out in January of 2006.

The modules were selected as they have the most potential impact to the supervisor’s role in improving HES performance. Topics include: Safety Issue Resolution; OEMS and the supervisor’s role; Water permitting and compliance; Work Permit systems; Lockout/Tagout; Confined Spaces; Job Safety Analysis Program; Air compliance; Incident investigation process; Respiratory Protection; Health topics such as Asbestos, Lead, Benzene, and H2S; Waste handling procedures; and Hazard Communication.

The sessions utilize real life examples and scenarios and incorporate small group learning. The training incorporates some fun challenges for the teams to compete against one another, with the goal of driving improved HES performance.

Through a related program the group is also tracking points to help drive safety awareness. POINTS is a safety recognition program whose primary objective is to raise safety awareness by recognizing high-level safety performance by individuals. Each employee earns points through personal involvement activities each 90 days. Additionally, the employees must complete two Research Observations Using Teamwork Effectively (ROUTE) observations during the 90 day time period. Qualifying employees receive a $50.00 gift card.

Personal involvement activities include such things as:

• Perform Visitor Safety Orientation;
• Perform new equipment/process evaluation;
• Conduct an observation while at a Sunoco Chemical plant;
• Particpate in a wellness program (i.e., at least 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week); and
• Participate in a visitor safety orientation at a Sunoco chemical plant, customer’s plant, or a supplier’s plant.

Working safely through team work and planning at Tulsa Refinery Turnaround.

A second teamwork opportunity presented itself at the Tulsa Refinery in September of 2005. A diligent operator making his rounds observed a leak in a roof tube in a heater on the Crude Unit. The Operations Department quickly responded by shutting the unit down safely. Planning immediately ensued for a turnaround (major maintenance project) to be conducted. Update meetings and safety meetings were scheduled. The Maintenance workforce went to extended hours, Operations went to double staffing on the affected units, and the Technical and Safety Departments went into full support mode.  Additionally, the Environmental Department swung into action as the Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) rules require all identified leaking components to be repaired when an operating unit is shut down for more than 24 hours.

Safety was a priority focus from the start of the shutdown to the finish. “Start of shift” safety meetings were conducted by the Managers and safety inspections were conducted by the Safety Department. One operator did suffer a burned wrist when he touched a hot surface on the first day of the turnaround.  After the incident, the hot surface was insulated to prevent future occurrences.

Ergonomics were a key design aspect of the new control room.

A central control room allows the various units to better share resources, such as steam, fuel gas and heat, to ensure that the entire refinery is optimized rather than one individual unit. The central control room also allows for remote control and shutdown of a facility during an emergency or evacuation.

Although the Philadelphia Refinery previously had a smaller central control room, the real benefit of this new facility is the enhancements that are expected to improve not only operations, but also the work experience for console operators. The ergonomics of the new control room – from the lighting to the desk height to the chairs – were researched and selected to provide the console operators with a non-distracting work environment that allows them to remain focused on their responsibilities during their 12-hour shift. The new control room is a well-lit room with high ceilings, bright monitors and large observation screens on the walls.

The old control room had to use less illumination to enable the operators to see the CRT monitors. New technology allows the new control room a work environment where operators can have both ambient light and screen visibility.

Getting a blood pressure check was one of many services offered to Frankford employees during the Health Fair.

The Refining & Supply Human Resources department formed a Health & Safety Team to promote employee health and wellness. A focus of the team is to develop a plan to increase the use of company fitness facilities, reduce absenteeism, and support an OSHA recordable incident rate target of less than 0.35.

All three NER refineries sponsored Wellness Days in May 2005 and the Toledo and Tulsa refineries conducted a year-long Health & Wellness campaign. Additionally, an inter-refinery Human Resources Fitness Committee worked to establish Employee Fitness Committees at each site, identify fitness center staffing needs and equipment requirements, organize membership drives, and upgrade some facilities. Each refinery either has an on-site fitness facility or offers a discount membership to a local fitness center.

The Frankford Chemical Plant conducted a health fair for employees during May 2005. A variety of exhibits were available to employees including the American Red Cross, the Frankford Hospital Nutrition Center, Temple Burn Center, and the American Cancer Society.

Lessons Learned are taken to the Operations Department once a quarter while Maintenance meets once a month. The sessions are invaluable because they involve reviews of real events and include discussions of how to prevent the same situation from happening at the Toledo Refinery.