How much do you owe in gas detection “debt”?
Debt is a general concept that we all seem to understand or hope to, from a financial prospective. Likely most have incurred or are currently incurring some form of financial debt as we speak. For example, a car payment, mortgage, or a student loan. We can leverage this concept to get something now which we need and agree to pay back later. However, should we fail to properly manage this debt, then we are arguing with a tow truck driver, out on the street, or dealing with aggressive debt collectors. To understand the concept of gas detection debt, we need to first define and then elaborate on the consequences of not managing it.
What is gas detection debt?
First off gas detection debt is not your monthly service payment or bill for the physical gas detectors, that is financial debt. Gas detection debt is the implied cost of not properly maintaining your fleet and leveraging of data outputs. When the amount of debt is exposed/owed it is usually paid for in the form of high legal fees, a regulatory fine, lost future work, and in some tragic cases human suffering. Companies who invest time in regular maintenance and reviews of their data (alarms and exposures) to create a saver workplace have very little to no gas detection debt. However, companies who incur high compounding gas detection debt usually do so through the forms of ignorance, indifference, or general lack of effort. Companies can go years with massive gas detection debt and suffer little to no consequences.
Allow me to explain a common scenario. Company A has 100 gas detectors in their fleet and they have had ZERO incidents related to gas detection in the last 4 years. Additionally, they have saved over 40% in the last 2 years for their safety budget. Doesn’t sound like they have a lot of debt, I mean no incidents and spending less, they must be doing something right! However, the underlying daily activities tell a different story. They spend ZERO time doing any type of maintenance on their gas detection program, (bump tests as recommended by the manufacture and calibrations as are recommended by manufacture and/or OSHA). Additionally, they have no idea how these monitors are being used, 20% of the users are routinely in high gas concentrations for large periods of time. Others stopped working months ago and remain in the trucks. While they have been creating a “financial surplus” unbeknownst to them they have been racking up gas detection debt at a rate akin to a teenager with their first credit card. Let me be clear sometimes gas detection bills never show up, and unlike our teenage friend we can charge, charge, charge! And because we don’t see those bills we assume the only form of gas detection debt is our initial financial obligations. However, as any company who has had to pay their gas detection debt would tell you, it is real. A flippant approach means financial, legal, and life issues that you just don’t want to deal with.
While there are many examples of companies having to pay their gas detection debt, here is one recent example from January 2019. “OSHA inspectors determined that the company exposed employees to a hazardous atmosphere, failed to train employees on the health hazards of hydrogen sulfide, and did not drain water from the trench. The company faces penalties of $422,006.”. In the grand scheme of things investing in properly maintaining gas detection program is pennies, if not micro pennies, on the dollar when compared to wracking up gas detection debt.
To quantify the amount of gas detection debt that your company has, I have created a few simple questions to be your guide:
1. Do you know? Do you know how many working gas detectors you have? Have they been regularly calibrated, and do you have a bump test policy/program in place? If you answered Yes. Good job but we aren’t handing out gold stars just yet. And if you answered No, don’t worry you aren’t alone. In my 15 years in gas detection many clients who I meet with for the first-time struggle to answer these questions.
2. How are they being used? If your first answer is “to sense gas” touché. However, let me prepare you for my counter. While many companies equipment their employees with the hopes that gas detectors will be used to “sense gas” in the name of safety, the data tells a different story. Often, they aren’t used at all period. Other times they are routinely placed in places they aren’t supposed to “see what would happen”. Or they are used but the user tends to ignore the alarms all together creating a dangerous and copied pattern of behavior. This is likely a far more humbling and troubling question than the first. That is kind of the point. I have heard far too many stories where upon investigation the data demonstrates a troubling pattern. Commonly they lack or total misuse of the monitors which led to the incident.
3. Are you managing it in a cost-effective manner? Wait a minute weren’t you the same guy 500 words ago that seemed to gloss over financial terms in a gas detection conversation? No, my friend you are wrong. Financial terms play a big part in a gas detection program. The point of my question is to thoroughly examine if you can achieve a low gas detection debt profile while at the same time streamlining costs throughout your organization. IE can a service like iNet Exchange handle these matters instead of your employees?
4. Will they be ready for the moment? I almost forgot the most important question. If an employee wearing a gas detector walks into a hazardous atmosphere, will the monitor accurately alarm so they can evacuate safely? The answer to this question should never be NO. But if your gas detection debt is high, it might be so.
Once you have taken time to answer these 4 questions, you have at least taken time to give your gas detection program mental priority as you juggle the other daily tasks. If any question has prompted you to act, please do so. Don’t succumb to the mental trap of short-term safety "savings" that will likely compound your existing gas detection debt.