Industrial Fire Prevention

Another good article from our friends at Farr on OSHA REQUIREMENTS and MANUFACTURERS RESPONSIBILITIES for COMBUSTIBLE DUST , DUST COLLECTORS and dust collection systems. The biggest misconception among manufacturers is that OSHA is just presenting them with a guideline, not with something they have to do. The fact is, OSHA is beefing up enforcement of safety measures on several fronts, and combustible dust has become one of the top priorities since the agency re-issued its National Emphasis Program (NEP) on this topic in March 2008. Under the OSHA NEP, manufacturers are required to follow applicable NFPA standards including the revamped NFPA 68 Standard on Explosion Protection by Deflagration Venting , which provides mandatory requirements for dust collection applications involving explosive dusts. Sometimes other safety standards such as Factory Mutual may be applied instead, but these are no less stringent than NFPA and all are treated as legal code by nearly every town ...

This article written for Security Shredding and Storage News talks about Fire Safety for the Secure Shredding Industry.  If you have combustible dust - we can help. I saw this posted on John Astad's (Combustible Dust Policy Institute) Facebook page:   Tom Andel, columnist and blogger for Modern Materials Handling (mmh.com), and a contributor to Logistics Management, shares with readers preventing and mitigating fire potential in a shredding operation.   Understanding the Dangers of Combustible Dust www.sssnews.com Security Shredding & Storage News

Collecting and Testing Dust Knowing dust characteristics facilitates ventilation equipment selection By Lee Morgan, Farr APC In 1998, both the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) issued more stringent requirements relating to the use of respirators in plants. Though respirators are critical to shielding workers from ambient dust and fumes, they are not the total answer. The new OSHA standard (29 CFR 1910.134) states that employers are expected to use engineering controls to protect workers from air contaminants and not rely on respirators alone. While respirators do a good job of protecting workers' lungs, they do nothing to safeguard machinery and process areas from contamination that may result in costly equipment failure, constant rework, or general cleaning nuisances. The equipment currently used in fabricating plants has reached a new level of sophistication. High-definition plasma cutters, ...