Hazardous Materials

The power of a vacuum… caused only by the condensing of the hazardous material.  The loading temperature of the mono-isopropylamine, a flammable liquid, was reported to be between 70°F and 80°F. When the tank collapsed, the ambient air temperature was approximately 10°F… On January 4,1988, an MC 307 tank trailer departed with 39,000 pounds of…...

PHMSA has launched a new on-line training program that introduces users to the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR), and may be used to meet the requirements for general awareness/familiarization training, or as the basis for developing function-specific training programs.  Current U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations require initial and recurrent training of all employees who perform…...

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a Final Rule to revise its regulations and increase the maximum civil penalty amount for violations of the Federal hazardous materials safety law. Under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, which further amended the Federal Civil Penalties, Inflation Adjustment Act of…...

At approximately 9:30 a.m. on October 3, 2002, an employee who worked for a company that provided vehicle maintenance such as car washes, detailing, fueling, and lube and oil servicing, inadvertently drank acid from a plastic spray bottle while he was on a rest break. The employee, feeling very ill after ingesting the contents of…...

On April 15, 2014, Employee #1, a maintenance technician employed by Solarworld Industries America Inc., and Coworker #1, a tool operator in the plant’s fabrication area, were working at the employer’s solar cell manufacturing facility. Coworker #1 had submitted a work order to repair a leak of liquid hydrofluoric acid (HF). HF is used in…...

Anyone who has taken one of my HAZMAT or Process Safety training courses has heard about and seen video of the Atlas Foundry LPG BLEVE that occurred back in 2007.  But in a recent process safety course, several students (volunteer FF’s outside of their full time job at this PSM facility) debated on the facts…...

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has been made aware of concerns regarding newly adopted requirements in Section 180.209(e) of the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180). Prior to a January 21, 2016 Final Rule [Docket No. PHMSA-2013-0042 (HM-233F)], the requalification period corresponding to volumetric expansion testing…...

At approximately 10:15 a.m. on May 30, 2012 a 46-year-old truck driver was making a routine delivery of sanitation chemicals to a milk packaging plant.   The plant purchases their sanitation chemicals through a nationally recognized clean-in-place chemical provider and the chemicals are delivered by a local chemical trucking company. Employee #1 (truck driver) delivered…...

This is a 24,000-gallon fuel tank that floated out of the ground due to extremely high ground water levels and low fuel level inside the tank.  Laws of physics will win every time!  I do wonder what would have happened had a car been parked over the tank when it broke free and floated to the…...

PHMSA 36-16 Thursday, December 15, 2016 PHMSA Issues Safety Advisory on Use of DOT-39 Cylinders for Liquefied Flammable Compressed Gas. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (U.S. DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a safety advisory informing offerors or anyone using a DOT Specification 39 (DOT-39) cylinder that cylinders with an internal volume…...

I have written several times about “vehicle impact protection” for our hazardous materials processes and systems and these articles have garnered a lot of attention, as it seems a lot of folks were not aware there was an actual design basis for these protective members.  Here is a video (WARNING!  MUTE the sound!!) that shows us…...