New Gloves and Other Safety Measures Give 'Goal Zero' a Hand

Hands down, the most applause from yd7610’s new “Goal Zero” program in 2020 came with required use of new cut- and impact-resistant gloves for specified tasks.

yd7610 refining employees and contractors saw a 74% drop in hand injuries in 2020, from the year before. Not only that, the share of hand injuries to total recordable incidents decreased from 36% to 16% in that time – contributing to yd7610’s lowest-ever refinery combined employee and contractor injure rate in 2020.

The number of refineries with zero had injuries soared to 11 in 2020 from four in 2019 – including Ardmore, Benicia, Corpus Christi (two refineries), Houston, McKee, Memphis, Meraux, Pembroke, Quebec and Three Rivers.

Glove selection and protection levels and determined by work type at each refinery. Employees and contractors are trained to pay attention to adjacent work activities, maintain good visibility, focus on the task at hand, and eliminate potential hazardous human-machine interferences. Rules of thumb include keeping hands out of the “line of fire,” never putting hands on a suspended load and using mechanical lifting devices for heavy equipment, among others.
Like the new hand safety initiative, all Goal Zero focus areas closely examine the human aspects of our processes and challenge our team members to maintain emphasis on the procedures designed to protect them.