Safety Fire and Explosion

If you are going to do a better job with motor vehicle safety, fire and explosion prevention, and violence prevention, it will be without the backing of an OSHA standard. OSHA failed in its one attempt to regulate motor vehicle safety back in the early 1990s. The agency has no standard for preventing workplace violence. Many fires and explosions are caused by combustible dust, and thus far OSHA has ignored repeated requests by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board to issue a combustible dust standard. 

Chemical safety data sheets for individual compounds should be consulted for detailed information. Precautions for the higher aldehydes are essentially those for most other reactive organic compounds, and should include adequate ventilation in areas where high exposures are expected fire and explosion precautions and proper instmction of employees in use of respiratory, eye, and skin protection. 

Methods for performing hazard analysis and risk assessment include safety review, checkhsts, Dow Fire and Explosion Index, what-if analysis, hazard and operabihty analysis (HAZOP), failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), fault tree analysis, and event tree analysis. Other methods are also available, but those given are used most often. 

Checklists. A checklist is simply a detailed Hst of safety considerations. The purpose of this Hst is to provide a reminder to safety issues such as chemical reactivity, fire and explosion hazards, toxicity, and so forth. This type of checklist is used to determine hazards, and differs from a procedure checklist which is used to ensure that the correct procedure is followed. 

The lower volatihty of JP-8 is a significant factor in the U.S. Air Force conversion from JP-4, since fires and explosions under both combat and ordinary handling conditions have been attributed to the use of JP-4. In examining the safety aspects of fuel usage in aircraft, a definitive study (15) of the accident record of commercial and military jet transports concluded that kerosene-type fuel is safer than wide-cut fuel with respect to survival in crashes, in-flight fires, and ground fueling accidents. However, the difference in the overall accident record is small because most accidents are not fuel-related. 

Tools are available to assist in comparing the risk associated with two or more different processes. For example, the first sheet of the Dow Fire and Explosion Index (FEI) (Dow, 1994b) ranks the safety characteristics of the process from a fire/explosion standpoint, without taking credit for protective and mitigation features. The Dow Chemical Exposure Index (CEI) (Dow, 1994a) and Id s Mond Index (ICI, 1985 Tyler, 1985) are other ranking tools. 

The information to be compiled about the chemicals, including process intermediates, needs to be comprehensive enough for an accurate assessment of the fire and explosion characteristics, reactivity hazards, the safety and health hazards to workers, and the corrosion and erosion effects on the process equipment and monitoring tools. Current material safety data sheet (MSDS) information can be used to help meet this requirement but must be supplemented with process chemistry information, including runaway reaction and over-pressure hazards, if applicable. 

Safety air technology, including risk assessment, that minimizes damages and hazards caused by accidents, fire, and explosion... 

Fire and explosion are much more serious events than pollution. For one thing, fire and explosion can create catastrophes that will lead to poi ludon anyway, but for another thing, they can injure people. We clearl> want to have more levels of safety (that is, a lower probability of occurrence) in the chain leading to fire or explosion than is necessary in the chain leading to pollution. That is, whatever the acceptable risk lor <.)ii pollution, a lower risk is required for fire or explosion. 

A nonprofit organization that is the authoritative source for developing standards for minimizing the possibility and effects of fire and explosion conducts fire safety programs provides information on fire protection, prevention, and suppression develops systems for prevention and suppression offire and explosions arising from hazardous substances. 

I have incorporated my 27+ years of broad industrial consulting in process design, project management, and industrial safety relating to fires and explosions as may be appUcable. 

Energy Efficient (EE) Motor Designs, 628 NEMA Design Classifications, 630 Classification According to Size, 630 Hazard Classifications Fire and Explosion, 631 Electrical Classification for Safety in Plant Layout, 647 Motor Enclosures, 649 ... 

Fire and Explosion, Dow s Safety and Loss Prevention Guide Hazard Classification and Protection, Amer. Inst. Chem. Engr., 1973. 

The approach to developing metrics for process safety is analogous to those that might be used to assess Occupational Exposure risk. One can cite as well several indices that have been developed as metrics for estimating and ranking the safety of a given process or chemical reaction, such as the DOW fire and explosion index,the Stoessel index ° for hazard assessment and classification of chemical reactions, the Inherent Safety Index, the Prototype Index for Inherent Safety, amongst others. ... 

Health and Safety Executive. The fires and explosion at BP Oil (Grangemouth) Refinery Ltd. A report of the investigations by the Health and Safety Executive into the fires and explosion at Grangemouth and Dalmeny, Scotland, 13 March, 22 March and 11 June 1987. London Her Majesty s Stationery Office. 

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