The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), Occupational Health Branch recently released a video to help protect oil and gas extraction workers from the hazards they face when measuring oil storage tanks. The video, "Protecting Oil and Gas Workers from Hydrocarbon Gases and Vapors," weaves together a narrative of the health and safety risks involved with this activity and how employers and workers can reduce injuries and fatalities from exposure to toxic gases and oxygen-deficient atmospheres.
Over 500,000 workers are employed in the oil and gas industry, a workforce critical to the energy infrastructure of the nation. In the video, a truck owner/operator, a company operations superintendent and the widow of a man who died of sudden cardiac death while gauging all tell about the experiences of oil and gas workers who are responsible for measuring tank levels, or tank gauging, and the sampling of crude oil.
These workers often work long shifts in severe weather, and many work at night or alone. From 2010-2014, there were at least nine deaths associated with exposure to a mixture of hydrocarbon gas and insufficient oxygen when the thief hatch at the top of the storage tank was opened. The results of an overexposure can be immediate: The gases affect eyes, lungs and the central nervous system and can cause the heart to have abnormal rhythms, resulting in dizziness and disorientation, loss of consciousness or even sudden cardiac death.
The new video highlights crucial information covered in the 2016 NIOSH-OSHA Hazard Alert: Health and Safety Risks for Workers Involved in Manual Tank Gauging and Sampling at Oil and Gas Extraction Sites. Visuals depict the reality of this type of work, and the following recommendations are described and demonstrated:
- Employers should implement engineering controls eliminating the need to open tank hatches (i.e., thief hatches); conduct hazard assessments and determine necessary controls to protect workers; communicate information to on-site workers and offsite contractors; and train workers on proper use of controls and in emergency response procedures.
- Workers who tank gauge should inform designated personnel when beginning and finishing work; remove all items that could spark or ignite flammable gas; wear appropriate PPE, including a properly calibrated and tested multi-gas monitor; bleed off pressure using the right tools; determine wind direction when manually gauging; and stay informed.
- The potential hazards to workers who manually gauge or sample fluids on production and flowback tanks -- such as exposure to hydrocarbon gases and vapors, oxygen-deficient atmospheres, and fires and explosions -- are preventable.
To access the video on YouTube, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQU5--0oWLI. To download a free copy of the video, visit https://vimeo.com/224981006.
For more information, visit www.Cdc.gov/niosh or call (800) CDC-INFO [232-4636].
