Combustibles and Flammables


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Combustibles and Flammables

Subtopics:

Combustibles
Compressed Gases
Flammables
Welding, Cutting, and Brazing

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Trainer's Handbook: Safe Work Practices for Lead-Acid Battery Charging Can Prevent Explosions and Burns
January 2012
There are a lot of ways to be injured or killed around forklifts: Workers can be run over, impaled, crushed by falling loads, or crushed when the forklift rolls over. . . . more »

Process Safety: NTSB Issues Final Report on San Bruno Pipeline Explosion; Past and Present Practices Combined to Create Disaster
November 2011
Just after 6 p.m. on Sept. 9, 2010, a natural gas transmission pipeline owned and operated by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) ruptured in San Bruno, leaving a crater 72 feet long by 26 feet wide. The resulting fire destroyed 38 homes, damaged 70 more, and killed eight people. . . . more »

Online Exclusive: Permit Checklist for Pressurized Tanks
COCA Online Exclusive October 2011
Boilers, compressed air tanks, and liquified petroleum gas tanks, which are widely used in and out of the workplace, are so common that they attract little notice. But employers should take note of them: the tanks are regulated by California's Unfired Pressure Vessel Safety Orders, which require most of these tanks to be inspected and have a state-issued permit to operate. . . . more »

Trainer's Handbook: Prevent Flash Fire Injuries by Recognizing Hazardous Conditions
September 2011
Welder Adrian Flores was setting up his equipment 12 feet underground in December 2010 at a public works project in Montebello when he dropped an electrode holder. As the electrode holder landed, it sparked, igniting a methane flash fire that severely burned Flores. . . . more »

Featured Resource: Dust Off This Combustible Dust Checklist
September 2011
It can obscure your vision and clog your nose and throat. It can coat surfaces, making signage hard to read and contaminating materials. But dust poses another serious hazard, too--it can explode. And materials you might not ordinarily think of as fire hazards, such as foodstuffs, can be extremely hazardous when they are present as dust. . . . more »

Hazard Identification: Federal OSHA National Emphasis Program to Address Hazards of Primary Metals Manufacturing
August 2011
In a recent review of workplace injury and fatality statistics, one industry leaped out at federal OSHA: the primary metals industry, a group of manufacturing facilities in SIC group 33 that perform metal smelting and refining. Of the 20 industries reporting the highest numbers of nonfatal injuries and illnesses, five were in the primary metals group, and more than one-quarter of all cases of elevated blood lead levels occurred in this industry segment. . . . more »

Hazardous Chemicals: San Bruno Pipeline Explosion Leads to Urgent Safety Recommendations from NTSB
March 2011
Jessica Morales and Joseph Ruigomez were watching a football game at Ruigomez' home on Sept. 9, 2010. Arturo Vasquez was fixing himself a snack in the kitchen of his own house, not far away. Jacqueline and Janessa Grieg were waiting for family members to return for evening activities that had been planned. Like the other residents of the Crestmoor neighborhood in San Bruno, they were all caught completely by surprise just after 6 p.m., when disaster struck. . . . more »

Welding: Revisions to State Fire Prevention and Suppression Procedure Requirements Incorporate New Consensus Standards
December 2010
The easiest way to prevent fires in any workplace is to eliminate heat and ignition sources--if there are no open flames, the chance of fire is substantially reduced. But what about jobs like welding that unavoidably involve an ignition source? When you're dealing with welding, cutting, and other "hot work" operations, the presence of a powerful ignition source means that other protections against fire must be put into place. . . . more »

Explosives: Cal/OSHA Clarifies Requirements for the Restricted Zone; Who Can Be Where, And When, During Blasting
October 2010
An alert Cal/OSHA inspector was driving along a public road in 2001 when he spotted an air drill lying near the roadway. The inspector recognized it as a tool used to drill blasting holes and wondered why it was so close to the road. When he stopped to check it out, he discovered that blasting holes were indeed drilled in the area--one of them was closer than 33 feet from the road. . . . more »

Fire Prevention: NFPA Identifies Causes of Industrial and Manufacturing Structure Fires; Fireproof Your Facility
October 2010
No employees were present when a fire broke out at the Naumes gourmet fruit-packing facility in Yuba County, north of Sacramento, on a Friday night this past June. Workers were out on a temporary layoff between the end of the Rainier cherry-packing season and the beginning of the pear-packing season. . . . more »

Hazard Identification: Food for Thought; Food Production Facilities Find Themselves on High Hazard Industries List
August 2010
Although both working conditions and sanitation have improved since the days when Upton Sinclair detailed the horrors of Chicago's meatpacking industry in his 1906 novel The Jungle, food processing and manufacturing facilities still pose serious hazards to workers . . . more »

Hazard Identification: Preventing Catastrophic Pressure Vessel Failures; Beware of These Dangerous Situations
February 2010
On June 11, 2008, an operator at the Goodyear rubber manufacturing plant in southeast Houston, Texas, was running steam through the process tubes of a heat exchanger unit as part of a cleaning operation. The steam heated residual anhydrous ammonia that was present in the exchanger's shell, but . . . more »

Combustible Dust: Federal OSHA Takes First Step Toward Combustible Dust Rule
January 2010
Since 1980, more than 130 American workers have been killed and more than 780 have been injured in combustible dust explosions, federal OSHA has found. The agency considered the problem serious enough that, since October 2007 . . . more »

Bulletin: CSB releases bulletin on risks of gas purging
December 2009
CSB releases bulletin on risks of gas purging. In a new safety bulletin, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is urging companies, gas installers, and contractors to follow safe practices during gas p . . . more »

Hazardous Chemicals: Mishandling Pyrophoric Chemicals Kills Lab Research Assistant; Chemical Safety Recommendations from CA-FACE
October 2009
The University of California at Los Angeles was on Christmas break, and most university offices were closed on Dec. 29, 2008, when 23-year-old research assistant Sheharbano Sangji--Sheri, to her friends--was working in a biochemistry lab. The university allows its researchers to continue operating during breaks . . . more »

Trainer's Handbook: Lower the BOOM on Injuries by Training Workers Who Handle Explosives
September 2009
It wasn't much of a Fourth of July celebration this year on Okracoke Island, North Carolina--not after four people were killed, one was seriously injured, and two more suffered minor injuries when a fireworks truck . . . more »

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