On August 11, 2003, a 50-year-old production worker was seriously burned and died 5 days later from a fire that resulted when stored wood flour exploded at a wood-flour mill. The employer is a wood-flour mill that grinds paper-mill waste into a fine powder, and bags and stores it as a marketable product for a […]
As the experts begin their investigation into the tragedy, I was curious about whether the Co-Gen facility on site played a role. So, using some aerial images, I pieced together the scene as best I could from the accident image and drone footage. This is just how I do my scene examination when my services
Yes, both terms essentially mean the same thing, but they refer to very different hazardous atmospheres. LEL, or Lower Explosive Limit, applies to gases and Vapors. MEC, which is Minimum Explosive Concentration, deals with Combustible Dusts. Here are some other differences:
This debate has been going on amongst a number of us, as a friend asked the question. 99% of of agreed – NO, it can not be reclassified when the COM DUST is inside the space. Cleaning it would be a Permit-Entry; once clean AND FREE of the COM Dusts, then we could discuss reclassifying
I like to tell clients that NFPA has done what OSHA failed to do… make Combustible Dust a PSM-covered process. Well, not exactly, but NFPA 660 has certainly advanced how we manage the risks associated with Combustible Dusts. The new (2026) NFPA 660 has the following SMS elements:
At 8:15 a.m. on January 30, 2025, Employee #1, 51, was replacing burst panels on the bucket conveyor when a flash fire occurred as the top burst panel was removed. Employee #1 was struck by the flash fire and died from the injuries sustained by the flash fire. OSHA issued a 5(a)(1) citation for using
Last month, Federal OSHA issued a three (3) part GDC citation for a Polishing and Sanding Area’s combustible dust system. Specifically OSHA took issue with the Design and Operation of the Combustible Dust Collection system:
On May 23, a powerful dust explosion occurred at a flour production facility in the Almaty Region, Kazakhstan. According to the regional Department for Emergency Situations (DES), the incident was caused by igniting a dust-air mixture of grain residues on the first floor of a nine-story elevator building. As a result:
This edition of NFPA 660 was approved as an American National Standard on December 6, 2024. NFPA 660 was written by consolidating the requirements of NFPA 652, Standard on the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust; NFPA 61, Standard for the Prevention of Fires and Dust Explosions in Agricultural and Food Processing Facilities; NFPA 484, Standard for
Nine (9) grain dust explosions in 2024 in the USA caused two (2) injuries and NO fatalities. These numbers are similar to last year’s (nine explosions, 12 injuries, and no fatalities) and on par with the 10-year national average of 8.6 explosions. The explosions occurred in:
Combustible Dust was not included in Table 5003.1.1(1) because of the inherent difficulty in establishing a maximum allowable quantity (MAQ) and determining if and when the MAQ had been exceeded. An occupancy with an uncontrolled combustible dust hazard is classified in Group H-2 in accordance with Section 307.4 of the International Building Code (IBC), with
