Refinery explosion

[Egon]

YouTube - CSB Safety Video: Anatomy of a Disaster

This is a video about a Refinery Explosion in Texas. Some might find it interesting.

It may also make one think about being near a refinery.

 

[tallyho8]

This is one of the largest fears that I have living on the River Road. There is a lot of industry upriver from me and there were two leaks in two days last week.

Cytec is about 2 miles from me and they had a large ammonia leak that you instantly noticed the second you stepped outdoors. Luckily it dissapated in a few hours.

The next day Dow (Union Carbide) which is about 15 or 20 miles upriver had a leak that stunk like he77 and they refused to identify it for hours. I guess they had to consult with their legal department first to find out what to say. Then they said it was such a minor leak that it posed no hazard. Of course, the police that had the road blocked off around the area were all wearing gas masks. They could smell this "minor" leak 30 miles away.

Visions of Bhopal India were floating through our minds as we recalled that dreadful day 25 years ago that Union Carbide had a leak of "unidentified" gas there that instantly killed 10,000 people and injured 500,000 more.

Later that day they identified this gas as Ethyl Acrylate, naturally claiming that it was too low of a concentration to cause harm even though it is a suspected carcinogen.

The nuclear plant about 30 miles away has sirens all around to notify people of an emergency but the chemical plants do their best to keep it a secret if they have a spill and only tell what they are forced to reveal.

 

[dmccarty]

TallyHo,

Ye might want to book mark this link to the ERG.

Emergency Response Guidebook 2008 - CANUTEC - Transport Canada

For some reason its a Canadian website but I got there from the US DOT site. Anywho the ERG book is for first responders who come across incidents with chemicals. The book allows one to quickly find out the proper response to a chemical incident based on the name of the chemical or its placard/ID number. The placard/ID number is the four digit number seen on buildings, trucks, and rail cards that identify the chemical carried. The placards are also color coded for instance orange is for explosives and red is for flammables.

Looking up Ethyl Acrylate has an ID number of 1917 is in Guide 129p. "P" indicates the substance can blow up if heated.

Guide 129P - Emergency Response Guidebook 2008 - CANUTEC - Transport Canada

For large spills down wind evacation of at LEAST 1000 feet. If the spill is on fire the the evacuations would be 800 meters or about one half mile.

The book is also published as a small paperback. A Junior/Community College with law enforcement or fire fighting classes should have the book. Its "interesting" to carry the ERG in your vehicle and see what is traveling down the roads and railroads. One of the worse trucks to see are the ones gonig to Wallyworld, Target, and hardware stores. They have all sorts of "fun" stuff being carried but you really don't know what is on board from the placard. The driver SHOULD have a list.....

Given your larger neighbors this book/link might come in handy.

Later,
Dan

 

[LBrown59]

This is one of the largest fears that I have living on the River Road. There is a lot of industry upriver from me and there were two leaks in two days last week.

1*Cytec is about 2 miles from me and they had a large ammonia leak that you instantly noticed the second you stepped outdoors. Luckily it dissapated in a few hours.


2*The next day Dow (Union Carbide) which is about 15 or 20 miles upriver had a leak that stunk like he77 and they refused to identify it for hours. I guess they had to consult with their legal department first to find out what to say. Then they said it was such a minor leak that it posed no hazard. Of course, the police that had the road blocked off around the area were all wearing gas masks. They could smell this "minor" leak 30 miles away.

Visions of Bhopal India were floating through our minds as we recalled that dreadful day 25 years ago that Union Carbide had a leak of "unidentified" gas there that instantly killed 10,000 people and injured 500,000 more.

Later that day they identified this gas as Ethyl Acrylate, naturally claiming that it was too low of a concentration to cause harm even though it is a suspected carcinogen.

The nuclear plant about 30 miles away has sirens all around to notify people of an emergency but the chemical plants do their best to keep it a secret if they have a spill and only tell what they are forced to reveal.

1*I grew up from the day I was born about 300 or 400 yards away from Cytec.
This was 1940 to 1964.

2*I worked at the Union Carbide plant here from 1964 to 1966.
It was where I worked when My wife and I got married in 1964.

 

[tallyho8]

TallyHo,

Ye might want to book mark this link to the ERG.

Emergency Response Guidebook 2008 - CANUTEC - Transport Canada

For some reason its a Canadian website but I got there from the US DOT site. Anywho the ERG book is for first responders who come across incidents with chemicals. The book allows one to quickly find out the proper response to a chemical incident based on the name of the chemical or its placard/ID number. The placard/ID number is the four digit number seen on buildings, trucks, and rail cards that identify the chemical carried. The placards are also color coded for instance orange is for explosives and red is for flammables.

Looking up Ethyl Acrylate has an ID number of 1917 is in Guide 129p. "P" indicates the substance can blow up if heated.

Guide 129P - Emergency Response Guidebook 2008 - CANUTEC - Transport Canada

For large spills down wind evacation of at LEAST 1000 feet. If the spill is on fire the the evacuations would be 800 meters or about one half mile.

The book is also published as a small paperback. A Junior/Community College with law enforcement or fire fighting classes should have the book. Its "interesting" to carry the ERG in your vehicle and see what is traveling down the roads and railroads. One of the worse trucks to see are the ones gonig to Wallyworld, Target, and hardware stores. They have all sorts of "fun" stuff being carried but you really don't know what is on board from the placard. The driver SHOULD have a list.....

Given your larger neighbors this book/link might come in handy.

Later,
Dan

Thanks Dan for the link.

However, if I see a chemical truck or train turned over, belching gases and foul smelling fumes, the last thing I am going to do is go get close enough to it to see the placard so I will know what I am breathing. I will be heading the opposite direction with the pedal to the metal.

 

[tallyho8]

1*I grew up from the day I was born about 300 or 400 yards away from Cytec.
This was 1940 to 1964.

2*I worked at the Union Carbide plant here from 1964 to 1966.
It was where I worked when My wife and I got married in 1964.

Has this caused you any possible side effects?

 

[Chuck K.]

YouTube - CSB Safety Video: Anatomy of a Disaster

This is a video about a Refinery Explosion in Texas. Some might find it interesting.

It may also make one think about being near a refinery.

I work right across the fence for the BP refinery. I was off the day of the explosion, and had just recently resigned from the volunteer fire crew.

The series of events that lead to that explosion, well I really cant put into words, a lot of things fell into right place at the wrong time. The Houston Chronicle had an ongoing section dedicated to this horrific event.

I wont go into any other details, It was truely a horrible disaster where 15 lives where lost, may they rest in peace..

 

[LBrown59]

Has this caused you any possible side effects?

Strange you should ask and it's not.

1*In 1980 My dad died of brain and lung cancer at age 65.
2*My mother developed breast cancer.
3*I myself was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005.
4*A next door neighbor to my parents died from cancer
5*My uncle who lived across the street died in 2000 from brain cancer.
6*My dads cousin and his
7*wife died in the early 90s from cancer.
They lived about 3 doors up the street from mom and dad.
8*A neighborhood boy that I grew up with and paled around with died of colon cancer a few years ago at the age of only 55.
We were always told that the emissions and smells emitted from Cytec were harmless.
But 8 cases of canecr in such a small community can raise suspicions.

 

[Egon]

I know one case where the community downwind of a group of Hydrocarbon and Chemical facilities has an above average rate for illness.

It made it into the news for several days.
The next news seemed to indicate that the methods used to calculate the illness rate were not accurate??? The air quality downwind was also within limits! Yup OK

It seems someone somewhere is going to have to pay the price for many of the items we make.

 

[Wis Bang]

Later that day they identified this gas as Ethyl Acrylate, naturally claiming that it was too low of a concentration to cause harm even though it is a suspected carcinogen.

Acrylates [butyl, ethyl, methyl] are some of the stinkiest things out there. These are the monomers used to make acrylic plastics. They are also a source of alot of odor complaints as the health department used to tell us.

We always had a hard time cleaning trailers that transported this stuff until a chemist developed a solution that chemically reacted w/ the residual to kill the smell.

The stuff was $300.00 for a 5 gal pail!

It was use it or suffer fines the next time the health dept. came around. Our customers were glad to pay the price as alot of places could not clean this stuff due to prior odor complaint problems...only took a cupfull per trailer wash.

End users had problems too; one place in Mass used to pump us off while returning the vapors to the trailer [closed loop] cause they had this neighbor who had the EPA on speed dial. A 'little old lady' who wouldn't accept ANY amount to sell out and move and she had a great sense of smell...and called the EPA at the slightest whif...

When we'd get some smell at work it always bothered the ladies in the office first. We always had a 'mask' mixed up in spray bottles either Bubble Gum or Goofy Grape to spray around the stairwells, etc.

 

[dmccarty]

However, if I see a chemical truck or train turned over, belching gases and foul smelling fumes, the last thing I am going to do is go get close enough to it to see the placard so I will know what I am breathing. I will be heading the opposite direction with the pedal to the metal.

And that is very wise. Just remember to stay uphill and upwind. If you hear a report that the refinery has a spill of blah blah blah then you can look it up and decide if you should stay put or run like heck.

We used to live next to a very active rail line with lots of tank traffic. Not more than a 1/2 mile to the house. I'm very happy to not live there any more. The next town over, about a mile or two away, had a hazardous material refuse company. The companies buildings caught on fire a few years back and a good part of the town had to evacuate. They stopped the evacuation just short of my old subdivision. Nobody paid attention to the company. Until after the fire.

Haz Mat is all over the place. Its on trains, trucks, at Walmart, Lowes, heck some of it is in the garage. Hopefully not alot is in the garage though.

A propane truck having an accident can be a very bad thing. There is a quarry south of us and I see the truck with the orange placard heading their way from time to time. Said truck is full of stuff made to go boom. And I would bet that only 1 person out of 100 that passes that boom truck know what is in that truck. Otherwise they migtht pass the truck more carefully but I bet faster.

Later,
Dan

 

[Wis Bang]

Initial first responder training chapter one is 'Binoculars & Tennis Shoes" or how to read a placard safely b/4 employing the running shoes...Thankfully most states now have 'first responder' training [HAZWOPPER] which defines who should be the one w/ the binoculars and gives them the training to do so safely.

Most people have no idea what the HM placards mean though the information is readily available. Explosives are divided into 6 sub sections and 1.1, 1.2, & 1.3 [the worst] all require a written routing plan, and a Hazardous Materials Safety Permit which requires the 'max' liability insurance [$5 million] and a satisfactory safety rating. Same regulations apply to radioactives and toxics [poisons] with inhallation hazards.

The problem w/ Haz Mat is the fact that it is so important to our modern society and the fact that it is everywhere. I can't begin to describe the number of shipments off '1,2,3,Kill You Quick' that I have sent down the highways.

We hauled drummed products in stainless steel drums that looked capable of surviving a neculear blast. Before opening the doors, the driver had to crack one and take a measured air sample thru a dragger tube and add a reagent to make sure that the product [odorless and looks like water] wasn't in the atmosphere inside the van. If it was he was expected to suit up in level B w/ SCBA and enter the trailer w/ epoxy sticks to stop the leak...you may be driving alongside him!

 

[Tig]

...within limits!

Whenever I see that disclaimer I understand it to mean "Legal Limits" as opposed to any measure of what my human body can tolerate.

 

[Egon]

When we'd get some smell at work it always bothered the ladies in the office first, as well as limp-wristed 'wes'. My boss called it fag detector. We always had a 'mask' mixed up in spray bottles either Bubble Gum or Goofy Grape to spray around the stairwells, etc.

I can recall fellows saying that after years of working around H2S gas they had become immune to it. Don't think they ever knew that the ability to detect odors was one of the first senses disabled by H2S!

Also knew fellows who said asbestos fibers did not bother them!

Them were sure some tough old boys !

 

[GreenLawnFarm]

too many people just deciding to take personal time and leave work when they want. sounds like the supervisors need a supervisor.