OSHA’s General Duty Clause and RV’s “discharging to a safe location”

Anyone who has worked with ASME/API pressure vessel codes knows the basic language used to describe Relief Valve (RV) discharge locations… “discharge to a safe location”.  This requirement applies to ALL relief devices on all types of equipment and although OSHA does not have a specific standard on relief devices and their design, they will use their General Duty Clause to cite employers who do not discharge their RVs to a safe location.  Case in point, in the tragic accident in GA last year involving Nitrogen where the facility had a Hydrostatic RV discharge inside the building…

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