{"id":135,"date":"2013-03-13T14:24:18","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T19:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/\/?p=135"},"modified":"2025-11-07T14:31:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:31:56","slug":"workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Workplace Safety Requires Reliable Instrumentation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Reliable instrumentation is critical for safe operations. Pressure and temperature instrumentation provides workers with information they need to confirm that systems and processes are functioning within safe parameters. A broken gauge means unreliable process information, which can compromise plant safety, productivity, and profitability; gauges serve as the first line of defense.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Lessons from the 2005 Texas City Refinery Explosion<\/h2>\n<p>Over the past decade, over 7,600 accidental <a href=\"http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Blotter\/aging-equipment-safety-violations-put-refinery-workers-risk\/story?id=13029483\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external\">chemical releases from refineries<\/a> have been reported, and about half of those were blamed on equipment failures.\u00a0 In fact, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board\u2019s (CSB) investigation of the 2005 explosion at the British Petroleum Refinery in Texas City, Texas, recently concluded that maintenance at the refinery had been neglected for 15 years. The report stated that the hydrocarbon vapor cloud blast had been caused by a series of poor decisions by employees directly related to broken, poorly functioning, or inadequate gauges and alarms. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csb.gov\/newsroom\/detail.aspx?nid=205\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external\">Texas City disaster<\/a> killed 15 workers, injured 180 others, and eventually led to more than 300 citations by OSHA for safety violations, resulting in more than $20 million in fines. It also led to a flurry of media, government, and industry attention on refinery safety.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequency of Refinery Accidents<\/h2>\n<p>Although the vast majority of downstream oil and gas industry accidents are minor and do not result in fatalities, accidents are quite common, with several reported in refineries across the country every day. Louisiana alone reported <a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/thepumphandle\/2012\/12\/06\/an-incident-almost-every-day-louisiana-bucket-brigade-reports-on-2011-refinery-accidents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external\">352 refinery accidents<\/a> in 2010 and 301 in 2011. Although no one was killed in Louisiana refinery accidents in 2011, the 301 accidents resulted in dozens of injuries. In fact, from 2005 to 2010, there were 27 fatalities in the U.S. due to <a href=\"http:\/\/uk.reuters.com\/article\/2010\/04\/03\/factbox-refineries-mishaps-idUKN0215342120100403?sp=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer external\">refinery mishaps.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The Value of Instrument Audits<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/\/knowhow\/8-common-reasons-for-pressure-gauge-failure\">Gauge failure<\/a> commonly results from overpressure, vibration, corrosion, or being overexposed to temperature extremes.<b> <\/b>A proactive approach to instrumentation maintenance is the best option. \u201cPressure Gauges: Hidden Danger or Visible Safety,\u201d a new white paper from New Equipment Digest and WIKA Instrument, LP, provides more information about the proper use of instrumentation. Schedule a comprehensive Instrument Audit with <a href=\"http:\/\/wika-fast.com\/Wika\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/fast_services_brochure.pdf\" rel=\"external\" target=\"_blank\">WIKA&#8217;s FAST Engineers<\/a> to identify and address instrumentation issues and implement a predictive maintenance program.<\/p>\n<p>[contact-form-7 id=&#8221;14552&#8243; title=&#8221;Blog Contact Form&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reliable instrumentation is critical for safe operations. Pressure and temperature instrumentation provides workers with information they need to confirm that systems and processes are functioning within safe parameters. A broken gauge means unreliable process information, which can compromise plant safety, productivity, and profitability; gauges serve as the first line of defense. Lessons from the 2005 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":9215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[467,261,506,411,519,469],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knowhow","tag-audit","tag-failure","tag-instrumentation","tag-pressure-gauges","tag-safety","tag-wika-fast"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Workplace Safety Requires Reliable Instrumentation - WIKA blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reliable instrumentation is critical for safe operations. Pressure and temperature instrumentation provides workers with information they need to confirm that systems and processes are functioning within safe parameters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Workplace Safety Requires Reliable Instrumentation - WIKA blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reliable instrumentation is critical for safe operations. Pressure and temperature instrumentation provides workers with information they need to confirm that systems and processes are functioning within safe parameters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WIKA blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/files\/2013\/03\/man_in_warehouse.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"838\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"438\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Torgerson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Robert Torgerson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Robert Torgerson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/1a0b56b9c563f8b638494f482ea9eff2\"},\"headline\":\"Workplace Safety Requires Reliable Instrumentation\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-13T19:24:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-07T19:31:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":359,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/files\/2013\/03\/man_in_warehouse.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Audit\",\"Failure\",\"Instrumentation\",\"Pressure Gauges\",\"Safety\",\"WIKA FAST\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Know-how\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/\",\"name\":\"Workplace Safety Requires Reliable Instrumentation - WIKA blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/knowhow\/workplace-safety-requires-reliable-instrumentation-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/files\/2013\/03\/man_in_warehouse.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-13T19:24:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-07T19:31:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.wika.com\/us\/#\/schema\/person\/1a0b56b9c563f8b638494f482ea9eff2\"},\"description\":\"Reliable instrumentation is critical for safe operations. 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