Archive for March, 2010
Sulfur Trioxide leak at BASF plant in Missouri
Mar 23, 2010- A BASF facility in Northeast Missouri had a leakage of Sulfur Trioxide, a highly toxic gas that can cause severe injuries if inhaled or ingested. Contact with water results in the formation of Sulfuric Acid.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources were trying to estimate how much of the gas was released at the plant. A large section of the Mississipi river was shut down by the Coast Guard to boat traffic for hours . Reports say that people at BASF and other facilities in the vicinity had to be evacuated to safety. The cloud of gas is now traveling towards Illinois, but it was unclear as to how it could be dispersed in a safe way. As of now, no injuries have been reported.
The release apparently occured to a mechanical failure in the plant that resulted in the gas being vented through a stack. The BASF facility produces agrochemical products. German origin BASF, that owns the facility is supposed to be the largest chemical company in the world with nearly a hundred thousand employees worldwide.
Fifth anniversary of BP Texas refinery explosion-have we learnt any lessons?
Mar 24, 2010- Five years ago, terrible explosions rocked BP’s Texas refinery complex that resulted in several fatalities and injuries. The question that is now being raised is, whether any lessons were learned from this by manufacturing companies in general and hydrocarbon processing companies in particular? Apparently not many, as evidenced by the several accidents that took place in refineries and chemical complexes after this accident.
John Bresland, Chairman of the US Chemical Safety Board has released a statement on the fifth anniversary of the BP Texas refinery accident, which is reproduced below.
Statement from CSB Chairman John Bresland on 5th Anniversary of Fatal BP Texas City 2005 Explosion
The CSB issues the following statement from CSB Chairman John Bresland:
Five years ago today, at about 1:20 p.m., a series of explosions rocked the BP Texas City refinery during the restart of a hydrocarbon isomerization unit.
Fifteen workers were killed and 170 others were injured. Many of the victims were working in or around work trailers located near an atmospheric vent stack. The explosions occurred when a distillation tower flooded with hydrocarbons and was over- pressurized, causing a geyser-like release from the vent stack. The hydrocarbons found an ignition source and exploded.
I urge everyone in the oil refining industry to take a moment today and think about that tragic loss of life and the severity of so many injuries which continue to afflict workers five years later.
Today would be an appropriate time for company management to pause and personally pledge to do everything in their power to prevent this kind of catastrophic accident from happening at their refineries. And in my view it would also be appropriate for BP to recommit to safety in a way that builds on the steps it has taken in the aftermath of the Texas City tragedy.
In the CSB’s final investigation report issued two years after the accident, we found organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation. It was the most comprehensive and detailed investigation the CSB has ever done. Our investigation team turned up extensive evidence showing a catastrophe waiting to happen. that cost-cutting had affected safety programs and critical maintenance; production pressures resulted in costly mistakes made by workers likely fatigued by working long hours; internal audits and safety studies brought problems to the attention of BP’s board in London, but they were not sufficiently acted upon. Yet the company was proud of its record on personnel safety.
I urge everyone involved in operations and safety programs at refineries to take time to visit the CSB’s BP investigation web page, review the key findings in the report, and ask “Is any of this happening at my facility?” I also recommend taking a lunch hour to view with your colleagues the CSB Safety Video “Anatomy of a Disaster”, an extensive examination – with computer animation – of the factors that caused the BP tragedy.
Refinery accidents at other companies continue to occur with dismaying frequency. These have also taken lives, disrupted communities, and threatened the nation’s flow of gasoline and other refined oil products. These accidents will only stop when every refinery has made the financial and human commitment to sound process safety management.
BP notes it has spent over one billion dollars repairing and improving the Texas City refinery’s equipment and operations. Media reports indicate a like amount has gone to settle lawsuits filed after the accident. This gives new meaning to the old adage, “If you think safety is expensive, wait until you have an accident.”
When will we know whether the tragedy of 2005 has resulted in greater safety at BP and other companies’ refineries? Only when we can look back over the passing of a significant number of years without major accidents, deaths, or injuries. In the meantime, only the highest commitment to running down the even smallest of problems and upsets will assure the prevention of so-called low probability, high-consequence events like the tragedy that took so many lives in Texas City five years ago today.
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The most interesting quote is “If you think safety is expensive, wait until you have an accident.”
This statement should be food for thought for all the bean counters and penny pinchers in industries who count cents and pennies in budgets related to engineering and safety – who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing!
For a comprehensive, cost effective and user friendly training program on Safety Instrumented Systems, check out the new e-learning course here. Free trial is available for direct download from here.
Toxic gas leakage and fire at Bayer Cropscience facility in India
Ankleshwar, India, Mar 11, 2010- A toxic gas leakage and fire at the Bayer Cropscience facility has reportedly resulted in one fatality up to now, say local news reports. The toxic gas is believed have consisted of Mercaptans and Phosphorous compounds. The cause of the accident is not yet known and the local authorities are making investigations. The incident is believed to have occured in the early morning hours.
An engineer working at the facility was believed to be one of the fatalities. Other injuries and fatalities are not known. The site is located in a town named Ankleshwar, which is notorious in India due to chronic problems of polluting industries.
There were reports from surrounding areas about a foul smell that led to complaints of nausea and vomiting, said the local authorities in charge of environmental monitoring.
OSHA fines BP- Husky refinery more than $ 3 million
OREGON, Ohio — The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited BP North American Inc. and BP-Husky Refining LLC’s refinery in Oregon, Ohio, with 42 alleged willful violations, including 39 on a per-instance basis, and 20 alleged serious violations for exposing workers to a variety of hazards including failure to provide adequate pressure relief for process units. Proposed penalties total $3,042,000.
“OSHA has found that BP often ignored or severely delayed fixing known hazards in its refineries,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “There is no excuse for taking chances with people’s lives. BP must fix the hazards now.”
OSHA began its inspection at the refinery located near Toledo, Ohio, in September 2009 as part of the agency’s Refinery National Emphasis Program and as a follow-up to a 2006 inspection and a 2007 settlement agreement between OSHA and BP at this location. Although the 2009 inspection found that BP had complied with the settlement agreement, OSHA found numerous violations at the plant not previously covered by the agreement.
The inspection revealed that workers were exposed to serious injury and death in the event of a release of flammable and explosive materials in the refinery because of numerous conditions constituting violations of OSHA’s process safety management standard. OSHA has issued willful citations for numerous failures to provide adequate pressure relief for process units, failures to provide safeguards to prevent the hazardous accumulation of fuel in process heaters, and exposing workers to injury and death from collapse of or damage, in the event of a fire, to nine buildings in the refinery. Additional willful citations allege various other violations of OSHA’s standard addressing process safety management. These citations carry proposed penalties totaling $2,940,000.
The serious citations address a variety of other hazards, including violations of other requirements of the process safety management standard. These carry proposed penalties totaling $102,000.
Since 1991, this refinery has been inspected 12 times. Nationally, BP Products North American has been inspected by OSHA 44 times at various sites and is facing pending cases in which 439 willful citations and failure-to-abate notices were issued to its Texas City Refinery as a result of a 2009 inspection. Proposed penalties in those pending cases total $87 million, the largest penalties by far ever proposed by OSHA. BP’s Texas City Refinery experienced a devastating explosion and fire in 2005 that killed 15 workers and injured 170. A large portion of the penalties proposed for the Texas City Refinery results from OSHA’s allegations that BP failed to fully live up to a settlement agreement entered into after the explosion. BP has contested the citations, notifications of failure-to-abate and the proposed penalties in those cases.
BP North American Inc. operates and jointly owns the refinery with Canadian-based Husky Energy Inc. The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an information conference with the OSHA area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to assure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance.
For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
Hazards of hot work-CSB issues safety bulletin
This blog has consistently pointed out that many people working in industry seem to be unaware about the dangers of doing any “hot” work in a plant without a “gas test”. Despite several disasters that have been directly caused due to following this simple rule, nobody seems to have learnt lessons. The US Chemical Safety Board now has come up with a safety bulletin, outlining the recent case of the fatal accident at the PCA corrugated mill in Wisconsin, that was apparently caused by not checking for explosive gases with a portable explosive gas monitor, before commencing welding operations. The tank was also not classified as a hazardous area, despite it being used to store explosive and flammable materials.
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Download an excellent training course on Gas Monitors from here. Also download the Practical Guide to Hazardous Area Classification from here, now you can read the first few pages freely-if you like it you can buy the book, now available in a flip page format.
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The CSB has issued a safety bulletin that details the incident, as well as precautionary measures that should be taken to avoid such incidents from recurring. Here is a partial text of the press release given below.
Wausau, Wisconsin, March 4, 2010 – The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) today issued a safety bulletin warning of the hazards of conducting hot work in a variety of industries and identifying seven key lessons aimed at preventing worker deaths during hot work in and around storage tanks containing flammable materials.
