Chemical Plant Safety Resources

It is my strong intention to always present chemical plant accident stories in order to give you more inputs for safety improvements. I believe that many similar accidents had happened recurrently. But most of us do not aware about this.

According to OSHA report regarding top 10 workplace safety violations for 2009, violation number increases by 30% compared with last year data.

Read the story below carefully. Take important notes from these stories. And improve your safety system accordingly. (more…)

In the previous post, I have posted about Chemical Safety Board report on explosion at Imperial Sugar Company, USA. Combustible dust sugar was related to that accident. Then, what does a dust explosion mean actually? According to wikipedia, a dust explosion is the combustion of a particle(s) of dust suspended in the air in an enclosed location, resulting in overpressure, thermal radiation, and ensuing projectiles.

From the basic point of view, a fire can only exist whenever an oxidant (oxygen), a combustible material and a source of ignition come together. The three components are famously called by the fire triangle. Meanwhile, in the case of dust explosion, it requires not only the fire triangle components but also combustible dust material must be in an enclosed space or confined space and suspended in the air at the certain concentration.  (more…)

The plant incident involving hazardous chemical, fuming sulfuric acid (oleum), which occurred in October 2008, has shown how important a pump shut-off system. According to Chemical Safety Board report released this month, Indspec Chemical Corporation was faulted due to failure to provide a shut off system for transfer pump. (more…)

Below here is some accidents news that I read in September 2009. It is my strong intention to post about this to provide you with real safety problems and then you could extract some important points from these news in order to improve your workplace safety.

18 Dead Caused by Chemical Unloading Explosion in China

Chemical Fire at Fuel Storage Facility in US (more…)

Fire accident that occurred at Imperial Sugar Company Plant last year left several important safety messages for us. The company was failed to put adequate precautions against combustible sugar dust hazard, as reported by Chemical Safety Board (CSB) recently. CSB said that the fire accident was entirely preventable as published in nyt.

According to CSB report, the explosion was triggered by the following causes: (more…)

I still commit to post about incident and accident news related to chemical plant operation. This is intended to remind you how accident or incident can happen in various ways and conditions. Here is my accident news record in August 2009.

Fire at Scrap Metal Reprocessing Plant in New Cumberland

Three Workers Treated after Nitric Acid Spill in Savannah

Fire at Chemical Factory Complex in Detroit

Monomethylamine Leak at Dupont Plant During Pumping in Belle

Chemical Fire at Fuel Storage Tank Area

Explosion When Transferring Methanol, One Injured

Boiler Explosion At Chemical Plant in China Killed 3 People

Anhydrous Hydrogen Chloride Leak at Bayer Plant

I read at least 16 accidents news story in July, where most of the plant accidents were fire accidents. The other reasons were chemical leakage, construction accident and falling accident. Here is the list:

Chemical Fire during the Process of Tank Cleaning

Evacuation after Toxic Ethyl Acrylate Fumes Released

Electrical Short Caused Fire at Chemical Plant

Plant Leaked, Released Strong Ammonia Smell

Flash Fire Caused One Man Died

Flash Fire Occurred at a Chemical Unloading Area, One Man Dead

Hexane Fumes Caused One Man Died

Falling Accident at Industrial Area, One Man Died

Construction Accident in Tennessee, 2 Workers Crushed

Chlorine Gas Leaked Forced Water Filtration Plant Shut Down

Wet Concrete Spilled on top of Workers at a Construction Site

Ammonia Leak from a Chemical Plant Caused a Woman Died

Chloro-benzene Explosion Killed 7 Workers in China

A Pressurized 55-gallon Drum of Cleaner Exploded

2 Workers Injured When Glycerin-Sulfuric Acid Mix Sparked Blast

Steam Cracker Exploded during Shut Down Process