Styrene has been a chemical I just can not seem to get away from. I dealt with it throughout my career in the petro-chem industry and now as a consultant, I have a number of clients who use this flammable liquid in a number of different processes. In 2005 I was consulted about a leaking […]
At 1:00 p.m. on July 24, 2019, two (2) employees were filling a tanker truck from a portable bulk container (IBC) when a flash fire occurred. Employee #1 was standing on top of the ethanol tanker truck and his body, clothing, the tanker, tote, and hose caught on fire. Employee #1 attempted to slide down
At 3:11 p.m. Employee #1, who had worked with the company for three months as a forklift operator/ repacking, was working alone in the repacking area making a transfer of acetone (flammable liquid) from an elevated 793-gallon stainless steel intermediate bulk container (tote) to a 350-gallon stainless steel tote on the floor. In order to
A client has allowed me to share work I did several years ago when OSHA’s GHS threw a wrench into the flammable liquids world! There was so much confusion between Class and Category of flammable liquids, and during an engineering review, it was discovered that the engineering group had made a conversion error when going
One part of managing flammable liquids is minimizing fuel load in the event there is a fire. Both state codes and OSHA utilize what is called “maximum allowable quantity per control area“. This practice is based on the “degree of hazard” or as OSHA calls them today “Hazard Category” of the flammable liquid or gas
I do not know much about this video, such as where it was shot, was it a set up for demo or real-life. But the FLIR footage is quite telling as we can see the vapors exiting the fill port. These days in the USA a lot of stations have a “vapor-recovery” system so I
This week we saw OSHA issue a $1.5M citation after an explosion killed four workers at a silicon chemical products manufacturer. All of the citations were classified as Willful and all were related to using equipment that was not approved for a hazardous location (HAZLOC). This week I was working with a client doing a
This week we saw OSHA issue a $1.5M citation after an explosion killed four workers at a silicon chemical products manufacturer. All of the citations were classified as Willful and all were related to using equipment that was not approved for a hazardous location (HAZLOC). This week I was working with a client doing a
This is another case of a PLASTIC tote being used for a NON-CONDUCTIVE Flammable Liquid and a serious incident occured due to the failure to control the ignition source… STATIC ELECTRICITY! SAFTENG Members be sure to check out the posts earlier this year of a very similar incident that was caught on camera (Transferring flammable
This $50 device is priceless in validating that the ventilation system is functioning as designed Verifying that a mechanical exhaust system provides sufficient airflow is critical for preventing the accumulation of flammable vapors. The use of a Vaneometer™ is ideal for monitoring low-velocity air currents (typically 25 to 400 feet per minute) at the face
This week I posted the requirement for transferring a flammable liquid using “gravity”. This requirement comes from OSHA’s flammable liquid standard… 1910.106(e)(2)(iv)(d) flammable liquids shall be drawn from or transferred into vessels, containers, or portable tanks within a building only through a closed piping system, from safety cans, by means of a device drawing through
There is a sound reason why OSHA’s Flammable Liquid Standard has required a deadman valve for over 40 years and it is the same reason why I have written about their use for 20 years… When things go bad and you need to get the heck out of dodge quickly, you can do so AND
