Dust is an explosion hazard.
By Seth Borenstein
AP Science Writer February 8, 2008
Top federal safety officials urged the Labor Department in 2006 to adopt critical regulations to prevent deadly dust explosions– like the one suspected in the deadly blast in a Georgia sugar plant Thursday - but the government failed to do so.
In the past 28 years, about 300 dust explosions have killed more than 120 workers and injured several hundred others in sugar plants, food processors, and many industrial and wood manufacturers. Most are preventable by removing fine-grain dust as it builds up, experts say.
“This is an extremely dangerous component that is not regulated,” former safety board chairwoman Carolyn Merritt told The Associated Press Friday. Dust explosion situations “are so dangerous that people have got to pay attention to this. There should be an outcry.”
Miniscule dust particles-the smaller the more explosive-often form clouds in enclosed places like manufacturing plants or sugar mills. These clouds are the perfect fuel for a fire that can be set off by any spark or form of ignition. The first explosion kicks up more dust and even more and bigger explosions follow in rapid succession, said C. James Dahn, president of Safety Consulting Engineers of Schaumburg, IL, and an expert on the topic.
“The biggest problem we have in plants is that people are not aware of the amount of dust that’s in their plant,” Dahn said. “I’ve walked into plants where dust is nearly half a foot deep and people are saying, ‘It’s just dust, we don’t worry about it.’ They did when it blew the plant apart. Dust can be an explosive hazard.”
Dust explosions have been around for more than a century, including a sugar mill explosion in Chicago in 1890 that killed 11 people. In 1985, OSHA officials told Congress that powdered sugar and other food dust “are considered to be ‘strong’ explosion hazards.” Just last year downtown Baltimore was rocked when a Domino sugar refinery had a dust explosion. Three major explosions at a variety of plants in 2003 prompted the safety board to study the issue and make its recommendations.
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