10,000 Safe Days and Counting: Terre Haute Technical Services

On a late August day, current and former employees of CF’s Terre Haute Technical Services (THTS) team gathered in Terre Haute, Indiana, for a celebration of a significant safety achievement: 10,000 consecutive safe days worked⁽¹⁾.

Chris Bohn, CF’s senior vice president of manufacturing and distribution, told the THTS group that safety is the company’s license to operate, that without safety there is no production or distribution.

“The difficult thing about safety,” he said, “is you can never look back. It has to be a forward looking focus.”

That has been a message taken to heart since the very first day that THTS existed. There have been no lost time accidents since their work began on December 16, 1989, an achievement made all the more notable by what the team does.

The Terre Haute Technical Services (THTS) team oversees ammonia tank inspections for all of CF’s distribution terminals and manufacturing complexes. They also handle all the pressure vessel and piping inspections, heater and pump repairs, and, from an instrumentation and electrical standpoint, are responsible for most of the maintenance and upgrade of the process controls at each of the company’s distribution facilities.

Tony Moshak, who has led THTS since 1999, says this work is not without risk.

“Hazards inherent to tank inspections alone include confined space entry, high elevation work, and potential exposure to anhydrous ammonia and nitrogen vapors,” says Moshak.

There’s also the driving.

CF’s distribution facilities and manufacturing complexes are not located in compact geographical area. Moshak estimates that THTS employees have driven more than six million miles in the past 27 years just to get to the sites where they then perform work with multiple potential hazards. And driving by itself is one of the riskiest activities people do on a daily basis.

“I can tell you without hesitation that folks are not considered for these THTS jobs if safety awareness and attention to detail is not part of their work history,” said Dan Webb, who has managed DF’s Engineering and Technical Services since 1998. “Although there have been many changes at CF over the years in terms of written programs and documentation requirements, the fundamental need for full-time safety awareness and attention to details has not changed since 1989. It may not be flashy, but it has served us well.”

Moshak echoes the sentiment.

“CF Industries, throughout my career, has always been an industry leader in Environmental, Health and Safety. By far, the safest company I have ever worked for,” he says. “All I have done is emphasize the need to follow the overall CF safety program, never to cut corners, and always put safety first in everything we do.”

That emphasis has paid off. Since reaching the 10,000 days milestone on May 3^rd, 2017, the 14 members of the THTS team have continued to add to their milestone, now at 10,138 days as of September 18, 2017.

⁽¹⁾ A safe day is defined as a day without a lost time injury. A lost time injury occurs when an employee is injured while carrying out a work-related task for the employer, and is then unable for perform the regular duties for a complete shift or period of time after the incident.