Powdery Hazard

WORKPLACE SAFETY

To prevent industrial explosions from combustible dusts, material safety data sheets (MSDSs) need to include dust hazard information, commenters told the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) last week.

At a CSB hearing on June 22, board Chairman Carolyn W. Merritt called dust explosions "a serious industrial safety problem" that is preventable. Three separate catastrophic dust explosions in 2003 that killed 14 people and injured 81 spurred the board to scrutinize this hazard.

Industrial dust explosions in the U.S. have had three things in common, said Angela Blair, CSB's lead investigator. One is that the MSDSs for the materials that have started fires inadequately describe dust hazards, if they are mentioned at all. Another is a lack of awareness of dust hazards at every level of a company's workforce, from managers to line workers, with people disbelieving that dusts can detonate. A third is the presence of inconsistent fire codes throughout the U.S. and uneven enforcement of those codes, Blair said.

Several speakers at the hearing suggested an MSDS expansion to include information about the ability of a material to catch fire as dust, even if the material is sold as a large mass or wet product. Speakers also warned that this information may not be easily communicated because the hazard that a dust poses depends on the size of the particles.

Thomas F. Hoppe, director of process safety at Ciba Specialty Chemicals, said his company views training about dust hazards for its employees and customers as part of its product stewardship under the chemical industry's Responsible Care program.

CSB is studying combustible dust incidents in the U.S. manufacturing sector since 1980 and expects to issue a report in mid-2006.