Fire and explosion at Bayer Cropscience facility-W.Virgina

On 29th Aug 2008, there was a large fire and explosion at a Bayer Cropscience facility near Charleston, W. Virginia.  A team from the US Chemical Safety baord reportedly visited the site after the accident, but they have not released any investigation report as of now. The exact cause of the accident remains unknown, but … Read more

Static Electricity Hazards-Mere bonding and grounding may not be enough!

Continuing with our series on the US Chemical Safety Board accident investigation videos, we discuss today the most insidous and hidden hazards in the chemical processing industry-Static Electricity. Why is static electricity so hazardous in chemical plants?  Simply because many inflammable liquids (like most solvents), tend to accumulate static charges on their surface, especially  when … Read more

Use Gas Detectors to improve safety-lessons from an industrial accident

This post shows how easy it can be, to build-in safety into your plant, by using the right kind of gas detector. Continuing our “Case study” series, we show below how a simple gas detector, had it been installed, could have easily prevented a major industrial catastrophe. The video below show the US Chemical Safety … Read more

Proper Hazardous Area Classification can prevent accidents

Mention the words “Hazardous Area Classification” and most people who operate plants think, “Oh No! It means that I have to install explosionproof equipment.” Well, nothing could be further from the truth. First of all all hazardous areas do not have explosionproof equipment (it is just one of the many ways in which one can … Read more