This paper presents a statistical analysis of 153 accidents attributable to static electricity in Japanese industry over the last 50 years. A more thorough understanding of their causes could help prevent similar incidents and identify hazards that could assist in the task of risk assessment. Most of the incidents occurred during operations performed by workers. […]
Ever needed to temporarily “change” the use of a flammable/combustible liquid storage or process tank? The tank is designed to NFPA 30 for flammable and combustible liquids so there is no risk in this “change”?!?!? WRONG…SWITCH LOADING is a MAJOR RISK that facilities who store, handle, or process flammable liquids need to understand, but often
Flammable or combustible liquids must be stored in tanks or closed containers. But how much flammable liquid can be outside of a flammable cabinet or storage room at any time?
In this article I would like to lay the foundation for future discussions on one of my favorite topics…Flammable Liquids. I will try to explain flammable liquids at their very basic level. There is MUCH MORE to learn about flammable liquids, but this will get us off to a good start with the fundamentals. Let’s
We are never quite sure how these myths get started, but my team and I hear some doosee’s from time to time. The “myth” I am going to discuss today is one we actually see more often than not. We see this even in facilities that have a good grasp of their Hazardous Locations and
Most of us have a LPG tank on site and many of us have multiple tanks lined up next to each other. As part of their “Coffee Break” training the United States Fire Administration (USFA) has just released a GREAT resource for our engineering groups to aid them when locating these LPG tanks. Now this
Scenario: An employer requires ordinary safety-toe footwear throughout their facilities and pays for the first $100 of the footwear cost. As part of a recent company-wide static electricity control program, employees working with flammable liquids and products are now required to have static dissipative safety-toe footwear. Question 1: Would the static dissipative safety-toe footwear
This NPRM would update the SDO standards referenced in the three paragraphs that comprise the Acetylene Standard. The Compressed Gas Association (CGA) published several editions of these SDO standards after OSHA adopted them in 1974, and one of these standards (i.e., Compressed Gas Association Pamphlet G-1.4-1966), is no longer available for purchase from CGA. Therefore,
Nonconductive plastics and other nonconductive materials should be avoided in areas where flammable vapors, gases or powders may be present since static charges can accumulate on nonconductors. However, it is not always possible to completely eliminate nonconductors, so the following lists some of the ways to reduce the static hazard associated with these materials: When
Cleaning small parts and portable equipment with solvents, either using an automatic device or manual cleaning, is a potentially extremely hazardous task relative to static generation and spark ignition of solvent vapors. Significant static electricity charging can occur during cleaning by contact and separation resulting from the following activities: Solvent spraying, which can involve high liquid
One option for mitigating the static hazards associated with low conductivity liquids is to raise the conductivity of the liquid. This can be accomplished by either blending the low conductivity liquid with a conductive liquid (e.g., alcohol, ketone) or by adding a static dissipating additive into the low conductivity liquid. When blending a low
