“Executives take the lead for safety in workplaces”

KOSHA held ‘the board of directors in workplaces’,
visiting workplaces to see contingency responses for oil spill accidents and check occupational accident prevention system

May 9, 2014

With growing interest and response efforts of CEOs from enterprises for recent occupational safety accidents in succession, KOSHA’s executives came forward for a workplace inspection.

The executives of KOSHA (headed by President Baek, Hun-ki) including executive and non-executive directors visited the Onsan plant of S-OIL located in Ulsan-si on Thursday, May 8 and checked the actual state of safety management in the chemical plant.

This visit was made by the KOSHA executives responsible for major decision making about occupational accident prevention projects, organization and budget to directly check the safety and health operating system to prevent major accidents.

In particular, the executives visited S-OIL to check the actual state of operation of ‘the joint prevention center for chemical accidents’, which had been established until the beginning of this year in cooperation with six industrial complexes across the country.

As for S-OIL, over 140,000 barrels of oil were spilled on April 4. At the time, the company had a possibility of serious secondary accidents such as fires, explosions and environmental pollution, but thanks to the effective risk management system, secondary accidents was avoided.

The executives of KOSHA visited the accident site and looked when and how KOSHA’s contingency response measures were carried out in ‘the joint prevention center for chemical accidents’ when the accident had occurred.

On that day, the briefing in the workplace said, “Immediately after the accident, KOSHA responded to the contingency equivalent to the alert level according to the contingency response manual and it was possible to prevent secondary accidents by taking the actions to check the accident situation; to call for spraying fire extinguishing medium on the possibility of explosion; to provide technical assistances to prevent spread of damage such as managing ignition source; and to carry out the 24-hour monitoring.”

KOSHA’s executives listened to the explanation from the officials of the company about the measures to enhance safety and prevent the recurrence of accidents based on the identified cause after the accident.

Meanwhile, ‘the board of directors in workplaces’ was attended by Baek Hun-ki, president of KOSHA, Lee Ho-seong, a non-executive director of KOSHA as well as director of Korea Employers Federation and Shin Chang-seop, Professor of Chungbuk National University.

On the visit to the site, Baek Hun-ki, president of KOSHA said, “After the recent major accident, now is the time to pay attention to safety more than ever.” “Safety accidents in chemical plants could threaten the safety of people. Therefore, please make the best efforts for prevention in advance and swift and systematic responses,” he added.
 

Baek Hun-ki, President of KOSHA (the person holding hands up), executive directors and other executives of KOSHA are checking the state of safety and health operation in S-Oil.

Baek Hun-ki, President of KOSHA (second from the right) is talking with the related official of S-Oil about the response of the oil spill accident.