The elections of 2014 have come and gone, and the dust storm surrounding hydraulic fracturing (HF) seems to be settling down. Scientists have studied the problems and evaluated the risks.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) recently published a special issue of Environmental Science & Technology focused on HF.1 Meanwhile, thousands of wells have been drilled and been brought on line. In 2014, America’s petroleum production added about a million barrels per day. A similar production increase is forecast for 2015.
Our economy is clearly benefiting. New chemical plants create jobs. The new plants along the Gulf Coast and rivers of the midwest will soon need chemists for QC and QA. These plants are expected to begin to come on stream starting in 2015.
As a result of reduced imports of oil, the foreign trade deficit has decreased by about $100 million per day. More of the money that went to OPEC is staying in the United States. Predictably, the U.S. dollar is getting stronger.
Safety of hydraulic fracturing
Work cultures shape decisions and have consequences, as we have seen with BP’s corporate culture of cutting corners in numerous accidents in petroleum refineries (Texas City fire in 2005) and most vividly in the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in 2010. In both cases, the BP culture was cited as a contributing factor.
I was impressed with a recent report, “The role of human factors considerations and safety culture in the safety of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).2 The article begins with a fact-filled description of the HF process. Of particular note was that, according to statistics from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the fatality rate associated with petroleum production is 27.5 per 100,000 workers. This is seven times the rate for the entire American workforce. I’d not seen this addressed earlier. Why is it so high? What can be done to mitigate the risk?
The authors of the article point out that one needs to consider the human factors involved in each stage of the production and refining process. Human factors can include product attributes such as design, as well as the attitude and training of the operator. The authors describe the HF process in detail, which brought back memories (in an earlier life, I was a roustabout in an oil field in Long Beach, CA). Next, the authors present and analyze three case histories. One involved setting the perforating string 800 m too high in the well. The perforations were in the groundwater aquifer. The authors conclude that, by examining failures and developing risk mitigation measures, the safety of HF processes can be improved. It is essential to develop a safety culture.
How does this relate to the lab? Labs are also potentially dangerous workplaces. Most places I’ve worked in have very basic safety considerations (cylinder straps, storage cabinets for flammables, hoods, and safety glass control, etc.).
In larger facilities, lab safety officers are charged with protecting us from ourselves. In my experience, they seem to focus on low-probability possibilities, while being oblivious to more probable events. I’ve not seen detailed studies of laboratory accidents, especially human factors. I wonder if these factors and associated risks can be applied in the laboratory to curate actions and hazards to reduce overall risk in the workplace.
Human factors also come into play in the design of workstation apparatus and instruments. Handheld pipets have evolved over the last 40 years from straight tubes to molded bodies that fit the hand and reduce repetitive stress syndrome. However, many are used in the open laboratory, where drops may go astray. This has been studied extensively by Artel (Westbrook, ME). With their training, the %CV associated with aspirate and dispense can be improved to much lower than 0.5%.
Instrument displays are another topic. Some displays have a very limited viewing angle. The text may be small, necessitating the use of reading glasses. But glasses have a focal length; thus a display that is designed for a person who is 5’6” is not readable by a tall person like me, unless I search for the sweet spot.
Many potential customers are interested in what comprises a successful human interface. If you are an instrument designer who would like to share your views about human factors in the design of instruments, please contact me at [email protected].
References
- http://pubs.acs.org/toc/esthag/48/15.
- Heinecke, J.; Jabbari, N. et al. The role of human factors considerations and safety culture in the safety of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). J. Sust. Energy Eng. Sept 2014, 2(2), 130.