Tag: safety measures

There are various hazards associated with the trade in coal. UK P&I Club’s Loss Prevention Team highlights the risks involved, and advises on the relevant actions to take in order to reduce accidents.

Wilhelmsen Ships Service is warning of price, supply and safety risks in the run-up to the global ban on R-22 (chlorodifluoromethane or HCFC) refrigerant. The colourless gas, which has high ozone depletion and global warming potential, is still said to be in use on between 6,000 and 8,000 vessels worldwide.R-22 was outlawed throughout the EU in a process that ran from 2010 to 1st January 2015. It is currently being phased out in the US, where no new or imported R-22 will be permitted from 1 January 2020. As part of the Montreal Protocol (MP), a UN agreement to protect the ozone layer, HCFC use will be phased out in member countries by 2030.“R-22 is a versatile and effective refrigerant gas that has served the shipping industry well, but it is fast approaching the end of the line,” comments Svenn Jacobsen, Technical Product Manager Refrigeration at Wilhelmsen Ships Service.“The compliance deadlines are approaching and this has, quite rightly, impacted tremendously on global production. As availability goes down price and supply risks go up, and this is potentially bad news for the owners of those remaining vessels that still use R-22.”Industry figures indicate that legal global R-22 production this year will ...

IMCA has published a report for dynamic positioning operations’ to provide an overview of the Mini RadaScan system.

Special attention should be given to the mooring lines as they are coming off the dockThe USCG has issued Marine Safety Alert 12-15 on dockside safety issues to remind port authorities, marine terminal operators, line handlers, longshoreman and others associated with such activities to consider the associated risks.The maritime industry and specifically waterfront facilities can present some unusual hazards to those who perform the wide array and variety of work associated with the business of shipping.To illustrate that point, a pick-up truck was recently dragged into the harbor by a mooring line that was being hauled in by a ships mooring winch. The shore-side line handler that was using the truck to assist with the evolution narrowly escaped injury and possible death by quickly jumping out of the truck before it was dragged off the terminal.In this case, the ship was preparing to depart the port and the mooring line messenger was secured to the trucks tow hitch. It is a common shore gang line handling practice used in order to assist working with heavy mooring lines. When the line was thrown off the bollard, the ship began to haul it in with the messenger still attached to the truck.Line ...

Laundering safety issues - Dried not Fried The US Coast Guard has issued a Marine Safety Alert to warn of the potential hazards that large laundry operations and extra-large-capacity drying machines pose. USCG encourage owners and operators to be aware of and familiar with the equipment and all associated safety systems and to ensure these systems are properly maintained and operational.Recently a small fire developed in a dryer onboard a cruise ship. The fire was quickly extinguished by the vessels crew and caused no significant damage. Subsequently, it was discovered that a built-in fire suppression system, a component of the dryers designed to spray water into the drums in case of fire, had been disabled on all six of the vessels installed dryers. Initial investigation of the associated processes and procedures related to these suppression systems indicated they were not included in the vessels maintenance systems such as Infoship.Regular inspections and evaluations of this fire suppression equipment did not occur, despite other excellent laundry room risk reduction actions routinely undertaken by the crew. Another area of concern involved the shared responsibility for inspection and maintenance of the laundry equipment by two subdepartments: Galley Service Technicians and the Electrical Department. Their ...

Japan P&I Club issues LP Bulletin on cranes operations and reasons for failures The Japan P&I Club has issued Loss Prevention Bulletin on cranes to provide guidance regarding their inspections, maintenance and operation in order to prevent incidents involving damage to a crane.Cargo handling cranes, commonly pedestal mounted jib cranes, are fitted on board most handy-size bulk carriers, most general cargo ships and some other smaller or larger bulk carriers. These cranes appear to be fairly robust units which will continue to work when only a minimum of maintenance is carried out, but, in fact, they are highly complex pieces of machinery which incorporate numerous components manufactured to very fine tolerances, all of which must function correctly throughout a working period for the crane, as a unit, to be operated as the manufacturers intended. The cranes should be properly maintained, and should be inspected at specified intervals to ensure that they operate correctly and safely. Additionally, all other equipment used in association with a crane should, likewise, be properly maintained and should be inspected as appropriate. If the equipment is not in the appropriate good condition, failures are likely to occur during cargo operations.Any failure of any part of the ...

STS Planning and Preparation - Fendering - Mooring - Unmooring The West of England P&I Club has issued Loss Prevention Safety Alert on STS Transfer Operations Incidents Resulting in Contact Damage to highlight the principal causes of recent incidents, and to focus on thesafeguards that should be considered to reduce the likelihood of contact damage during STS mooring and unmooring operations.The Club has experienced an increasing number of claims involving contact damage during ship to ship (STS) transfers, mainly during manoeuvring operations. Some of the incidents were serious. Following a claims review it appears that the majority of these cases took place in conditions that may have been unsuitable for the activity undertaken.Contributory factors generally included one or more of the following:Adverse weather conditions such as high winds, heavy seas, strong currents and/or tidal streams. In one case a daughter vessel, which was moored alongside an anchored mother vessel, made contact when trying to unmoor in a Force 8 wind. A significant number of other incidents occurred in winds of Force 6 or more.Lying beam on to a long swell while lightering a vessel which was partially aground. The swell increased during the operation, causing both vessels to roll up ...

Due to recent incidents involving self-heating of coal The Gard P&I Club has issued a loss prevention ciruclar to highlight the importance of checking the accuracy of shippers declarations for all types of coal cargoes.The Club has recently been involved in several incidents of self-heating of coal cargoes and would like to emphasise the importance of treating coal cargoes as liable to self-heat until it has been satisfactorily established that they are not. The Club says that the shippers cargo declaration containing the cargo properties and the associated hazards should be examined in detail1.It should be borne in mind that the information contained in the declaration may be inaccurate. Inaccurate IMSBC Code declarations have been seen in areas such as Indonesia, where large quantities of coal are shipped. More surprisingly, Gard was involved in a recent case where a coal cargo loaded at Richards Bay, South Africa was inaccurately declared as not self-heating coal nor liable to emit methane. Subsequent investigations involving cargo experts, established that the cargo did in fact possess both properties.It is therefore recommended that all coal cargoes are treated as potentially hazardous and liable to self-heat until it can be satisfactorily established that they are not. ...

Erasmia Vlachandrea, HSE & Vetting Manager, Alison Management Corp.analysed the''Best Practices on operational level from the Operator Perspective'' at the 2015 SAFETY4SEA Athens Forum. She stated that commercial vessels are by definition unsafe and mitigating safety risks is a challenging job. Over the past decades, rendering the ships safe is becoming more and more demanding as requirements get stricter and more complicated. The benefits of a well-established safety culture are never apparent immediately. She concluded that no matter the obstacles, it will pay off eventually. The nature of the safety and the shipping industry and particularly in tankers has changed radically over the last two decades as we all know, many issues have appeared and that has made us all to change our outlook on how we work; this goes especially for oil companies, seafarers onboard the vessel, Port State Controls, P&I Clubs, Classification Societies and flag administrators. When I first became a DPA during my first steps in the industry I was onboard an oil tanker on the maiden voyage and I tried to take the elevator together with the engineer but unfortunately the cabinet never arrived. When we opened the door which showed the shaft underneath, the master ...

The Japan P&I Club provides information on recent navigation warnings of China Waters issued by MSA China.