This week I shared a serious chlorine incident that sent seven (7) people to the hospital, including firefighters and neighbors. This incident could have been managed very easily and with much fewer impacts on responders and the community had the facility followed basic RAGAGEP requirements for their 1-ton chlorine containers. Basically, the leak was on a fusible plug in the liquid phase and because the cylinder was not stored properly and the trunnions had not been maintained properly, the cylinder was unable to be rolled! So instead of a gas leak, we had a liquid leak and for those who may not be familiar with chlorine – this translates into a leak that is 460X’s worse!
So what the heck are trunnions and why are they so critical for safely handling 1-ton cylinders?