Sugar Dust Explosions

Despite years of worker deaths, explosive dust rules don't exist

Fires and explosions fueled by dust are a major industrial hazard. Many types of dust can be combustible.

A November 2006 Chemical Safety Board report described nearly 280 dust fires and explosions in U.S. industrial facilities over 25 years, resulting in 119 fatalities and more than 700 injuries.

Since then, other accidents have taken place, including the February 2008 Imperial Sugar factory explosion near Savannah, Ga., that killed 14 workers and injured 37 others . Plus, two fires in Gallatin this year that killed four employees at the Hoeganaes auto materials plant.

— G. Chambers Williams III

GALLATIN — After 17 months without a job, Eric Hulsey was thrilled to land work as a maintenance technician this spring at the Hoeganaes metals plant here.

The 29-year-old could finally put bread on the table again for his wife and two sons, 8-year-old Lane and 6-year-old Colby.

Six weeks after starting work, though, a factory fire took Hulsey’s life and left his sons without a father.

He died after an explosion that safety investigators have linked to a hydrogen gas leak and high concentrations of industrial dust they say littered the plant and made it unsafe. Hulsey was seriously injured a half-hour before his shift ended on May 27, and died five days later in a hospital.

Hulsey’s death occurred as a result of the most recent of three fires that have occurred at the GKN/Hoeganaes Corp. plant in Gallatin this year. The accidents have left four workers dead and reignited a workplace safety debate over how industry and federal regulators can control risks linked to a decades-old problem of combustible dust in the workplace.

Already considered one of the most dangerous hazards for industrial workers, explosive dust has been blamed for at least 314 accidents, 142 deaths and 834 worker injuries nationwide over the past quarter-century.

Yet despite the heavy toll on human life , there still are no comprehensive federal safety standards regulating dangerous dust at work. Accidents — and fatalities — continue to mount.

The process of writing comprehensive regulations — started by the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration in early 2009 — seems bogged down in a complicated bureaucratic process.

Under federal law, such a review involves 39 steps, years of study and a requirement that the safety agency consider not only the risks to workers’ lives, but also the cost of doing business that new rules might place on industries.

Industrial Fire Prevention: HazardEx - Dust to Dust

Dr Julian Hought of risk management specialists, HFL Risk Services, explains the hidden dangers of flour and other dry ingredients and how we can guard against potentially fatal explosions. Every year an estimated 2000 dust explosions occur in factories and refineries in Europe. There are approximately 50 reported dust explosions in the UK alone – that’s roughly one every single week. But these explosions are not solely the preserve of chemical or wood processing companies. These five factors are known as the dust explosion pentagon. Practically all organic-based dusts can explode, given the right conditions. It’s important to be aware that it is not just a question of a build-up of dust on a surface that can have devastating results. Explosions can also occur inside vessels; during storage, handling and transportation; and during any processes such as blending, milling or spray drying. By way of an example, the overfilling of a hopper with cornstarch during custard making triggered a dust explosion in 1981 at General Foods, Banbury. This created a dust cloud which was ignited by nearby electrical equipment, leaving nine men badly burnt. Thankfully there were no fatalities, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for the explosion which occurred in a grain storage complex at Société d’Exploitation Maritime Blayaise in August 1997. This killed 11 people in nearby offices and the ferocity of the explosion is comprehensible when we consider that significantly-sized debris from the explosion was found up to 100 metres from the silo. You might argue that these are examples from several years ago and that things have now changed – sadly not. Less than 3 years ago 13 workers died and 40 were hospitalised following a sugar dust explosion at the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Georgia, USA – and many more explosions occur on a smaller scale every week. In the case of Imperial Sugar, it was the secondary dust explosion caused by dust layers in the workplace (often referred to as ‘fugitive dust’) that caused the major loss. Where a workplace containing potentially flammable atmospheres exists, the employer must ensure that the overall explosion safety measures are confirmed (verified) as being safe. This must be done by a person or organisation competent to consider the particular risks in the workplace and the adequacy of the explosion control and other measures put in place.

Industrial dust explosions, Symposium on Industrial Dust Explosions : Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 10-12 June 1986

Sugar dust explosion and fire (14 killed, 36 injured), Imperial Sugar Company, Port Wentworth, Georgia, February 7, 2008

Bulletin

Dust explosions in the process industries

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