Category: Gas Detectors
New Safety Video on “Hazards of Hot work” in chemical plants
Washington DC, April 20, 2012 – The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) today released anew safety video detailing a fatal 2010 hot work accident that occurred at the DuPont facility near Buffalo, New York.
In the video, Dr. Moure-Eraso notes that, “The tragic explosion at the DuPont facility exposed weaknesses in how process hazards were analyzed and controlled. The result was the death of a welder in a preventable hot work accident.” In the video Chairperson Moure-Eraso emphasizes that hot work is often seen as a routine activity, but it can prove deadly if fire and explosion hazards are overlooked.”
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Yet Another Hot Work Accident in Colorado-CSB chief expresses regret
Washington, DC, July 9, 2010 — Dr. Rafael Moure-Eraso, chairperson and CEO of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said today he was saddened by news of the death of a Colorado welder yesterday while performing what is called “hot work” on a storage tank containing flammables at an environmental remediation company in Englewood, Colorado.
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Hot work is defined as welding, cutting, grinding, or other spark-producing activities that can ignite flammable substances. To date in 2010, the CSB has learned of 15 serious hot work-related fires and explosions that caused six reported fatalities and numerous injuries.
Dr. Moure said, “I am saddened by this accident and disturbed that such fatalities continue to occur. The CSB is vitally concerned about hot work accidents and this was expressed in our important safety bulletin and safety video, both issued within the past few months.”
According to information gathered by the CSB from the fire department and the company, a worker was standing on a ladder, welding on the side of a tank partially filled with a mixture of water and flammable hydrocarbons. Sparks ignited flammable vapor and the worker was thrown off the ladder, suffering fatal injuries.
The company stated that although it has a hot work permit system and had provided safety training to the victim, there was no monitoring for a flammable atmosphere before or during the welding. ( What a joke-how can anybody issue a permit when they haven’t measured the flammable gas concentration in the area-do they expect a piece of paper will actually prevent an accident?!). While current OSHA standards prohibit hot work in an explosive atmosphere, OSHA does not explicitly require the use of combustible gas detectors.
There have been more than 60 fatalities since 1990 due to explosions and fires from hot work activities on tanks. In seven of the 11 accidents discussed in the bulletin, no gas testing was performed prior to or during the hot work activities. In the remaining cases, monitoring was conducted improperly.
Dr. Moure said, “There is no secret to preventing these accidents. Companies should require effective monitoring of the atmosphere before and during all welding or other spark-producing activities near tanks that may contain flammable liquids or gases. Monitoring should be frequent or continuous and performed at multiple locations to assure that no flammable vapor is present which could be ignited. Monitoring the atmosphere and following the other six key lessons in our bulletin can help avoid these tragedies.”
Gas Monitoring Procedures around Hazardous storage tanks
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Washington, DC, June 7, 2010 – The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) today released a 14-minute safety video warning of the hazards of welding and other hot work activities in and around storage tanks containing flammable materials.
Entitled “Dangers of Hot Work,” the video presents key lessons from the CSB’s hot work safety bulletin, released on March 4, 2010, in Wausau, Wisconsin, near the Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) facility where three workers were killed in July 2008 during a hot work-related explosion.
Hot work is defined as burning, welding, or similar spark-producing operations that can ignite fires or explosions. Since the release of the CSB hot work safety bulletin last March, there have been at least an additional eleven hot work accidents resulting in five fatalities and 14 hospitalizations. Included in these events is the explosion and fire at the Navajo Refining Company that killed two workers and injured two others in Artesia, New Mexico, where a crew of insulators was reportedly working on a crude oil storage tank.
The video uses 3-D computer animations to depict three hot work accidents at Partridge-Raleigh, an oil production site in Central Mississippi; the Bethune Waste Water Treatment Plant in Daytona Beach, Florida; and the Motiva Enterprises Refinery in Delaware City, Delaware.
The video also features an interview with John Capanna, who suffered burns over ninety percent of his body following a hot work accident while he performed maintenance activities at a refinery in New Jersey in 1979.
Mr. Capanna warns: “Don’t think that something this tragic couldn’t happen to you or somebody you love. This could happen to anybody.”
Also featured in the video is Casey Jones, the wife of crane operator Clyde Jones, who was fatally burned at the Bethune Waste Water Treatment Plant in January 2006.
Mrs. Jones says, “As a wife, I just assumed that he had a normal, everyday 7:00 to 3:30, Monday through Friday job, safe as my job. I would have never dreamed in a million years he would have been killed in an explosion.”
Hot work accidents occur throughout many industries in the U.S., including food processing, pulp and paper manufacturing, oil production, fuel storage, and waste treatment. CSB Investigations Supervisor Donald Holmstrom states in the video, “We typically hear about hot work accidents weekly. It has become one of the most significant types of incidents the CSB investigates, in terms of deaths, in terms of frequency.”
Emphasizing key lessons from the safety bulletin, Chairman Bresland states, “Hazard assessments and combustible gas detectors should be routinely used to identify and monitor for flammable atmospheres before and during hot work. Effective gas monitoring will save lives.”
You can watch the video here.
Hydrogen Sulfide leak at Texas oilfield kills one and injures others
Jan11, Garden City, TX- One worker was killed and three others were injured in a Texas gas processing plant, probably due to a leakage of Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) gas. The accident ocurred at an oilfield site in Glasscock county.
They were all working atop a tank battery when apparently one of them fell down, the result of Hydrogen Sulfide’s feared “knockout effect” . The gas is deadly because it has a bad smell in lower concentrations (smells like rotten eggs), but in higher concentrations, it simply desensitizes the human nose, which can no longer smell it and hence the “knockout effect”.
What is surprising in this case is that all of them were reportedly wearing Hydrogen Sulfide gas monitors, that are supposed to measure the H2S concentration in the ambient air and sound an alarm if dangerous levels are detected. It is not clear if the instruments did not work, or whether the workers simply ignored them.
The workers were rushed via an air ambulance to a hospital, but it was too late for one of them. The rest are still serious, although stable.
The incident once again highlights the safety precautions that need to be taken when dealing with Hydrogen Sulfide gas.
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CO gas leak in Church-Portable Toxic Gas Monitors detect the problem
So now we can have gas leaks in a Church too! If you thought that toxic gas monitors are necessary to be installed only in industrial plants, you’re wrong! You may need them in as safe a place as a Church.
AP reports that the local Authorities in Madison, Wisconsin said that six people — including a toddler — got sick from carbon monoxide poisoning during a Sunday church service in Madison. The first indication that there was a problem came at 11:01 a.m. when paramedics were called to attend to a 2-year-old child who was reported to be groggy . The parents of the child decided to transport the child to the hospital on their own.
Fortunately by the time a second distress call was reported to the local Fire Department, Engine Company 4 responded, bringing along monitors to check air quality at the church. The portable Carbon Monoxide toxic gas monitors showed a CO level of 3000 ppm- more than 100 times the safe limit!
The incident shows the importance of having portable toxic gas monitors handy in all places and not just industrial plants.
