Reference no: EM131184206

Assignments: Case Study

You have been hired as a consultant by your town's emergency management coordinator to help develop emergency action plans. One of the reasons you were selected is your expertise in using the General Behavior Model (GEBMO) to assess risks. Your first task is to assess the hazardous material risks at a local gas station. The station has one 30,000-gallon underground storage tank compartmentalized to hold 10,000 gallons each of the three gasoline grades, and there is one additional 10,000-gallon tank for diesel fuel. The station has four pumps, and each one can deliver all four products. Also on site is a 2,500 sq. ft. concrete block building used for the cashier and retail sales of service station and convenience store items.

The station is located at a busy intersection near the center of town. It is adjacent to several other local businesses that do a brisk business during the day. Across the street from the station is a large housing development with an elementary school. Behind the station is a city park with playgrounds, baseball fields, and a large wooded area.

Use the GEBMO framework to assess the risks related to the fuels in the underground tanks. Consider physical, chemical, and natural hazards that may contribute to the risks.

1. Discuss how you applied each of the steps in the GEBMO process and what risks you identified.

2. Provide recommendations for preventing spills or releases.

3. Discuss response actions required in the event of a spill or release.

Support your discussion with appropriate references and in-text citations. Your submission must be a minimum of two pages and a maximum of four pages in length.

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Case Study

Read the following scenario, and answer the questions following each section:

The Dosit Corporation is a chemical manufacturer, and its products are sold to other manufacturers and used in household cleaning products. The company has 290 employees with about 220 involved in the production process, 30 working as maintenance personnel, and the remainder in clerical, sales, engineering, and senior management positions.

The company has never had a safety manager before it recently hiring you. The company president instructed you to find out what is wrong regarding safety and health and then to fix it. Several binders and files have been given to you with the explanation that they are the existing safety policies and records. Looking through one folder, you find a chemical inventory list from two years ago that included 780 chemicals. You find no records of hazard communication training, and BOS 3125, Hazardous Materials Management 3

the existing written program is very minimal and inadequate. You also look at the MSDS/SDS files and find considerably fewer than 780 MSDS/SDSs.

Question 1. What steps should you take to bring the company into compliance with the HCS considering best practices?

You went on a tour of your company's chemical processing area with the production foreman. As with any such operations, there are pipes going everywhere and numerous tanks. You noticed that few of the pipes and none of the tanks have visible labels indicating what is in the tanks or pipes.

Question 2a. Is this a problem from a safety or regulatory point of view? Why?

Question 2b. What would be your recommendation on labeling considering the regulatory requirements?

You have just finished training the entire workforce about chemical hazards. The training was not well received by the workforce, and they generally appeared to be bored; end-of-class quizzes indicated that they did not really grasp the essential information. You do not understand how this could be because you carefully went over the MSDS/SDS for each chemical that a given group of workers were potentially exposed to and explained in detail the precautions they needed to take.

Question 3a. What most likely went wrong in this training?

Question 3b. How could future training be improved, including the explanation of chemical hazards without specifically addressing each chemical?

During the inventory, you find a quart can of a chemical with a label in the maintenance shop. You find out that the shop personnel only use it occasionally and for unfreezing rusted bolts. They do not seem to know anything about the chemical's potential hazards, and the wording on the container is not totally legible, so you are not sure what the hazards are either.

Question 4a. How would find out about the proper use, storage, and disposal of this chemical?

Question 4b. How would you identify the chemical as hazardous, or as not hazardous?

During an inventory, you come across an unlabeled five-gallon container of a chemical on which someone has written a chemical name.

Question 5. What should you do, if anything, about this container?

Use complete sentences when formulating your responses, and use APA format when writing your responses. Your paper must be a minimum of two pages in length, not including title and reference pages. Provide examples in your discussions, and support your answers with appropriate references and in-text citations.

Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

Unit VIII Course Project

University Case Study

Congratulations! You have just become the safety manager for Podunk University. Your position is at the campus in Podunk, Colorado, and your predecessor left the job a year and a half ago. There has been nobody in the position during that interval. The commitment of the institution to safety is dubious at best, but you are looking forward to starting your new position and making a positive change.

After introducing yourself to the secretary you share with a half dozen other, more senior, people, you decide to focus on hazardous material and hazardous waste issues since you just completed a great college course on those topics. You tour the campus and discover that the following departments and programs are yours to deal with:

- The biology department has animal dissection, human dissection, a microbiology lab, and a medical laboratory education program that uses small quantities of a lot of chemicals.

- The chemistry department has chemicals that have never been inventoried and a new forensics program (as in CSI, not in college debate).

-  The physics department has high-voltage equipment, lasers, and LEDs.

- The English department has lots and lots of books and papers, as well as photocopiers.

- The math department has lots of computers and whiteboards.

Hazardous Materials Management

- The automotive technology department has everything pertaining to auto repair, including solvents, asbestos brake linings, pneumatic tools, waste oil, and cutting and grinding tools.

- The Massive Arena is one of the original buildings on campus and has a variety of interesting problems, including asbestos insulation, and the building is undergoing a massive renovation.

Respond to each of the following questions:

1. Where do you start?

2. Where should you focus your initial HazCom efforts? In what order do you tackle the rest of the departments?

3. What are the HazCom issues in the automotive technology department?

4. What are the hazardous waste issues in the automotive technology department?

5. What are the HazCom issues in the chemistry department?

6. What are the hazardous waste issues in the chemistry department?

7. With the Massive Arena renovation, who are the people to whom you need to communicate hazards?

8. What are your main concerns with the physics department?

9. What are the hazardous material/waste spill response issues for the university, and how should you prepare for them?

10. Is any HazCom training needed for the English and math departments?

11. What are some resources for finding out how to solve the HazCom issues?

12. You must choose technology or trainers to do the needed training. What are some issues to consider when selecting these?

13. Due to budget cuts, you have to do the training yourself, and you will use PowerPoint. What are some considerations when developing your PowerPoint Presentation?

14. How can you evaluate your training to ensure that it is accomplishing your goals?

15. One of the chemistry professors working with some of the automotive technology faculty members, invents a new nonflammable compound that will render obsolete the need for solvents to degrease auto parts. She wants to market the stuff. What needs to be done before it can be marketed, and who should do it?

16. The University decides to partner with the chemistry professor and market this new compound. Due to the lack of flammability, it is a great hit nationwide. They then decide to market it worldwide. What concerns need to be addressed?

17. It turns out that this wonderful new compound makes a really great explosion when used in conjunction with another chemical. As the University is manufacturing the compound in large quantities and storing it on the grounds, what concerns do you now have? What experts should you consult?

18. The biology department has been busy as well. The little microbiology lab is large now, and they are working with stronger pathogens. How would you determine the new hazard communication requirements and things that you should do beyond that minimum?

After a tough five years, you have the Podunk University campus running smoothly. Everybody is trained, and your successor will not have nearly as much of a challenge as you did. Congratulations, and best wishes on your next challenge!

Your submission must be a minimum of four pages double-spaced, not including the title and reference pages, and in APA format. Support your answers to the questions with appropriate references and in-text citations.