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October 19, 2011

Adding chemicals -fast or slow??

An incident occurred in UK in 2007 when an operator was adding a solid chemical to a reactor containing a liquid chemical. When they initially failed to react, he added more of the solid chemical Suddenly an uncontrolled runaway reaction occurred. A report by UK Health and Safety executive mentions the following:
 "None of the workers were in the production hall when the alarms - set off by the incident - began to ring, but one of them returned to investigate. He was driven back by the fumes and fled from the building.
The HSE investigation concluded the company had failed to adequately assess the risks of the chemical reaction and ensure that suitable control measures were in place. It also found the employee had not received adequate training, instruction and supervision on the operating procedures, and did not appreciate the danger of increasing the quantity of the chemical".

Read the full report in this link.

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