PHMSA identifies the hazardous materials that have been linked to the most serious consequences in terms of deaths and major injuries relative to exposure. The Office of Hazardous Materials Safety (OHMS) periodically reviews the incident data to explore, develop and refine methodologies that illustrate which hazardous materials are most likely to be involved in death […]
Here are the official numbers from The Chlorine Institute:
The phase-down and restriction of the most common and widely used refrigerants was initiated in the late 1980’s and has spurred innovation, both for the alternative refrigerants that have been introduced as well as in the equipment that uses them. Safety Group A2L refrigerants (lower toxicity and lower flammability) represent the most recent in the
I will give these guys this credit… they make great videos for the ammonia refrigeration industry. But as a safety professional, I was appalled at some of their actions and lack of safety while watching two of their videos. This particular video shows two (2) workers removing and replacing an NH3 valve – a clear
After nearly 20 years in ER specializing in large-scale incidents, I can say that with this news I am sorry I got out of the work when I did. This addition to the rails of the USA will be a fun and wild addition. LNG—referred to as “Methane, refrigerated liquid” within the HMR—has been transported
I see this practice, keeping cylinders in-service beyond their hydro due dates, and I just want to make everyone aware that although this practice may be complaint with 49 CFR Part 180, it sets up the Emergency Response Team (ERT) with a potentially serious Breathing Air (BA) issue during a response. There are two failures,
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
We have discussed hydrostatic testing of all sorts of containers, most notably our SCBA cylinders and our process piping. But one very important cylinder I do not mention near enough is the 1-ton Chlorine cylinders. All chlorine cylinders, except DOT 3E 1800, MUST BE HYDROSTATICALLY TESTED EVERY FIVE-YEARS from the date of the previous hydro
A company was fined $200,000 for a chlorine leak incident on Sept 4, 2016, in which seven people were taken to hospital. The incident involved a chlorine leak in a cylinder stored in a chlorine storage facility. The leak triggered an alarm from one of the facility’s chlorine detectors and a worker activated the chlorine
RECOMMENDATIONS The NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP) recommends that fire departments ensure all firefighters responding to natural gas or propane incidents: use gas detection equipment and do not rely upon their sense of smell to determine if propane or natural gas is present understand that the odorant in natural gas or
This week another RMP Reconsideration Final Rule requirement was born. Many of you had already made the necessary changes to your written management system way back in December 2019, but for those of you that put things off to the last minute… well that last minute just came and is now gone! So what exactly
Recently we witnessed an electrical work perform a lockout on a piece of equipment that was not starting during the start-up phase of the process. This piece of equipment was absolutely critical for the process to run safely so this worker and the facility personnel witnessing this as well failed to recognize a CRITICAL mistake
