Pueblo Plant Workers Train for Improved Safety

Published: April 15, 2016 | Category: PCAPP News, Safety

Entry Support Area (ESA) tenders practice a toxic area rescue. A recent training exercise, during which an ESA tender lost consciousness, is a case study which will be incorporated into Trigger Training. The training will teach Pueblo plant employees to look for cues to avoid potential hazards.

Specialists at the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP) began teaching Trigger Training in April, and the new mandatory training is designed to help identify signs, or triggers, that should lead an employee to stop, ask questions and seek assistance.

“Trigger Training is a method to identify visible and audible cues in order to pause and make sure you’re doing the right thing for expected results,” said Bret Griebenow, Bechtel Pueblo Team deputy project manager.

“Although everyone on the PCAPP team knows they have the right to stop work when they are unsure, we have found that we’re not unsure often enough. We are overconfident too often,” Griebenow said. “We should pause to make sure we are doing the right thing.”

The training provides common language and definitions, and trainers use PCAPP-specific experiences in the form of case studies to show the triggers that preceded an event, said Cara Tseng, performance management specialist, PCAPP. Tseng, along with two others, was certified in the training developed by Human and Organization Performance Enhancement (HOPE) Consulting.

Finn Norby, operations support manager said he thinks a recent incident during a training exercise might have been avoided had Trigger Training been available earlier.

Norby described the exercise involving workers who were dressed in OSHA Level A suits in order to rescue a toxic area entrant. He said there were several triggers that should have signaled the workers to stop and reevaluate the situation. First, there was a visual cue, no ropes on the stretchers. Second, were auditory cues, the tender said he was having trouble catching his breath. He continued to work despite his trouble breathing and eventually passed out.

“Trigger Training would have helped the employees to be aware of key words,” Norby said. “They would have known they could have stopped the exercise at any time.”

“We need to stop and reevaluate in the face of uncertainty,” Tseng said. “We need to take proactive steps for technical inquisitiveness and stop work.”