A fatality occurred at a warehouse involving an employee taking a sample from a 500-gallon (4,500 pound) stainless steel Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC).  Preliminary findings indicate the employee was working alone in an area with limited egress. The employee elevated the IBC approximately 18 inches using a forklift to take a sample from the bottom valve. The IBC was lifted from a side which...

  MANY THANKS to my NEW & RENEWING “Partners in Safety” for their support! since 2008 since 2008 since 2012 since 2012   2012 Fatality Tracker Electrical 59 (2011 = 81) (2010 = 90) (2009 = 100) Forklift/Manlift Mobile Equipment 45 (2011 = 84) (2010 = 110) (2009 = 88) Mining 64 (2011 = 248) (2010 = 480) (2009 = 586) Explosions 222 (2011...

 

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The UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the onshore chemical and major hazard industries collaborated in the collection of causation information and lessons learnt from Loss of Containment incidents.  This was a voluntary scheme aimed at collecting information on the underlying causes of loss of containment events. The aim being to identify common failure mechanisms that feature in...

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) published notice RSPA-99-5143 (notice 99-11) stating that its files contain reports of 12 explosive failures of aluminum cylinders made of 6351 alloy. Eleven of the failures occurred when the cylinders were being filled. Six of the failures were SCBA cylinders used in life-support systems for firefighters, and three were SCUBA cylinders used by divers. Although...

SUMMARY: Recently, a DOT-3AL cylinder made of aluminum alloy 6351-T6 ruptured while being filled. The purpose of this notice is to alert owners, users, and other persons responsible for the maintenance of certain cylinders made of aluminum alloy 6351-T6 of potential safety problems and to advise them to follow the precautionary measures outlined in this notice. Also, RSPA requests information on other...

There have been several well-documented incidents during the past 10 years where SCBA failure may have been a contributing factor in the deaths or injuries of firefighters¹. These incidents, coupled with a recognition of the importance of self-contained breathing apparatus to firefighter safety, prompted the United States Fire Administration to undertake this study to address any operations trends...

OSHA has cited a Louisiana chemical facility with 10 serious and one other-than-serious violations related to OSHA’s process safety management standard (PSM) with proposed penalties totaling $67,000.   OSHA conducted the inspection under the PSM National Emphasis Program (NEP).  The ten serious violations include failing to provide accurate process safety information for P&IDs,...

The answers to the top questions I get about the DOT ERG Booklets: 1) there are 3,233 Hazardous Materials listed 2) there are 465 TIH/PIH Hazardous Materials listed 3) there are 127 Water Reactive Hazardous Materials listed 4) there are still 172 Guides listed in 2012.

A fully wrapped composite SCBA cylinder catastrophically failed  while stored inside a fire truck parked inside a fire house.  Although no one was hurt, the incident caused significant damage to the fire truck and minor damage to the fire truck parked next to it.  Extensive analysis of the failed cylinder showed that it was caused by stress corrosion cracking resulting from exposure...

UPDATED 10/22/2019 with new images and new explanations. UPDATE:  Please see my June 2017 posting PHMSA’s New Cylinder “Special Permit” authorizes an extension of the 15-year service life of certain carbon fiber reinforced aluminum-lined cylinders (DOT-CFFC)   In general, composite-reinforced cylinders used with self- contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) all have a...