This past January 2021, The Chlorine Institute issued Edition 7 of their Pamphlet 65 – Personal Protective Equipment for Chlor-Alkali Chemicals (which is available for FREE). This is a MUST have document for those who have exposures to: CHLORINE SODIUM AND POTASSIUM HYDROXIDE (10 – 50 WT %) SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE (3 – 20 WT %)…...
A plastics plant experienced a release of approximately 15,825 pounds of styrene vapor from a railcar on 9/1/2020. The railcar had been on the property since May 2020 (4 months). The styrene began its reaction inside the railcar once the inhibitor had been consumed, leading to the release and evacuations ensued for those located around…...
Respondent is a plastics material and resin manufacturing plant that produces polyvinyl alcohol from the vinyl acetate process. EPA conducted an inspection of the Facility on May 15 through 17, 20 I8, to determine Respondent’s compliance with 40 C.F.R. Part 68 (the Inspection)…. Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership...
In the latest craze with “lean manufacturing”, a lot of businesses are rearranging their production lines and in a lot of cases, safety was not a serious consideration. We see a lot of emergency egress issues, serious electrical power constraints leading to improper power cord usage, fire extinguisher types and placement issues, etc. But the…...
Scenario: You have a hazardous material that has a really low PEL and STEL and the process where it is going to be used is an “open process”. Management ask you to perform a hazard assessment and it is determined that the room where this material will be used will need ventilation to ensure exposures…...
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…...
Chlorine is a “toxic gas” and as such it has special requirements in the IFC as well as the IMC. I have written about how we design our gas cabinets, gas rooms, enclosures, and storage areas based on the IFC Chapter 50 and 60 requirements. In this article, I will address the IMC requirements which…...
I have several chlorine projects going on and a couple of them are being installed by the same contractor, one of the best contractors in the chemical industry (I wish I could name them by my CA prevents me from listing them as a client or supporter!). They used the pandemic to get everything installed…...
Respondent is the owner and/or operator of a candy manufacturing facility, which has registered an RMPlan with the EPA for its Facility and has developed an RMProgram accidental release prevention program for the Facility. At its Facility: a. Respondent produces food products b. Respondent has on-site for storage, 18,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia c. Respondent…...
This redneck from western KY can understand one of the most fundamental requirements from ASME B31 standards… ONLY certified welders can make the welds AND each weld MUST be IDENTIFIED as to who made the weld(s)! Now ASME gives us options for meeting the “identification” requirements (e.g., stamping or Isometric Drawings). Still, these two requirements…...
