I am working on the five-year accident history portion of the hazard assessment under the RMP. Section 68.42(a) tells me to include “all accidental releases from covered processes that resulted in deaths, injuries, or significant property damage on site, or known offsite deaths, injuries, evacuations, sheltering in place, property damage, or environmental damage.” Is there […]
Should the owner or operator include accidental releases from processes containing listed substances below the threshold quantity in the five-year accident history required under the hazard assessment provisions of 40 CFR Part 68, Subpart B, and in the incident investigation requirements under 40 CFR Part 68, Subparts C and D? No.
In December 2006, a journeyman pipefitter (P1) was struck in the chest by a pipe cap that he was removing from a pressurized pipe. Some leaks in an 8-inch waterline needed repair. To help find the leak locations, valves were closed off in the lines, creating sectionalized portions of the air-charged waterline. The waterline was
Gas cylinders holding 1.5 ft3 of gas are often filled to ~2,100 psig. At such high pressure, damaged or mishandled cylinders can fracture violently and release enormous amounts of energy, comparable to…
I have seen a cost savings trend that is increasing risks in a big way. It may seem minor to those who do not understand risk, but using a pressure cylinder without it being inspected and tested at its prescribed frequency is a serious safety miss. Usually, these risks are controlled somewhat when the facility
According to China’s Maritime Safety Administration (CMSA), the shipping container explosion aboard the box ship YM Mobility at Ningbo in 2024 was caused by thermal runaway in a cargo of organic peroxides. The container in question was a refrigerated shipping container filled with tert-butyl perbenzoate (TBPB), a common activator for making plastics like polyethylene and polyester. It
Recently, I shared the investigation results of the fatal LPG explosion in Hillsboro, OH. The cylinder had been overfilled, leading to its catastrophic failure, which then led to LPG gas finding an ignition source in the car repair garage and exploding. I took some flak for stating that I have seen overfilling of LPG cylinders
This may be helpful to some. Use in your training or written program.
The term “Highly Toxic” has been codified in the IFC as: A material which produces a lethal dose or lethal concentration which falls within any of the following categories: 1. A chemical that has a median lethal dose (LD50) of 50 milligrams or less per kilogram of body weight when administered orally to albino rats
In 1981, workers at LANL were about to fill hydrogen (H2) cylinders from a large, H2-filled tube trailer. They used a manifold containing residual oxygen (O2), which was also connected to a tube trailer of O2 with only one valve separating these incompatible gases. When the mix ignited, the workers attempted to purge O2 from
For those new to working in Hazardous Locations (HAZLOCs), the very best resource for the “lay person” is from the US Coast Guard “Drill Down” series. They published eight (8) documents that explains:
