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April 28, 2017

Fire in ammonia plant in Europe

News coming in of a fire in a compressor house of an ammonia plant in Europe.No one was injured It is reported to be an oil fire but has caused extensive damage. Investigations in progress.
Read an article by FAI "Causes of downtime in Ammonia Urea plants in this link.

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April 27, 2017

Thermal decomposition incident

At approximately 9:15 p.m., in a sealant adhesive manufacturing plant, a mixer producing an epoxy adhesive overheated causing thermal decomposition. The smoke from the mixer filled most of a 3000 sq. ft. production room. The Fire alarm was pulled by an operator outside of the production room. The fire department arrived on scene and took control as Incident Command and called for a shelter-in-place of surrounding neighborhood. Initially, about a 4-block radius around plant was blocked to any traffic. By about 10:20pm, the fire department reduced the blocked off area to only the plant perimeter. A representative from the Emergency Response section responded to the scene and verified that there were no chemical release issues.
The fire department relieved pressure off the mixer and then set up additional exhaust fans to air out the production room, and after getting readings of less than 10 parts per million Carbon Monoxide the Fire Department gave the all-clear, which was about 12am. There was no explosion, no fire and no environmental release and the fire department did not use any extinguishing agents. 

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April 24, 2017

How technology prevented a major aviation accident

The Times of India paper dated 20.4.17 carries an article of a near miss incident involving two planes with hundreds of passengers that came less than nine kilometres and roughly 15 seconds from each other over Varanasi before the ACAS (Airborne Collision Avoidance System) sounded an alarm and told the pilots what to do. It appears that one of the planes decended more than what he was told to do and thus allegedly caused the near miss. The incident is under invetsigation.
However the role that technology played in avoiding a disaster is highlighted in the incident. The ACAS, automatically scans for other planes that are in a collision course and warns pilots to take timely evasive action. The ACAS systems in each plane talk to each other and order one plane to descend and another to ascend, thus preventing a collision.

 
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April 20, 2017

"In Europe we have the best safety standards in the world don’t we? An illuminating visit in India suggested why we can perhaps learn from them"

Dr R.K.Sharma, who is General Manager,HSE at India Glycols and whom I admire as a very experienced and innovative safety professional sent this news item. Makes interesting reading!
“In Europe we have the best safety standards in the world don’t we? An illuminating visit in India suggested why we can perhaps learn from them.....”
Martin Lill | Apr 6, 2017
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/europe-we-have-best-safety-standards-world-dont-visit-martin-lill
 
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April 19, 2017

Accident during pumping of hazardous chemicals

 Accident during pumping of hazardous chemicals

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April 15, 2017

CCPS Process Safety Vision 2020

 CCPS Process Safety Vision 2020


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April 11, 2017

Hot liquid sulphur splash incident

 Hot liquid sulphur splash incident

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April 3, 2017