Hazardous Materials

At 8:30 a.m. on May 24, 2018, Employee #1, 45, set up a booth representing the control laboratory for a safety day event at the plant, which involved approximately 1,000 employees, visitors, and vendors. Employee #1 wanted a fog effect at the booth to attract visitors. Employee #1 made plans to have coworker #1 get…...

On July 12, 2024, an employee, 74, at a campground resort was attempting to add sodium hypochlorite to a bulk supply container to recharge the swimming pool. The employee added sodium hypochlorite to a container of sulfuric acid and was overcome by the vapors generated by the mixture. The employee was killed due to the…...

With Ohio being a state that allows recreational marijuana use, the construction of marijuana facilities has begun. The Fire Marshal in the state of Colorado created a task force to deal with the hazards of these facilities in CO. Using the International Fire, Building, and Mechanical Codes, they wrote an excellent document called Marijuana Facility…...

As these flammable refrigerants take hold around the globe, the IFC, in its 2024 edition, has specified storage quantities in… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

Many of us have struggled to understand the differences between OSHA’s Hazard Categories and the other codes that still use Hazard Classes. Here is a helpful table that can help clarify things…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

A jury trial is set for the former employee charged in the February home explosion that killed one volunteer firefighter and injured 13 more people. He is facing a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter and three other misdemeanors relating to the unlawful transfer, release, maintenance, and control of liquid petroleum gas. The worker, 67, has…...

As we have discussed many times, UNLOADING/LOADING Hazardous Materials to/from a bulk DOT container is often times one of the highest risks on a plant site. And when the hazardous material is a liquefied compressed gas, the risks escalate quickly! Two of the more common liquefied compressed gases are LPG and NH3, which fall under…...

For those who deal with these “hazardous materials storage cabinets,” we have seen some new design requirements over the past couple of code cycles. A lot of codes began requiring “self-closing” doors on these cabinets; however, we can go back to the 2012 edition of the IFC and find this requirement. And now the IFC…...

A few years ago, I warned about the huge push to make flammable refrigerants easier to manage in the name of “global warming.” As a safety professional, this shift is alarming. Never in my career have we considered a burning rate of 10 cm/s as a means to lessen the risk associated with a flammable…...

The report indicated that the driver of the refrigerated truck had poor safety and legal awareness. He allowed eight female workers to ride in the truck, which carried packaged beef with dry ice. The dry ice sublimed into carbon dioxide gas, which rapidly filled the confined space inside the truck…. Membership Required You must be...

The day has arrived! The 2024 IFC recognizes the new GHS for Flammable Gases by breaking down CAT 1 Flammable Gases into 1A and 1B Flammable Gases. it also uses the phrase “Burning Velocity” (BV) which are defined and quantified as…… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a...

As we have discussed, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) issued a Safety Study (CSB Safety Study: No. 2024-01-H, Remote Isolation of Process Equipment) discussing the untapped advantages when Remote Emergency Shut-Off Valves are used in hazardous processing.  I have written about these requirements for all types of hazardous materials; this post is for Flammable Gases…...