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data to identify high-priority maintenance or repairs, recognize trends, and reduce over- all risk. All these data points make it much easier to make informed decisions that help you boost the effectiveness of your program. For example, repeated low-level gas ex- posures in a certain location on your site can help you discover and resolve problem areas before they impact worker safety. Vi- sual summaries of gas alarms make it easy to identify and fix a low-level gas leak that you otherwise might not have noticed un- til concentrations reached alarm-threshold levels. Over time, continuously using these data points to address problem areas will improve the efficacy of your safety program. 3. Receive instant updates. Real-time knowledge of each worker’s location and environment is essential in industrial en- vironments, especially in the event of a gas release. Gas monitors with live monitoring tools, like some personal multi-gas moni- tors and area monitors, can automatically alert safety contacts via text or email when a worker encounters an emergency. At the same time, peer-to-peer mesh networks can alert workers nearby so they can take appropriate action. Both live monitoring and peer-to-peer connectivity take the burden of communication off the worker in danger. Alerts are shared auto- matically, allowing everyone to act quickly. 4. Rely on real-time monitoring. You can’t always be available to respond to worker alarms like gas exposure and panic orman-downalertswhentheirhoursareir- regular or no one else is on site. A real-time response monitoring service can help cover gaps in your safety team without sacrificing the safety of your workers. Even if supervi- sors miss an alert or are inaccessible, your workers can have peace of mind knowing that agents will pursue help immediately. When a worker’s gas monitor detects dangerous conditions, a response center agent immediately takes action, following your custom response plan until the work- er is safe and stakeholders are notified. You can configure your escalation plan based on company policy and alarm type to ensure proper follow-up. With a call center team using automatic data sharing, you can be confident incidents will be pur- sued until your team is safe. 5. Reduce risk. With real-time infor- mation on safety challenges your workers face, you can follow up on incidents in minutes or count on an agent to escalate the situation until help arrives. You and your workers will have the information needed to react quickly and appropriately. After the fact, data gathered from the event offers insight into how you can im- prove your facility’s safety response in the future. Overall, connecting your work- force allows you to use data and insights to make smarter safety decisions and ul- timately reduce your facility’s operational risk and thus improve profitability. Software-Focused Safety Culture in Action Software experiences embedded within safety culture, allows for the expansion or your safety portfolio to include things like hardware connectivity tests, plume model- ing, 24/7 support, fall reports, heat stress, and much more. If an event does occur, you can easily identify where your people were when it happened. But you can also do a retrospective on what happened and why and change your processes for the next time – ensuring it doesn’t happen again. After a recent explosion, for example, one company was able to quickly identify the hazardous gases leaving their site, act accordingly, and keep local emergency re- sponders aware of the situation thanks to a plume modeling software solution. The next morning, the company need- ed additional equipment to better con- trol the situation and aid in emergency response. By adding additional software options, such as live monitoring, and compatible gas detectors, the company upgraded their current safety protocols to address the situation with more software insights beyond plume modeling. Having a robust software culture helps design engineers and other members of your organization with their projects. Let’s pretend the design engineers are build- ing a new section for your facility that might house four tanks of Chlorine and an open flame. By using robust gas detec- tion software, plume modeling programs, and more, they can run scenarios to deter- mine the right height for each tank and the flame. This determines the new addition will run efficiently and aid in long-term safety for the plant and its workers. Andrew Fisher is the Product Director for Software & Services at Industrial Scientific Corporation. To learn more, visit www. indsci.com. www.ohsonline.com NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Occupational Health & Safety 33 Essentials to Work Safely At Height Item#: 387401 Item#: 222575 Item#: 372999 Phone: 800.631.1246 Fax: 800.635.1591 northernsafety.com