Tesoro Refinery Fire causes fatalities

Update: View the latest update on this incident here. Anacortes,WA April 1, 2010-  Yet another explosion and fire at a Tesoro refinery, this time in Washington State. The company is already under investigation by the Chemical Safety Board for a previous fire in one of its refineries in Salt Lake City. An explosion and fire … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more