The two cases of acute poisoning asphyxia accidents happened successively this month, and they sounded an alarm for the safety of summer well operations. The Municipal Safety Supervision Bureau issued an urgent notice recently, requiring all construction units (enclosed places) under the well to strengthen on-site supervision, eliminate habitual violations; at the same time organize a dragnet special inspection, and take action against "habitual violation behavior."
According to the introduction, since the beginning of summer, with the rise in temperature, the concentration of various toxic and harmful gases accumulated in wells (including ship cabins, storage tanks, pipelines, basements, cellars, sewage ponds, biogas pools, septic tanks, sewers, fermentation tanks and other limited spaces) has greatly increased, making it very easy to trigger acute poisoning asphyxia accidents.
In response to the widespread problems in underground operations such as lax on-site safety management, inadequate implementation of safety measures, employee safety training education not up to standard, improper safety protection and emergency response, the "Urgent Notice on Strengthening the Safety Management of Underground Operations" requires relevant enterprises to strengthen safety education and training, especially the safety education and training of newly hired migrant workers, refine operational links, effectively improve the self-protection ability and emergency response ability of personnel, resolutely eliminate command violations, operation violations and reckless rescue behaviors, while organizing relevant departments to carry out a dragnet special inspection of underground construction, strictly investigate and severely punish "habitual violations" behavior.
Case
Rashly adhering to the "old method", underground operations led to tragedy
At 8:50 on July 9, at the customer response optical cable construction site of Chenguang Machinery Factory undertaken by Jiangsu Postal Telecommunications Engineering Company, two workers of Nanjing Rongtong Telecommunications Engineering Co., Ltd. fainted in the well due to asphyxiation during construction work in the well south of the overpass at No. 118 Chenguang Road, and died after unsuccessful rescue.
Around 11 o'clock on July 13, at the construction site of the Jinling Cuiping Ben Niu Valley district in Jiangning District, a worker of Jiangning Foundation Engineering Co., Ltd. suddenly lost consciousness while extracting a water pump from the manually dug pile machine well. A coworker on the wellhead went down to rescue him, but also fainted due to asphyxiation. Both died after unsuccessful rescue.
"These two accidents were caused by habitual violations." Lu Xiaolong, director of the Emergency Rescue Department of the Municipal Safety Supervision Bureau, said that what was most heart-wrenching was that at the Jinling Cuiping Ben Niu Valley district construction site in Jiangning District, the "old method" used for underground operations was actually the rural method of digging cellars decades ago - finding a rooster, tying its legs with a rope, lowering it into the well for a few minutes, then pulling it back up. If the rooster was lively, people would rashly go down the well. As a result, less than half an hour later, a poisoning asphyxia accident occurred. And the companion, eager to save lives without wearing a safety mask, jumped down to rescue, resulting in another life being lost without saving anyone.
Scene
Construction sites, mixed feelings about safety protection
Yesterday at noon, the ground temperature was as high as over 40 degrees Celsius, and the asphalt road was scorching hot.
Advice
"Underground operations, preliminary detection must not be taken lightly"
Why do underground poisoning accidents occur frequently in summer? How should workers protect themselves? What rescue equipment should the main body of construction operations be equipped with?
"The two recent accidents were both low-level accidents." Deputy Director Li Xinnian of the Emergency Rescue Department of the Municipal Safety Supervision Bureau said that as long as the hazardous gases in the well are preliminarily detected, tragedies can be avoided.
Because of the higher temperature in summer, the degree of aggregation and volatilization of various toxic and harmful gases is relatively high. The concentration of toxic gases in enclosed places such as sewage wells and sewers is much higher than in autumn and winter, so the probability of poisoning asphyxia accidents occurring during operations in confined spaces also increases significantly. Li Xinnian said that common harmful gases include hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, benzene, toluene, xylene, carbon dioxide, and inert gases such as argon and helium.
The correct method for confined space operations is to first test the oxygen, dangerous substances, and harmful substance concentrations inside the confined space before the operation, and isolate electricity, high and low temperatures, and hazardous substances; secondly, ensure good ventilation and wear personal protective equipment and automatic alarm devices as required. In case of acute poisoning asphyxia accidents, emergency rescue personnel should be equipped with full-face positive-pressure air respirators or long-tube masks, and emergency communication and alarm equipment and other related equipment to carry out rescue.
(Source: Nanjing Daily - Nanjing Press Network)