Hazardous Materials

This past week I learned that what used to be allowed only under a “special permit” is now part of the regulation for unloading (and loading) HAZMATs.  It was very popular during my time as a safety/PSM manager and all my plants applied for and received the DOT Special permit(s) to unload both Railcars and…...

I have always wanted to do this for my own use and over the pandemic, I took the time to compile a breakdown of some of the hazardous materials my clients have into Highly Toxic and Toxic so as to be clear which design requirements apply to which hazardous materials (HAZMATs).  For some of these…...

Anhydrous Ammonia is NOT a toxic nor highly toxic gas, as defined by the International Fire Code (IFC).  But if it is not managed as a “toxic,” how do we manage our ammonia gas? The IFC actually puts Anhydrous Ammonia in the…… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready...

I have been catching up on my Chlorine posts these last several weeks and some have asked me how I know which chemical goes into which hazard class; specifically, why Chlorine is “only toxic” and not “highly toxic”.  As I said in a few of my previous articles on safely managing Cl2, some of my…...

One of the top 5 nastiest checmicals I have encountered during my career is Hydrofluoric Acid and Hydrogen Fluoride (HF).  And it just amazes me that humans can convenience themselves that these chemicals are not “really that hazardous”.  TRUST ME (and NIOSH), HF has earned its place in my Top 5.  Of course, HF is not…...

Authorities: Napa man injured by flash fire while cleaning paper shredderA man was hospitalized Saturday morning with a burn injury suffered while cleaning a paper shredder, according to Napa Fire.  Firefighters were called to a west Napa house at about 7:50 a.m., where a man was being cooled in a shower after suffering a burn……...

We have discussed the Maximum Allowable Quantity (MAQ) extensively over the years, but a lot of facilities just can’t stay within the confines of a MAQ so what are they to do?  Well, it an easy answer but it is not so easy to meet!  In this article, I will explain the four (4) H…...

This is another hotly debated topic among my tight-knit group of fellow safety and fire protection engineers and Lord knows we have plenty of photographic and video evidence that there seems to be a large segment of the population who need help with Dispensing Fuel into Portable Containers.  Hence the government has a code that…...

This debate reaches far into the safety profession and the opinions will vary widely among us.  But recently a state, which will remain un-named for this article, passed a fire code requirement for Flaming food and beverage preparation.  One year, many years ago, we were performing audits for a business, and during each audit, we…...