US.CHEMICAL SAFETY BOARD

Please consider visiting the US Chemical Safety Board s website for the latest information on nitrogen hazards and a wealth of other topics. For the video you can use the CSB site or check YouTube https /Avww.youtube.com/watch v=f2ItJe2Incs... 

Photo Courtesy of the US Chemical Safety Board s Video Tesoro Tragedy - Behind the Curve October 28,2014. 

This was a tragic incident. The politics and passion suirounding this event blur the presentation of facts. Fnrthermoie, I am unsure we have the correct shading of all of the facts in some of the reports. There is at least two different views the immediate primary canse (sabotage or inadeqnate maintenance). It is a shame that there is not an independent board within Veneznela that could bring all of the facts forward like a US Chemical Safety Board or the British HSL. Feel free to check any of the references or other reports to draw yonr own conclusions. To me, the reconunendations of the COENER investigation seem to be comprehensive and credible. 

US Chemical Safety Board. Dangers of hot work a 14 minute video produced and distributed, June 2010. 

A recent British publication reports that flexible hoses account for about 10% of all the 718 loss of containment incidents that were reported and they studied in an 11 year period. The next chapter will provide details from that British study, along with two case histories from the US Chemical Safety Board and a number of case histories, which could have also been reported as one-minute modifications. The present chapter will highhght a faulty one-minute type hose repair, which resulted in a fierce fire. 

US Chemical Safety Board. Investigation report - chlorine release - DPC enterprises, LP, Festus, Missouri, Report No. 2002-04-I-MO, May 2003. 

US Chemical Safety Board. Investigation report E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co., Inc. -Belle, West Virginia - phosgene release January 23,2010-Report No. 2010-6-I-WV. 

Show videos from the US Chemical Safety Board... 

The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has developed a series of videos to enhance safety in the process indnstries. Some of these videos are gnt wrenching. All are well done - and can be obtained free of charge. Presenting selected videos to all employees associated with those potential situations increases vulnerability awareness. Cnrrently, over four dozen of these videos are available to download or can be ordered in a two-volume set. 

This fourth edition was developed after my retirement from industry and into the part-time consultant business. Today there are so many additional resources. The introductory chapter has been rejuvenated and reinforced with today s statistics. There are four new chapters. I was able to get help from the Mary Kay O Cormor Process Safety Center (College Station, Texas), supporters of the Lake Area Industries/ McNeese University Engineering (Lake Charles, Louisiana) Partnership, the US Chemical Safety Board case studies, and the Btmcefield Investigation reports. There was also some excellent additions of material from the Beacon - a monthly feature of the Center for Chemical Process Safety. 

The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board investigated an accident at the Morton Specialty Chemical Company in 1998. Evaluate the board s recommendations, and break them down into three layers of recommendations. See http //www.chemsafety. gov/. 

David Heller, US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board... 

Most credible initiating events and their fi equencies can be gathered either from the company s incidents library or from agencies such as CSB (Chemical Safety Board in US), CIMAH (Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards in US), COMAH (Control of Major Accident Hazards in UK), European Seveso H Directive and HSE (Health and Safety Executive in UK). 

US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Investigation Report - Hydrogen Sulfide Poisoning. US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board Report No. 2002-01-I-AL, January 2003. 

The US Chemical Safety and Hazards Investigation Board Declares Sweeping Recommendations - Which May Change the Way We Do Business. 

US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Management of change. Safety Bulletin No. 2001-04-SB, August 2001, http //www.chemsafety.gov/buUetms/2001/ moc082801.pdf... 

Investigation Report Refinery expbsion and fire, BP Texas City Report 2005-04-1 -TX US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board 2007 http //www.csb.gov/assets/document/CSBFinalReportBP.pdf... 

BP s own reports during the years immediately before the accident reported multiple safety system deficiencies, and included the following comments and statements (as detailed in the report by the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board) ... 

The BOP was eventually recovered from the seabed and taken to NASA s Mi-choud facility in New Orleans for forensic examination, initially by DNV, a major consultancy. DNV s report was published one year after the accident. Four years after the accident, in June 2014, the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Evaluation Board (the CSB) pubhshed another extremely detailed report on the failure of the BOP. There were three main findings. 

Investigation Report (Vol. 1 and 2 and Appendices 2A and 2B), Explosion and Fire at the Macondo Well, US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, June 2014, downloadable at http //www.csb.gov/macondo-blowout-and-explosion/ which also contains an excellent 11 minute video explaining the failure of the blow-out preventer, accessible at https //www.youtube.com/watch v=FCVCOWejlag. 

To demonstrate exactly how the interpretation and classification of the data was performed, a heat exchanger rupture followed by an ammonia release, which occurred in a Tyre Rubber Factory, will be scrutinised on Table 2. This is based on the study case publication from the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (2011). 

US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board 2011. Case Study2008-06-I-TXHeat exchanger rupture and ammonia release in Houston, Texas. Washington, DC CSB Publications. 

In 1990, the US Clean Air Act authorized the creation of an independent Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), but it did not become operational until 1998. Its role, as defined by 40 CFR Part 1600, is to solely investigate chemical incidents to determine the facts, conditions, and circumstances which led up to the event and to identify the cause, probable cause or causes so that similar chemical incidents might be prevented. Its mandate is significantly different than a regulatory enforcement body, as it does not limit the investigation to only determine if there was a violation of an enforceable requirement, but to determine the cause or the causes of an incident. An assumption stated in the overview for the CSB is that it estimated that annually there would be 330 catastrophic incidents and of these, between 10 and 15 would be major catastrophic incidents with life loss. This is an alarming prediction for the industry and clearly indicates some improvement is needed. 

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