Industrial Fire Prevention

From our friends at: Donaldson Overview Help Prevent and Protect Against Combustible Dust In manufacturing facilities that generate or handle dust, it’s an important responsibility to manage combustion risks. When a combustible dust encounters an ignition source, there is the potential for a fire or explosion. It’s essential to have a comprehensive plan to manage and mitigate that potential risk. Many operations are subject to the requirements of NFPA Standard 652: Fundamentals of Combustible Dust, which has a dust hazard analysis (DHA) requirement due by September 7, 2020. A well-designed, maintained, and operated dust collection system is an integral part of your effort to comply with this and other standards and regulations. Donaldson can assist you in developing a strategy for the specific needs of your facility.   Strategy Here are some basic steps to get started on a mitigation plan: 1. Know your standards and codes.  Research the local, state, and federal mand...

From our friends at: Donaldson Facebook Twitter n Email Food and agricultural processors have led the manufacturing industry in combustible dust risk mitigation. Now that the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has published new editions of its standards on the risks of combustible dust, it’s a good time to review, and possibly revise your mitigation strategies. Regulatory Background Although NFPA standards are not part of federal law, they are considered industry best practices. Many municipalities adopt them in their code and OSHA inspectors sometimes reference them under the General Duty clause when citing unsafe work conditions. In food and agricultural processing, the most relevant standard is  NFPA 61, Standard for the Prevention of Fires and Dust Explosions in Agricultural and Food Processing Facilities . The latest edition of NFPA 61 requires that any existing food or agricultural processing facility with combustible or explosible dust must complete a dust hazard an...

From our friends at SonicAire: Four Ways to Manage Combustible Dust in Your Facility Whether you’re in woodworking, plastics, or another manufacturing/processing industry, combustible dust is almost a given. Today’s compliance standards require you to do something about it as well. If you let combustible dust buildup in hard-to-reach spaces, you’d better hope an OSHA inspector doesn’t show up. NFPA 652 and other industry-specific standards make it clear that it’s your responsibility to stay in compliance. Otherwise, fines will be coming your way. Standards do provide leniency in how you mitigate fugitive dust buildup in overhead and hard-to-reach spaces. The ideal solution for you may not make sense for someone else. Ultimately, you have to review the costs and risks associated and make the best decision possible. Here are four common ways facilities manage combustible dust: 1 – Capture Dust at the Source Depending upon your process an...

From our Friends at:  Dust Safety Science      In this episode of the  Dust Safety Science  podcast, we’re talking about dust explosion loss history in North America. In the last episode, we explored some of the earliest resources and regulations from North America to illustrate several interesting points about combustible dust. Today, we’re moving into loss history, with an emphasis on North America. Why is Understanding Loss History Important? Why is it important to understand loss history? The most important thing is to not forget what we already know. If you’re not learning from the past, you tend to repeat it. For example, we had a sugar and cocoa standard in 1924, but fires and explosions are still occurring in these facilities today. That’s one of the biggest reasons why understanding and keeping track of loss history is really important.  So what loss history information is actually available in North America? There are six sources we’ll be rev...

From our Friends at: SonicAire   Four Ways to Manage Combustible Dust in Your Facility Whether you’re in woodworking, plastics, or another manufacturing/processing industry, combustible dust is almost a given. Today’s compliance standards require you to do something about it as well. If you let combustible dust buildup in hard-to-reach spaces, you’d better hope an OSHA inspector doesn’t show up.  NFPA 652  and other industry-specific standards make it clear that it’s your responsibility to stay in compliance. Otherwise, fines will be coming your way. Standards do provide leniency in how you mitigate fugitive dust buildup in overhead and hard-to-reach spaces. The ideal solution for you may not make sense for someone else. Ultimately, you have to review the costs and risks associated and make the best decision possible. Here are four common ways facilities manage combustible dust: 1 – Capture Dust at the Source Depending upon your process and how you are generating dust, yo...

From: Safety and Health Magazine  https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/21720-chemical-safety-best-practices What are the best practices, and proactive measures being taken, to ensure chemical safety in the workplace? September 26, 2021   Photo: Origami Risk LLC Responding is Sean Salvas, senior market strategy lead – EHS,  Origami Risk LLC , Chicago. Chemical safety practices in the United States have been steadily expanding over the years, especially after the 2012 adoption of elements of the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals into OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (1910.1200). Notably, this action led to new hazard labeling requirements, the creation of the 16-section Safety Data Sheet format and new hazard classifications. The UN has introduced subsequent editions of GHS yet to be adopted by OSHA. However, the agency’s latest proposal to update the Hazard Communication Standard with the seventh edition ...

From our friends at: Canadian Centre for Occupational Health  and Safety https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/combustible_dust.html Combustible Dust What is a combustible dust? Essentially, a combustible dust is any fine material that has the ability to catch fire and explode when mixed with air. Combustible dusts can be from: most solid organic materials (such as sugar, flour, grain, wood, etc. ) many metals, and some nonmetallic inorganic materials. Some of these materials are not "normally" combustible, but they can burn or explode if the particles are the right size and in the right concentration. Therefore any activity that creates dust should be investigated to see if there is a risk of that dust being combustible. Dust can collect on surfaces such as rafters, roofs, suspended ceilings, ducts, crevices, dust collectors, and other equipment. When the dust is disturbed and under certain circumstances, there is the potential for a serious explosion to occur. The build...