Global Incident Awareness Can Save Lives

Two strikingly similiar pictures, two different countries, yet the explosive effects in these storage tanks were basically the same in the liquor pulping recovery process. In both catastrophic incidents fatalities occurred at corrugated packaging manufacturing facilities. The incident in France happened this month and the other in Wisconsin back in 2008, which the Chemical Safety Board is currently investigating. As a result of the Wisconsin incident CSB issued a March 2010 Safety Bulletin on Hazards of Welding and other Hot Work.

Christian Bourdon, the contract worker from Saint-Aubin, France died unnecessarily in the hospital as a result of injuries sustained from the explosion while doing hot work on the storage tank. Don't know if Christian or others in the global workforce had a chance to read the educational CSB bulletin. Incident investigations determining root cause and safety bulletins are great if the information is being received by OHS professionals then passed on to the workforce. Yet it is difficult to understand why repeatable catastrophic incidents are occurring when information is abundant concerning the hazards. Providing examples of these two incidents is even harder to grasp since the manufacturing and storage process were the same.

It is unacceptable that life-saving information resides securely within national borders when occupational health and safety is a global concern. In contrast global financial markets send and receive data real-time. So is the value of the buck of more importance than human life?

Resources
Paper & Pulp Mill Process Magnetrol International

Hot Work Adjacent to Explosive Atmospheres

http://www.wiscnews.com/bdc/news/466035

Initially when reading the recent news account of a worker that ignited flammable vapors causing an explosion while using a hand grinder to cut bolts embedded in the floor, it had not donned on me the gravity of the situation. That was until Jeffrey C. Nichols, President, South East Fire Prevention, Inc sent me an email this morning reminding me it could also happen with combustible dust. That is true, combustible dust provides explosive atmospheres just like flammable gases, vapors, liquids, and mists.

In many instances combustible dust related fires and explosions have occurred due to hot work providing the ignition source. One news account mentions that there was a sign adjacent to work area, that the area was hazardous. The same sort of warning signage should also be in areas where combustible dust is generated. In the EU, the ATEX directives have a provision for such signage. In the USA an OSHA combustible dust rulemaking is in the process and hopefully a provision of warning signage in communicating the risk from combustible dust explosions or fires will be included in the combustible dust rulemaking.

It is essential that prior to any hot work being conducted that a job hazard analysis be conducted evalauting the risk from potential fires and explosion. This ensures that a hot work permit includes all the potential ignition and fuel sources in managing the risk.