REM’s Benjamin Craig has been appointed as Principal to the NFPA 800 Technical Committee for Battery Safety. NFPA is developing the NFPA 800 Battery Safety Code, leading to a crucial development in battery safety standards.

Batteries are increasingly used in various applications, necessitating a holistic approach to safety throughout their lifecycle. While existing codes address aspects of battery safety, a comprehensive code harmonizing all relevant standards could help identify safety gaps and support local authorities in managing battery hazards. The primary objective of NFPA 800 is to enhance safety measures for the prevention, management, and mitigation of fire, explosions, and other risks linked to cells and batteries throughout their lifecycle, including handling, manufacturing, transportation, storage, and operation.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to occupational health and organizational risk management. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM’s Michael Larrañaga has been appointed by the Secretary of Labor as a public representative on the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH). Established in 1970 under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, “NACOSH is comprised of 12 members: four public representatives, two management representatives, two labor representatives, two occupational health professionals and two occupational safety professionals.” The committee’s mission is to advise, consult with, and make recommendations to the Secretaries of Labor and Health and Human Services (HHS) on Agency priorities, including the areas of:

• Leadership in the national dialogue on worker safety and health;
• Strong, fair, and effective enforcement of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards;
• Expanded compliance assistance;
• Guidance and research, including research needs and priorities;
• Expanded partnerships and voluntary programs;
• Regulatory matters;
• Other activities to help reduce work-related deaths, injuries, and illnesses; and
• Emerging issues involving Occupational Safety and Health.

Additional information on NACOSH can be found here.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to occupational health and organizational risk management. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM’s Patrick Smith to Chair the National Carbon Monoxide Awareness Association’s (NCOAA) Data Surveillance Workgroup alongside NCOAA’s Christina Binknowski. The NCOAA is hosting its first CO Safety Summit this year in conjunction with the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) 33rd Annual Fire Prevention & Safety Symposium. At the summit, the Data Surveillance Workgroup will launch along with other CO focused work groups for Emergency & Trades, Codes, Standards & Regulations, and Science & Innovation. These workgroups will work together throughout the year on a variety of topics.

One of the greatest challenges related to carbon monoxide safety is that the surveillance data collected on carbon monoxide injuries and deaths is fragmented and incomplete. There is no national surveillance system that specifically monitors carbon monoxide poisoning, resulting in significant underreporting of deaths and injuries in the US.

Improving data collection and analysis of carbon monoxide poisoning incidents is needed in order to effectively advocate for change. The Data Surveillance work group will review existing data sources, make recommendations for changes to the reporting systems, and conduct or support independent research on carbon monoxide poisoning prevalence. The work group’s goal for the first year is to support research on the prevalence of carbon monoxide poisoning.

REM’s work on CO data has been previously published in the Journal of Preventative Medicine Reports. The paper, Analyzing the National Fire Incident Reporting System to Identify Carbon Monoxide Incidents in the U.S. Lodging Industry is a continuation of previous efforts to document CO incidents at U.S. hotels and motels. In the paper, REM uses the NFIRS database to identify 3,405 CO incidents in the U.S. lodging industry; previous efforts had only identified 367 incidents through news reports. As a result, REM’s research shows the lodging industry CO incidents occur at far greater rates than previously realized, indicating a larger public health risk associated with lodging industry CO exposure. The incidents identified through REM’s research have been presented in an interactive map detailing the locations and details of what occurred. 

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to occupational health and organizational risk management. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM’s Rixio E. Medina was recently appointed the 2023-2024 Chair of American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) Technical and Professional Recognition Committee (TRPC). He has served in the TPRC since 2021.

The TRPC advances the occupational safety and health professionals through the recognition of model OSH professionals. Some of the key responsibilities of the TRPC are to oversee the administration of ASSP Honor of Fellow (FASSP) and the Society Safety Professional of the Year (SPY) awards.

Rixio is a founding member of REM Risk Consultants and a former oil and gas industry executive. He has a long history of service to ASSP, including positions on the Board of Directors and society president, vice president of the Council on Professional Affairs, and many other ASSP committees, including Standards Development, Bylaws, Global, Diversity and Government Affairs. He has served as an ASSP ambassador for Latin America and trustee for the ASSP Foundation, where he sponsors a scholarship for Hispanics in safety. Rixio has also served as president of the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) and on the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board after being appointed by President George W. Bush in 2003.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to occupational health and organizational risk management. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

We are excited to announce the addition of Eric Thibodeaux to the REM team! Eric is a health, safety, and environmental professional with experience in fire protection, worker safety, emergency response, process safety, auditing, Severe Injury & Fatality (SIF) interventions, and risk management. He has previously held health and safety leadership positions in the oil and gas and chemical refining industries and managed large teams of health and safety professionals around the world.

Eric has helped companies develop self-verification processes to identify precursors to potential SIF incidents. He has led teams providing EHS compliance & risk assessment, risk assessment & reduction, training, contractor safety management, crisis management capabilities, incident investigation & audit support for the business.  Eric was previously a safety engineer responsible for coordinating process safety & emergency response activities for BP. He has developed and executed spill response plans for oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of Suez in Egypt. Eric has experience as an environmental manager and ensuring ISO 140001 compliance. 

Eric has a passion for helping vacation rental owners improve the safety and operation of their properties. He has served on the Association Short Term Rental Home Owners (ASTRHO) Advisory Board for Safety & Housekeeping. Eric is an expert witness for safety and management of Vacation / Short Term Rentals and apartment complexes.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to occupational health and organizational risk management. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM Risk Consultants’ Benjamin Craig has been selected to serve on the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) Editorial Review Board Committee. The board is a three year commitment, and helps ensure that the organization’s monthly journal provides high quality, technically accurate content that advances the practice of occupational safety and health by keeping the OSH community informed of developments in the practice and application industry best practices. Benjamin was a previous ASSP Chapter President and Vice President for the Southwest Chapter located in Dallas, Texas.

ASSP is a global organization of more than 37,000 occupational safety and health (OSH) professional members who manage, supervise, research and consult on work-related OSH concerns in all industries, government and education. The Society’s members use risk-based approaches to prevent workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to occupational health and organizational risk management. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM Risk Consultants’ Benjamin Craig has been appointed as a Principal to the Committee for Wood and Cellulosic Materials, formerly responsible for NFPA 664 Standard for the Prevention of Fires and Explosions in Wood Processing and Woodworking Facilities, now the new NFPA 660 Standard for Combustible Dusts with a first edition in Fall of 2024.

Combustible dust, frequently found in multiple industries, consists of any combustible particulates that presents a fire or deflagration hazard when suspended in air (or some other oxidizing medium), over a range of concentrations, regardless of particle size or shape. Incidents involving combustible dust are common enough that they are a focus of OSHA as part of its Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program and changes to the 2021 International Building Code (IBC) and International Fire Code (IFC) require dust hazard analyses (DHA) to be performed retroactively on processes. REM frequently assists clients in reducing their combustible dust risks through testing, process reviews, and performing DHAs.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to occupational health and organizational risk management. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM Risk Consultants is increasingly providing services to the commercial space industry. REM is assisting clients with a wide range of challenges, including providing analysis to ensure compliance with NASA standards such as NASA-STD-8719.12 (Safety Standard for Explosives, Propellants, and Pyrotechnics), facilitating Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP) on critical systems, and assisting with Process Safety Management compliance as required by OSHA (29 CFR 1910.119).

The FAA forecasts a surge in commercial space launch activity, with the number licensed operations in the U.S. expected to double over the next three years. The accelerated growth in commercial space travel is creating a ‘space renaissance period’ which will play an important role in creating jobs, advancing research in multiple fields, and offering new tourist opportunities.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to occupational health and organizational risk management. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM has updated its interactive map using the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s (CSB’s) updated database of accidental release incidents reported through Q1 of Fiscal Year 2023 (October – December 2022).

This is the second release of data for chemical incidents reported under the CSB’s “Accidental Release Reporting Rule”. The newly released data shows a significant uptick in reportable events during the quarter, as well as an extremely high number of serious events during the end of December which coincides with cold temperatures across the U.S. From October 1, 2022, through December 26, 2022, 36 events were reported to the CSB, 8 of which occurred the Christmas holiday weekend. This is more than double the number of events for the first three months of the previous two fiscal years – October-December of 2021 (16 events) and 2020 (14 events).  Reportable events involve an accidental chemical release resulting in a fatality, serious injury, and/or substantial property damage.

The CSB’s Accidental Release Database includes all accidental release incidents reported since March 23, 2020, the effective date of the Accidental Release Reporting regulation. The first event was reported under this rule on April 10, 2020, with a total of 224 events resulting in one or more of the three negative consequences reported through December 26th, 2022. Of the 224 events reported, 31 resulted in fatalities, 126 involved serious injuries (requiring inpatient hospitalization), and 101 caused substantial property damage.

Rixio Medina, R.E.M Founding Member Emeritus and former member of the CSB, believes that the prompt reporting of accidental releases of regulated or extremely hazardous substances that cause fatalities, hospitalizations or substantial property manage, helps the CSB fulfill its mission of conducting prioritized root cause independent investigations of chemical accidents at fixed industrial facilities to recommend effective preventive measures to protect people and the environment.

The database is revised quarterly and may include revisions or corrections to events previously reported and events that were not timely reported to the CSB in accordance with the regulation.

REM’s interactive map of the incidents can be viewed here.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM’s Michael Larrañaga has been named the new Editor-In-Chief for the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (JOEH). The JOEH is published jointly by the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), and is a peer-reviewed publication devoted to enhancing the knowledge and practice of occupational and environmental health and safety. Since 2004, JOEH has published peer-reviewed research studies that examine exposures, risks, and controls that can be used to understand how exposures relate to health outcomes, and how these can be managed for the betterment of society. JOEH publishes studies across a range of investigation types, including laboratory investigations, field studies, simulations, and secondary data analyses. Stressors relating to adverse health outcomes are the main focus of JOEH, including physical, chemical, biological, radiation, noise, ergonomics, and psychosocial hazards, including how work-life organization affects these exposures.

Larrañaga, an internationally recognized expert in industrial hygiene and occupational and environmental health and safety, replaces T. Renee Anthony, PhD, CIH, CSP, FAIHA who served as editor-in-chief of the JOEH from 2018 to 2022. “I am excited to become the editor-in-chief of JOEH, and I hope to leverage the outstanding editorial review board to encourage a broader audience, seek submissions of high-quality international articles, and work with allied professions to secure a mix of practical and research submissions that expand the journal’s reach,” said Larrañaga. He added, “My goal is to facilitate efficient and thorough peer reviews that continue to make JOEH the first-choice journal for high-quality research in the field of occupational and environmental health.”

“Michael’s vast experience, his awards and honors, his contributions to the profession of occupational and environmental health and safety, and his enthusiasm make him the perfect leader for JOEH,” said Lawrence D. Sloan, AIHA’s CEO.

The full AIHA press release can be viewed here.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

A new report published by the NFPA Fire Protection Research Foundation features REM’s work on carbon monoxide (CO) incidents in the U.S. lodging industry. The NFPA report, “Carbon Monoxide Incidents: A Review of the Data Landscape” reviews the current sources of CO incident data, how the data is compiled, and discusses what the data represents. Additionally, this report identifies, summarizes, and analyzes case studies of non-fire carbon monoxide incidents specific to commercial-type occupancies to provide a greater understanding to the NFPA Safety to Life Technical Committee who is responsible for writing the NFPA 101, Life Safety Code® and the NFPA Building Code Technical Committee who is responsible for writing the NFPA 5000, Building Construction and Safety Code®. The full NFPA report can be downloaded here.

REM’s work featured in the NFPA report has been previously published in the Journal of Preventative Medicine Reports. The paper, Analyzing the National Fire Incident Reporting System to Identify Carbon Monoxide Incidents in the U.S. Lodging Industry is a continuation of previous efforts to document CO incidents at U.S. hotels and motels. In the paper, REM uses the NFIRS database to identify 3,405 CO incidents in the U.S. lodging industry; previous efforts had only identified 367 incidents through news reports. As a result, REM’s research shows the lodging industry CO incidents occur at far greater rates than previously realized, indicating a larger public health risk associated with lodging industry CO exposure. The incidents identified through REM’s research have been presented in an interactive map detailing the locations and details of what occurred. 

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

We are excited to announce the addition of Trent Parker to the REM team! Trent is a chemical engineering professional with a particular emphasis on process safety. He has experience working on projects related to chemical engineering, process design, process safety, human factors, thermal hazard analysis, and runaway reactions. These include investigating refinery incidents as well as conducting safety analyses of chemical engineering laboratories.

He has worked to collect data on worker interactions with procedures and used the information obtained to develop a writer’s guide for operating procedures within industrial facilities. Additionally, he has investigated fire hazards associated with lead acid batteries.

Trent has a background in reaction calorimetry and dispersion modeling, with experience identifying optimal operating regions for chemical reactions and performing dispersion modeling to identify potential hazards associated with incompatible chemicals being combined.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM is excited to have Timothy Hubble as an intern this summer! Timothy is from Coppell, Texas and currently attends the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where he is majoring in Chemical Engineering (Class of 2023).

He wants to use his chemical engineering degree to “enter the food processing and food science industry. I like learning about food development and think it would be an interesting field to go into. Food is important and I’d like to make new flavors and formulas for different products.” Timothy’s chemical engineering background is also important in many of the process safety projects he is assisting REM with this summer.

Timothy says his goals for the summer are to gain insightful experience about working in industry. “I can’t wait to expand my knowledge and grow my understanding of engineering.”

For fun Timothy enjoys playing the video game ‘StarCraft 2’.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM is excited to have Bailey Magill as an intern this summer! Bailey is from Russellville, Arkansas and currently attends Oklahoma State University where she is majoring in Fire Protection and Safety Technology (Class of 2025).

She hasn’t decided what she wants to do when she graduates yet, but says “I’m hoping this internship and hopefully a few more in the future will give me some insight as to what my options are and will be able to help me decide what I enjoy doing the most.“

Bailey says her goals at REM this summer are to “grasp a good understanding of how to apply the things I am learning in school. School provides a lot of information but doesn’t provide a whole lot on the aspect of day-to-day work involving the information and how to use it. I’m also hoping to take these appliance skills back to school in the fall and be a better student after seeing a little bit of the bigger picture of why what I’m learning matters.“

For fun Bailey enjoys bowling, playing soccer, building Lego sets, playing guitar, hanging out with her cat, and thrifting.

REM is delighted to have three interns in Dallas this summer! Check back for additional spotlights in the coming weeks.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM is excited to have Wyatt Rozas as an intern this summer! Wyatt is from Coppell, Texas and currently attends Texas A&M University where he is majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Class of 2025).

When Wyatt graduates he wants to “design and optimize production systems in order to increase efficiencies, lower costs, improve quality and safety, and eliminate waste. I am particularly interested in human-machine integration. I want to build systems that can work and interact with humans in a seamless and safe manner. Every day, technology and systems become more and more intertwined into our lives. I want to maximize the effectiveness, safety, and satisfaction these systems can bring to the human life.“

Wyatt’s goals at REM this summer are to gain real-world experience, learn about the workplace, and learn new skills. He is excited to learn about how a business operates and how to work with clients. He is also excited about researching current topics within the safety and risk management field.

A fun fact about Wyatt, his favorite food is shrimp. Wyatt says, “If I could eat any food for the rest of my life, it would be shrimp!“.

REM is delighted to have three interns in Dallas this summer! Check back for additional spotlights in the coming weeks.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM has developed an interactive map using the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s (CSB’s) newly released database of accidental release incidents.

The CSB published a final rule on Accidental Release Reporting, 40 C.F.R. Part 1604, in February of 2020. This rule requires the owner or operator of a facility with stationary sources of air pollution (i.e. factories, refineries, power plants, etc.) to report – within 8 hours of the event or 30 minutes after reporting to the National Response Center – any accidental release of a regulated substance [listed in 42 U.S.C. 7412(r)(3)] or extremely hazardous substance [at or below any threshold quantity set under 42 U.S.C. 6412(r)(6)] resulting in a fatality, serious injury, or substantial property damage​s (equal to to or greater than one million dollars).

The purpose of this rule is to require prompt notification of any accidental release within the CSB’s investigatory jurisdiction.  

The CSB’s Accidental Release Database includes all accidental release incidents reported since March 23, 2020, the effective date of the Accidental Release Reporting regulation. The first event was reported under this rule on April 10, 2020, with a total of 153 events resulting in one or more of the three negative consequences reported through May 9, 2022. Of the 153 events reported, 24 resulted in fatalities, 90 involved serious injuries (requiring inpatient hospitalization), and 62 caused substantial property damage.

Rixio Medina, R.E.M Founding Member Emeritus and former member of the CSB, believes that the prompt reporting of accidental releases of regulated or extremely hazardous substances that cause fatalities, hospitalizations or substantial property manage, helps the CSB fulfill its mission of conducting prioritized root cause independent investigations of chemical accidents at fixed industrial facilities to recommend effective preventive measures to protect people and the environment.

The database is revised quarterly and may include revisions or corrections to events previously reported and events that were not timely reported to the CSB in accordance with the regulation.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

We are excited to announce the addition of Dillon Grewing to the REM team! Dillon is a fire protection and safety professional. He has acted as fire protection lead on a vast array of design-build and design-bid-build projects with values ranging from $2MM to $550MM including: federal; food and beverage production and storage; consumer product production and storage; wastewater treatment; and general office buildings.

Dillon has advised companies on fire suppression, fire alarm, and life safety systems within existing facilities and new facilities. He has designed and prepared fire suppression and fire alarm performance-based drawings, hydraulic calculations, and specifications in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), International Code Council (ICC), Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC), and insurance requirements. He has performed life safety code analysis research and drawing preparation in accordance with the NFPA, ICC, and UFC. He also has performed hazardous materials analyses for health hazardous products, ignitable liquids, and oxidizers in accordance with the NFPA and ICC. Dillon has assisted facilities in mitigating risk through adequate fire protection and life safety design and installation. He has evaluated existing facilities to determine whether fire protection and life safety systems were sufficient to protect the occupancy at hand, and at times performed feasibility analysis to determine whether an occupancy could be renovated or expanded in accordance with the ICC. He has developed unique fire protection and life safety solutions for process and storage systems to ensure adequate protection of occupants, first responders, and properties.

Dillon is an Engineer-in-Training (EIT) within the state of Texas and a Graduate Safety Practitioner (GSP). Dillon passed the Fire Protection PE exam in October of 2019 and intends to pursue a Professional Engineering licensure application in the near future.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

We are excited to announce the addition of Taylor Peaster to the REM team! Taylor is an environmental, health and safety professional and has experience in occupational safety, process safety, fire protection and risk management.

Taylor previously worked in the Oil and Gas Industry as a Safety Engineer focusing on incident investigations, risk assessments, regulatory compliance audits, and VPP Recertification preparation.

Taylor was a Division 1 pole vaulter at Oklahoma State University. She served as Treasurer for ASSP Student Section and Secretary for the SFPE Student Section. She loves traveling, exercising, reading, and playing with her dog in her free time.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

Patrick Smith presented Thursday at the 24^th Annual American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) Upper Midwest Section Professional Development Conference. His presentation was titled “It’s Not Easy Being Green: Current Challenges And Future Opportunities For Safety & Health Professionals In The Green Energy Field”.

Current green energy production in the U.S. consists largely of Wind and Solar energy, but also includes biomass, hydroelectric, and geothermal energy. Combined these energy sources currently account for 12% of the energy produced in the U.S. but are projected to catch up with petroleum energy and surpass natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy production by 2050.

These energy production methods will present unique challenges and opportunities for EHS professionals in the areas of fire protection, electrical safety, fall protection, confined spaces, crane & hoist safety, lockout/tagout and many others.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

REM Risk Consultant’s work on carbon monoxide (CO) in the U.S. lodging industry was recently published in the Journal of Preventative Medicine Reports. The article, Analyzing the National Fire Incident Reporting System to Identify Carbon Monoxide Incidents in the U.S. Lodging Industry is a continuation of previous efforts to document CO incidents at U.S. hotels and motels.

The paper uses the NFIRS database to identify 3,405 CO incidents in the U.S. lodging industry; previous efforts had only identified 367 incidents through news reports. As a result, REM’s research shows the lodging industry CO incidents occur at far greater rates than previously realized, indicating a larger public health risk associated with lodging industry CO exposure.

The incidents identified through REM’s research have been presented in an interactive map detailing the locations and details of what occurred. Future work by REM will present risk reduction strategies for the lodging industry that will help make hotels and motels safer.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM Risk Consultant’s Michael Larrañaga’s past work was recently featured by the Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS). Larrañaga’s thesis entitled “Network Vulnerability Assessment of the U.S. Crude Pipeline Infrastructure,” addressed the “potential for cascade failure of the U.S oil pipeline infrastructure” using Model Based Risk Assessment software. Recent events surrounding the cyber-attack on the Colonial Pipeline, a key East Coast oil pipeline, that led to its shutdown and ransom payment earlier this year brought into stark relief the vulnerability of the U.S. oil pipeline infrastructure and the need for protective measures.

The thesis noted that the pipeline system distributing crude oil to refineries across the U.S. had gained “much media attention” at the time due to Pres. Obama’s denial of a permit for a key portion of the Keystone-XL pipeline, which is designed to carry oil from Alberta, Canada to the Cushing Oil Trading Hub (COTH) in Cushing, OK. That project has since been revived by President Trump and shut down again by President Biden.

Larrañaga pointed out that the U.S. currently only has 3-4 days of oil reserves and it takes oil and finished products, like gasoline, two months to get from one end of the pipeline network to the other. “Oil is central to our way of life,” he said. “We’re an oil-based economy.” He said he believes the nation’s “critical infrastructure” experts don’t fully appreciate the hub’s importance to the crude oil network despite the fact that his analysis showed about 70 percent of the nation’s oil supply flows through the hub on a daily basis, although he said others are aware of the hub’s importance including private sector oil investors who still use satellite imagery to estimate the amount of oil at Cushing compared to its capacity on any given day (by assessing the position of the floating roofs on each tank) to help guide investment.

“We should be prepared for another Colonial-type outage,” Larrañaga said. “If not, (a shutdown) could be even more catastrophic. That (Colonial pipeline shutdown) could have been prevented or we should have been prepared to recover much quicker.

Read the full article at CHDS: https://www.chds.us/c/item/18791

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM Risk Consultant’s Benjamin Craig has been appointed to serve on the NFPA 1 Fire Code Technical Committee on Special Equipment, Processes, and Hazardous Materials (FCC-HAZ). NFPA 1, advances fire and life safety for the public and first responders as well as property protection by providing a comprehensive, integrated approach to fire code regulation and hazard management. It addresses all the bases with extracts from and references to more than 130 NFPA® codes and standards including such industry benchmarks as NFPA 101, NFPA 54, NFPA 58, NFPA 30, NFPA 400, NFPA 13, NFPA 25, NFPA 72, NFPA 68, and NFPA 652.

Benjamin is a founding member of REM Risk Consultants and is a process safety, fire protection, worker safety, and risk management professional. He advises companies on their safety procedures, safe work practices, and compliance with corporate, state, and federal safety regulations. He has performed exposure assessments of hazardous materials, conducted electrical safety reviews, assessed the feasibility of new processes, performed safety audits, and reviewed fire protection systems.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM Risk Consultants is increasingly providing services to the battery and energy storage industry. From energy storage systems (ESS) to lithium-ion battery recycling and lead-acid battery manufacturing, REM is assisting clients with a wide range of challenges.

Batteries of all sizes are becoming increasingly important in today’s world. Everything from small format batteries found in phones to ESS found in power plants and renewable energy installations rely on safe storage, operation, and end of life recovery.

REM is currently conducting an ESS hazard mitigation analysis for a large energy storage facility. This analysis will provide a fault condition report on topics relating to thermal runaway conditions, battery energy management systems, storage area ventilation systems, and related fire protection and detection systems. ESS have many useful and cost-saving applications, such as supplementing renewable energies, load leveling, and peak shaving. Installation of these systems continues to increase around the world.

REM recently assisted in a hazard review of a battery recycling facility. As the millions of batteries in use around the world reach the end of their useful life, being able to safely recover and recycle them is crucial to the environment and the supply chain for manufacturing new batteries. With the increased use of electric vehicles, ESS, and other industrial applications these capabilities will become increasingly important.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM Risk Consultants secures contract to conduct a management system, competency review, and organizational performance assessment of a global medical device manufacturer’s environmental, safety, and health (EHS) organization. The assessment will evaluate operations in North America, Europe, and Asia. Interviews will be held with key stakeholders – from the CEO to the line worker – and an in-depth review of the organization’s management structure, safety culture, standards, systems, tools, and procedures will be performed. The assessment involves the evaluation of the global organizational structure, reporting lines, resourcing, leading indicators, and sustainability metrics necessary to achieve world-class EHS performance.

The assessment will include a review of global program implementation of ISO 45001 – Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, ISO 14001 – Environmental Management Systems, and the Responsible Business Alliance Validated Assessment Program.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

We are excited to announce the addition of Sterling Olive to the REM team. Sterling is a dedicated fire and safety professional with experience in the healthcare, insurance, and academic sectors. He joins REM after 4 years with UT-Southwestern Medical Center where he oversaw a variety of projects in construction safety, occupational safety, and fire protection. Sterling is focused on building relationships through teamwork and driving teams toward positive outcomes.

Sterling has conducted hospital life safety inspections, construction safety consulting, fire and life safety plan reviews, accident investigations, and slip trip and fall assessments. Additionally, Sterling has assisted during Joint Commission surveys for a 2 million square foot hospital and State Fire Marshal inspections on a campus of more than 60 buildings with various occupancies.

Sterling is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and Certified Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS).

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

Benjamin Craig was awarded the 2020 R.E.M. Risk Consultants Mission Critical Award for his continued support of the company mission and vision. Throughout the difficulties presented by Covid-19 Ben has helped R.E.M. continue to grow and serve our clients. Congrats Ben!

Benjamin is a founding member of R.E.M. Risk Consultants and is a process safety, fire protection, worker safety, and risk management professional. He advises companies on their safety procedures, safe work practices, and compliance with corporate, state, and federal safety regulations. He has performed exposure assessments of hazardous materials, conducted electrical safety reviews, assessed the feasibility of new processes, performed safety audits, and reviewed fire protection systems. Benjamin is experienced in performing indoor air quality assessments, consequence analysis and dispersion modeling of toxic and flammable materials, radiation safety, and assessing of hazardous workplace environments. He has provided Process Safety Management (PSM) consulting, flammable and combustible liquids storage and processing compliance, and high hazard loss prevention practices.

Benjamin is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and Certified and Fire and Explosion Investigator (CFEI). Ben is an accomplished woodworker and enjoys mountain biking, water-sports, and spending time with his family.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM Risk Consultants’ Patrick Smith was selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) as a 2020 Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. This honor is chosen by the DOE to recognize IAC alumni for their outstanding accomplishments in promoting the practices, principles and procedures of energy engineering in a professional capacity after their IAC experience.

The IAC program is funded by DOE, and includes centers at 28 universities across the U.S. Its mission is to provide small- and medium-sized manufacturers with no-cost energy assessments. These assessments assist client companies with reducing energy usage and waste while at the same time increasing productivity, efficiency, and sustainability.

Patrick is an Alumni of the Oklahoma State University IAC, which opened in 1982 and was recently recognized as the only IAC in the country to have completed 1,000 assessments. The OSU IAC has contributed over $300 million in energy cost saving implementations since its inception. During Patrick’s time with the IAC program, he performed 66 energy assessments and helped write over 120 energy assessment reports.  Patrick’s experience in the IAC program laid the foundation for his current position as the Director of Sustainability Services at REM.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Please contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM Risk Consultants’ Michael Larrañaga will be speaking at the inaugural Homeland Defense Academic Symposium next month. This virtual symposium will be held December 1-3 and will feature briefings, panel discussions, moderated paper presentations, keynote speakers, and a tabletop exercise focused on homeland defense issues at the unclassified level.  

Larrañaga will be speaking alongside John Comiskey of Monmouth University and Cam Carlson of the University of Alaska on the topic of Climate Security: A Pre-Mortem Scenario Planning Approach to Homeland Defense. A paper on this topic was published earlier this year (https://www.hsaj.org/articles/15605).

Academic and industry representatives from the United States and Canada were invited to attend the symposium. Registration is open, and will remain open until Nov. 24. Participants will gain insight into the NORAD and USNORTHCOM unique missions, capabilities and requirements, and be able to incorporate the most up-to-date information about the commands into their curriculums as appropriate. Symposium content includes research submissions from the 2019 call for proposals or abstracts from North American academicians in subject areas relevant to NORAD and USNORTHCOM missions, operations and procedures.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Feel free to contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

R.E.M. Risk Consultants’ Michael Larrañaga was recently appointed to serve a four year term on the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program Science/Technical Advisory Committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The committee reviews evidence to determine which diseases and conditions will be covered by the WTC Health Program. Data is being collected by the WTC Program itself, as well as physicians, universities, and other sources, to determine whether new diseases fall under the umbrella of what can be covered, as well as periodically re-evaluating those diseases already covered.

The program covers a wide variety of cancers, traumatic injuries, neurological and muscular disorders, and mental health issues. There are over 200 types of cancer alone associated with the events of 9/11.

In July 2019, Forbes magazine reported that 241 New York Police Department officers have died in the years following the attack—10 times the number actually killed on the day itself. The Fire Department of New York has lost an additional 200 members since that day.

The program will follow those affected for the rest of their lives, to make sure they receive high quality medical treatment and compensation and is the largest epidemiological study in history. It’s the committee’s responsibility to do things right and to serve the affected to the best of our abilities.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Feel free to contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

R.E.M. Risk Consultants has updated our 2013 paper on the Macondo blowout (B.P. oil spill) to include a study on the Montana blowout in the Timor Sea off the coast of Australia. This peer reviewed paper, titled ‘Human Error Analysis of the Montara Well Blowout’ was published in Process Safety Progress (https://doi.org/10.1002/prs.12182).

The Montara wellhead blowout resulted the total loss of the West Atlas drilling rig and caused massive coastal and marine ecological damage in Australia, East Timor, and West Timor, Indonesia. The incident preceded the 2010 Macondo Deepwater Horizon blowout and shared many parallels. The Montara incident stemmed from a series of human errors including, but not limited to, miscalculations, procedural errors, hasty decision making, and failure to follow the American Petroleum Institute Recommended Practice 75 on drilling mud circulation. In both papers, an error classification system is applied to organize errors and critical events into eight categories related to human error.

Open access copies of both papers can be downloaded here:

• Human Error Analysis of the Montara Well Blowout (2020)
• Human Error Analysis of the Macondo Well Blowout (2013)

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from process safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness. Feel free to contact us if we can assist you in improving your operations.

REM Risk Consultants continues to assist clients with emerging challenges related to the COVID-19 virus. We are proud to assist a leading pharmaceutical company in performing remote design assistance, process risk assessments, and hazard analyses for the development of COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing processes.

As with any new process, risk assessments such as process hazard analyses (PHAs), Hazard and Operability Studies (HazOps), Layer of Protection Analyses (LOPAs), and process reviews must be performed to ensure a safe startup and optimization for continuity of operations. This is especially critical for the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing process given the great need for the product.

We strive to improve the safety and health of the local, national, and global communities we serve!

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from health & safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness.

REM Risk Consultants’ Michael Larrañaga recently co-authored a paper in The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene titled “The American Board of Industrial Hygiene: 60 years of progress”.

Sixty years have passed since the inaugural Board meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the incorporation of the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH) in 1960. During that time, changes have been made to the ABIH Board name, board structure, exam, and the base educational and certification requirements, including the addition of an ethics component. In 2019, the ABIH-Board changed the organization’s name to the Board for Global EHS Credentialing (BGC) and the industrial hygiene (IH) credentialing division became known simply by the acronym “ABIH.”

This article presents a brief historical update, discusses how policies have adapted to the evolving IH landscape, and focuses on changes in Board governance, the certification process, and the adoption of an ABIH Code of Ethics. A detailed timeline of the ABIH history can be found here.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency – from health & safety and fire protection solutions to climate change and pandemic preparedness.

REM Risk Consultants has been assisting clients with their response to emerging challenges related to the COVID-19 virus – from providing fire and life safety guidance for approval of new sanitizers and decontamination methods to understanding proper decontamination procedures.

REM can assist you with the challenges that will arise as businesses begin to open across the country. We have assembled a collection of very useful and up-to-date resources that may assist you in this process:

• Occupant load calculator to assist businesses allowed to re-open with determining their reduced occupant loads

• List of approved disinfectants to use against COVID-19

• Back to Work Safely – AIHA’s industry-specific guidance for both businesses and consumers to safely emerge from COVID-19 quarantines.

• Sample COVID 19 preparedness plan and template

• OSHA guidance on recordability

• DOL Coronavirus Resources

• Interim Guidance from CDC and OSHA regarding Meat and Poultry Processing Workers and Employers

• CDC List of COVID-19 Symptoms

• AIHA Coronavirus Outbreak Resources

• General Business Frequently Asked Questions

• CDC Public Health Recommendations for People in U.S. Communities Exposed to a Person with Known or Suspected COVID-19, other than Health Workers or other Critical Infrastructure Workers

• CDC Interim Guidance for Implementing Safety Practices for Critical Infrastructure Workers Who May Have Had Exposure to a Person with Suspected or Confirmed COVID-19

• Running essential errands (addresses surfaces and hand washing)

• FEMA Starter Kit to assist businesses with returning to full operations

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

REM Risk Consultant’s continued work on hospitality industry Carbon Monoxide (CO) incidents was recently featured by Forbes. The January article “Hotels – A Hidden Source of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning” features the interactive map created by REM showing known CO incidents in the U.S. hospitality industry, including fatalities and injuries.

REM is using data collected by the Jenkins Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to the prevention of deaths and injuries due to carbon monoxide poisoning, at home and when traveling, through education and advocacy.  REM is actively working with the Jenkins Foundation to identify additional previously unreported CO incidents by data mining archived data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS).

REM Risk Consultant’s assist clients with incidents related to exposures, including CO, through root cause analyses, process review, and code review.

The Forbes article can be viewed here: https://www.forbes.com/

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

REM Risk Consultant’s Dr. Michael Larrañaga and Dr. John Comiskey, of Monmouth University, have published the journal article titled “Climate Security: A Pre-Mortem Approach to a Sustainable Global Future”.  The article introduces the concept of Climate Security, which presents a roadmap for achieving climate security for the United States and the World:  “To achieve climate security, we must identify, acquire, and sustain the capabilities required across the whole-of-community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from climate change risks.”

Dr.’s Larrañaga and Comiskey discuss how climate security is critical to the security of the nation and for the sustainability of future generations and recommends the formal inclusion of climate security at the highest levels of the national policy agenda. The article was published in the prestigious Homeland Security Affairs Journal (HSAJ), the pre-eminent scholarly journal in the field of homeland security and emergency management. The journal is the official journal of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security, which is housed within the Department of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and is funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The article can be viewed here: https://www.hsaj.org/articles/15605

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Oklahoma State University’s Professor Pat Brock has been at the forefront of this effort as a beloved professor impacting hundreds of students and alumni for the past 45 years. To celebrate Pat’s legacy on this campus as he retires at the end of this semester, we invite you to help us complete the Pat Brock Endowed Professorship so OSU may continue to recruit and retain professors just like Pat!

REM’s Michael Larrañaga created the Pat Brock Professorship account when Pat retired from OSU (the first time) to honor his work as a faculty member, but most importantly to honor the impact that he has had on our students, graduates, and the profession. We are very pleased to see that the amount in the account has continued to grow. With only $90K left, we are in reach of ensuring Pat’s legacy.   

Our small consulting firm was founded by 4 FPST graduates, all of whom were Pat’s students, and beneficiaries of his extraordinary efforts in the classroom.  We are donating $2,500 to this effort and we challenge all our fellow OSU Alumni and their employers to donate also.  You may be surprised at a company’s willingness to take part in something like this.  

Let’s get this done.  We can do it, and $90K is truly within our reach. You can donate at the link below or send a check with the following instructions:

Donate by Credit Card: https://philanthropete.osugiving.com/project/16957

Mailing a Check instead of using the website?  Send your check with the following account number noted (Pat Brock Professorship 26-95700) to:

OSU Foundation

PO Box 258818

Oklahoma City, OK 73125-8818

It is our hope that we rise to the occasion and get this funded.  This year is Pat’s 70^th birthday.   Let’s honor him by getting this done.

Thank you so much for your consideration.  If you have any questions for me regarding the Professorship, feel free to call Michael Larrañaga at 972-821-8381.

Michael Larrañaga (1996) – REM Founding Member and President 

Rixio Medina (1977) – REM Founding Member, Emeritus

Patrick Smith (2010) – REM Founding Member

Benjamin Craig (2011) – REM Founding Member

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

REM’s Dr. Michael Larrañaga and Dr. John Comiskey, of Monmouth University, are introducing the concept of Climate Security at the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s (CHDS) University and Agency Partnership Program at the 12^th Annual Homeland Security and Defense Education Summit (October 30-Novermber 1) in Monterey, California.

Dr.’s Larrañaga and Comiskey will discuss how climate security is critical to the security of the nation and for the sustainability of future generations and will recommend the formal inclusion of climate security at the highest levels of the national policy agenda. Dr.’s Larrañaga and Comiskey will also participate in a distinguished panel on climate change moderated by Dr. Chris Bellavita of the CHDS, along with Dr.’s James Ramsay of the University of New Hampshire, Terry O’Sullivan of the University of Akron, and Michele Samaraya-Timm of the Somerset County (NJ) Health Department.  

The CHDS is housed within the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and is funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

REM Risk Consultants’s Patrick Smith has developed an interactive map showing Carbon Monoxide (CO) incidents in the hospitality industry.

CO is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas. It is a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion from devices such as furnaces, pool heaters, automobiles, and gas ranges. Other devices and appliances may emit CO if they malfunction, are blocked, or are used improperly. 

CO poisoning is the second most common cause of non-medicinal poisonings death. According to the CDC, over 10,000 are poisoned by carbon monoxide needing medical treatment each year and more than 438 people in the U.S. die annually from CO poisoning.

To date, there is no federal requirement for the installation of CO alarms in hotels and only 14 states require installation of CO alarms in hotels and motels under statute (http://www.ncsl.org). There are currently no requirements for carbon monoxide education and/or training of hotel owners and staff.

CO incidents in the hospitality industry are not currently tracked by any official government organization.  The Jenkins Foundation (https://thejenkinsfoundation.com) maintains a list based on incidents obtained via media accounts and publicly accessible documents. We are using this data to generate our map, and adding to it as new incidents are identified.

The next time you travel for work or with your family, take a CO detector and double check our map to uncover the history of your hotel.

View the map here.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

REM has been selected to assist with a series of HazID’s related to applications for offshore deepwater ports in the Gulf of Mexico. These ports will be used to export crude oil to VLCC vessels.

Crude oil exports were banned from 1977-2015, but have increased dramatically since 2015 and are projected to continue to grow as U.S. oil production increases. This will likely create demand for more deepwater ports in the U.S. capable of handling VLCC’s. These ports create a unique set of risks that must be carefully assessed to mitigate potential hazards.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

REM’s Dr. Michael Larranaga testified in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina before Judge Richard Gergel on October 4th regarding the utility and history of firefighting foams. Multiple experts testified to inform the judge on various aspects of PFAS and firefighting foams.

Bloomberg News

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Insight Risk LLC (DBA REM Risk Consultants) was awarded a contract to conduct a wildfire risk assessment of California Polytechnic University Pomona. Cal Poly Pomona is a doctoral degree granting institution of higher learning located in Los Angeles County, California in the city of Pomona. The University spans 1,400 acres and has over 60 buildings, including classrooms, a student union, Arabian Horse Center, Kellogg Conference Center and Lodge, and historic buildings. The facility is located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and the Angeles National Forest, borders the Voorhis Ecological Preserve, and has a somewhat hilly and varied topography set between Interstate 10 and the Orange Freeway.  

https://www.cpp.edu/ 

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Insight Risk LLC’s (DBA REM Risk Consultants) Michael Larrañaga attended the 53rd Paris Air Show as guests of Puente Global Defense Solutions. The Paris Air show is the world’s premier and largest event dedicated to the aviation and space industry.

The aerospace industry plays a major role in global economic activity and development. One of the key elements to maintaining the performance of civil aviation is to ensure safe, secure, efficient and sustainable operations at the global, regional and national levels.

REM has worked in multiple aspects of the aerospace industry, from manufacturing to operations, and offers a risk based process safety approach for our clients. 

The 53rd International Paris Air Show will take place from June 17th to the 23rd, at the Exhibition Center of Le Bourget.

https://www.siae.fr/en/

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Insight Risk LLC (DBA REM Risk Consultants) and 3M sponsored the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) Future Leaders Institute Alumni Reception this evening (March 19th) at Seven Steakhouse Sushi in St Paul, MN.

The Future Leaders Institute (FLI) focuses on strengthening the leadership skills of young Industrial Hygiene and OEHS professionals. The program is designed for those with 3 – 15 years of applied work experience.   

FLI focuses on four main areas: interpersonal perspectives, organizational perspectives, collaborative and teamwork efforts, and managing the future.

Participants actively participate in workshops in order to develop an understanding of and leverage their strengths, interact with different personalities and work styles, and understand best practices for effective managers and leaders. FLI students will also receive training in strategic decision making, integrate EHS and IH into key business priorities, and increase their scope of influence and contributions as an OEHS professional. 

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Michael Larrañaga was recently named a Founding Director of the School Shooting Research Foundation. “I am honored to be a Founding Director and Treasurer of the School Shooting Research Foundation, an organization founded by my friend and Naval Postgraduate School colleague David Reidman” Larrañaga says.

The School Shooting Research Foundation aims to provide clarity to the school shooting issue writ large by providing quality data on all school shootings for improved decision-making, analysis, and policy.  David has already been interviewed or had his work cited by every major news outlet, including Time, Rolling Stone, Vox, the Wall Street Journal, Vice, NPR, Yahoo News, Newsweek, New York Daily News, Washington Post, The New York Times and others.

The Foundation’s database is the most comprehensive and detailed of its kind. It aims to document all instances of gunfire at K-12 schools since 1970 and has recorded a total of more than 1,300 cases. The database does not include shootings on college campuses. The full database can be viewed here: https://www.chds.us/ssdb/dataset/

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Patrick Smith presented Monday at the 15^th AIChE Global Congress on Process Safety in New Orleans. His presentation titled “Economical Large-Scale Indoor Release Modeling Using the AIHA Mathematical Models for Estimating Occupational Exposure to Chemicals” was an overview of work performed with Benjamin Craig and Michael Larrañaga.

Storage and processing of highly hazardous materials indoors is a common industry practice, but it creates a challenge for manufactures to ensure adequate safeguards in the event of a release or spill. Indoor releases of toxic and flammable materials provide a challenge to economically model due to extensive time and specialized software requirements to generate results. The use of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) Mathematical Models for Estimating Occupational Exposure to Chemicals provides a viable methodology for generating data to be used for emergency response, facility siting, and engineering design recommendations.

This presentation provided an example of modeling multiple sulfur dioxide (SO₂) release scenarios in a large manufacturing environment. The AIHA well mixed room model and two-zone (near field and far field constant mass emission) model were used to model the SO₂ release scenarios for various release sizes and durations. The model results provided guidance for increased building safeguards, and assisted in the required level of respiratory protection for response to a SO₂ release located within the manufacturing area and located in a segregated storage room. The example presented covered the building environment variables and assumptions required to model such a scenario, and reviewed the outputs of the models. A cost comparison of both the AIHA mathematical model and traditional methods of modeling indoor release scenarios using tools such as Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) models was also provided.

About the AIChE GCSP

Each year the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) and the AIChE Safety & Health Division present the Global Congress on Process Safety (GCPS). From its initial meeting in 2005, GCPS has grown into the world’s largest gathering of practitioners from industry, regulatory bodies and academia.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Michael Larrañaga completed the Advanced Thinking in Homeland Security Initiative (HSx) at the United States Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) on January 17.

Dr. Larrañaga serves on the Department of Homeland Security’s First Responders and Opioid Working Groups. Previously, Dr. Larrañaga served as an appointed member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.  As a Managing Principal for Insight Risk, he helps organizations assess, understand, and mitigate risk. Larrañaga earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Oklahoma State University, master’s degrees from the University of Houston Clear Lake and the United States Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), and a Doctor of Philosophy from Texas Tech.

During the 18-month HSx intensive, Dr. Larrañaga collaborated with homeland security officials from across the nation on current policy, strategy, and organizational design and policy challenges.

Eighteen CHDS students participated in the program. They represent a snapshot of the homeland security profession, including professionals from the fields of emergency management, education, law enforcement, fire service, homeland security, public health, and city/county government.

Located at NPS, CHDS is the nation’s homeland security educator. In what’s commonly referred to as a “Grand Challenge,” HSx participants are required to identify and research a complex issue that has potential to affect homeland security. The techniques they apply in addressing their grand challenge provide a foundation that can be used to understand and solve many different types of issues. These projects often translate into policy and practice. The CHDS is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), National Preparedness Directorate, within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). For information, visit www.chds.us.

ABOUT NPS: The mission of the Naval Postgraduate School is to provide unique advanced education and research programs in order to increase the combat effectiveness of the U.S. and Allied armed forces as well as enhance the security of the United States.  For information, visit www.nps.edu.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Rixio Medina delivered the keynote address at the Egypt Ministry of Petroleum’s 2018 Safe Day Summit in Cairo Egypt on December 6th.  The Ministry of Petroleum’s Annual Safety Day 2018, held at the Egyptian Drilling Company’s (EDC) headquarters in Cairo, brought together oil and gas leaders to discuss safety culture, leadership, and best practices.

Rixio’s address tackled safety leadership and culture change. Throughout the presentation, he discussed what leaders should adopt to ensure safety procedures are applied.

“I like to define safety leadership as what we, as leaders, think, say, do and measure to prevent undesirable events that can harm workers and affect operational success,” he said.

The event closed with three panel discussions on health, safety and environment (HSE) culture change; HSE leadership practices; and operators/contractors partnerships to improve safety culture, respectively.

https://egyptoil-gas.com/news/edc-hosts-ministry-of-petroleums-annual-safety-day/

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Michael Larranaga’s NPS-CHDS team was selected as an honorable mention award winner in the USCG #ReadyforRescue Challenge Phase I. The U.S. Coast Guard’s challenge sought to identify bold visions of boater safety solutions that have the potential to improve the chances of a successful rescue. Submissions harnessed technologies such as smart watches, LED lights, thermal heating devices, and fluorescent gels, as well as re-designed consumer products such as phone cases.

A 32-person judging panel, with expertise in design, search and rescue, marine safety, boating industry manufacturing, and recreational boating, evaluated the submissions and recommended five monetary prize winners and 16 honorable mention award winners.

Michael Larranaga’s team (Merideth Bastiani, Steven M. Polunsky, Angi English, Andre Billeaudeaux, Greg Bernard, William Pilkington) proposed the ‘FindMe System’, which is a life saving personal flotation device that allows for quick location when someone falls in the water.

The team will now advance to Phase II of the Ready for Rescue Challenge.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Mr. Rixio Medina, President American Society of Safety Professionals and OSU FPST Class of 1977 spoke to Fire Protection and Safety Engineering Technology students Wednesday evening in Stillwater. He was hosted as part of the ConocoPhillips Distinguished Speaker Seminar Series, and spoke on “How to Convert Challenges into Opportunities”.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Michael Larranaga was recently appointed by DHS to participate in the development of standards for field detection of fentanyl for first responders. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 80-100 times stronger than morphine. Pharmaceutical fentanyl was developed for pain management treatment of cancer patients, applied in a patch on the skin. Because of its powerful opioid properties, Fentanyl is also diverted for abuse. With increasing frequency fentanyl has been added to heroin to increase its potency, or is disguised as highly potent heroin. Many users believe that they are purchasing heroin and actually don’t know that they are purchasing fentanyl – which often results in overdose deaths. With this increased, first responders are increasingly being exposed to fentanyl and need better tools for its detection.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.

Rixio E. Medina became president of the American Society of Safety Professionals on July 1, 2018, serving a one-year term. He is an ASSP Fellow and has been a professional member of the Society since 1991.

Rixio is a former oil and gas industry executive who now provides occupational safety, fire protection, process safety and security consulting services in the U.S. and abroad as vice president of Insight Risk LLC. His four decades of experience include 30 years at CITGO Petroleum Corporation, where he served as an officer and vice president of Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Shared Services. He also held technical and management positions at Mobil Oil Corporation, BP, AcuTech Consulting and the Board of Certified Safety Professionals.

He served on the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board after being appointed by President George W. Bush in 2003. He was also appointed by the secretary of labor to four terms on OSHA’s National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health. His volunteer experience includes positions as president and director for the Board of Certified Safety Professionals; safety and fire protection committee member for the American Petroleum Institute and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers; vice chair of the civil service board and chair of the civil service commission for the City of Corpus Christi, Texas; and member of the local emergency planning committees in Corpus Christi and Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Rixio has a bachelor’s degree in fire protection and safety engineering technology from Oklahoma State University, where he was named to the Hall of Fame by the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, and honored as a distinguished alumnus by the Alumni Association. He earned a master’s degree in industrial security from the University of Central Missouri and was recognized as an honorary member of Rho Sigma Kappa by the safety sciences department.

At ASSP, Rixio is a former vice president of the Council on Professional Affairs, the Society’s key policy-setting committee. He also has been a member of many other ASSP committees, including standards development, bylaws, global, diversity and government affairs. He has served as an ASSP ambassador for Latin America and trustee for the ASSP Foundation, where he sponsors a scholarship and professional education grant.

Rixio is a recipient of the Society’s President’s Award, Foundation Distinguished Service Award, Diversity in the Safety, Health and Environmental Profession Award, and the Safety Professionals and Latino Workforce Significant Contributor Award.

REM Risk Consultants assists clients with all aspects of Business Continuity and Resiliency, from health & safety and fire protection solutions to preparing for climate change. Contact us today for assistance with your next project.