Airgas Plant Explosion: Safety Measures and Incident Report Analysis

This report examines the 2016 Airgas plant explosion in Florida, caused by the overheating of a pump transferring nitrous oxide. The incident resulted in a worker's death and injuries, leading to penalties from OSHA. The report details the incident, its impact on employee health, and safety measure...Read More

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Hazardous substance
shipping and accidents
Courts and their views on public policing, private security

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Background
• Airgas, Inc. is the leading distributor of industrial and health-
specific gases in the United States.
• The plant faced a deadly explosion in 2016, causing death to a
worker and injuries to many.
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration penalized
Airgas with $21000 for the failure to provide a safe workplace
to the workers ("Report: Lacking safety measures led to fatal
Airgas blast", 2017).
• This presentation will discuss the reasons that caused the
incident and the impact of it on the workers.

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Summary of the incident
• On Sunday, August 28, 2016, at 12:10 pm, in the Cantonment
area of Florida, a truck loaded with nitrous oxide exploded at
the Airgas’s chemical manufacturing plant ("Investigations
CSB", 2016).
• It was reported that there was a pump to transfer Nitrous oxide
gas to the shipment trailer and the amount of heat supplied by
the pump to the gas was beyond the safe operating limit and a
dangerous chemical reaction took place.
• The blast was caused due to overheating of the pump during
the transfer of nitrous oxide gas (Healy, 2017).
• In the blast, one of the Airgas employees died while working
at the facility at that time.
• After the blast production of nitrous oxide in the plant was
stopped for an indefinite period.

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Impact on the health of employees and
safeguard
• As per the final report, one Airgas employee died in the trailer
blast.
• To avoid accidents and loss of life of workers working with
nitrous oxide, measures that can be adopted by the company as
per the Environment Health and Safety Guidelines, referred
below;
1. Using proper visible pictures for labeling, marking and
placards in cases of shipment for the hazardous substances.
2. Wearing a nasal mask and protective clothing is a must for
workers (Boiano, Steege, & Sweeney, 2017).

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Impact on the health of employees and
safeguard
3. Workers should attend a proper training program to
understand the danger associated with the chemicals they are
working with.
4. Use of the right equipment like pipes and fittings in
transferring or producing hazardous products.
5. Proper inspection of pipe and tubes regularly.
6. Any reactive, flammable materials must be stored in isolation
so that it does not create unnecessary reactions.
7. Prepare a proper plan for the management of hazardous
material complying with the EHS/FS guidelines.

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Identification of Nitrous oxide (hazard class,
description, labels, markings, and placards)
• Nitrous oxide is the base metal of nitrogen with the formula N.
O.
• In the case of the shipping of nitrous oxide gas, it is labeled as
non-flammable as per the transport guidelines (Hakeem et al.,
2016).
• Nitrous oxide shipped in cylinder or valve.

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Identification of Nitrous oxide (hazard class,
description, labels, markings, and placards)
• Nitrous oxide falls within hazard class 2.2 Non-flammable
compressed gas ("Data Sheet", 2017).
• In case of explosion due to Nitrous oxide, it is necessary to
isolate the are within 800 meter range as per DOT standard

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Identification of Nitrous oxide (hazard
class, description, labels, markings, and
placards)
• As per the guidelines of the National Institute of Occupational
Health and safety, recommended exposure of Nitrous oxide
limit is 25 ppm on average (Zaffina et al., 2019).
• As per the guidelines of the American Conference of
Governmental Industrial Hygienists, recommended exposure
of Nitrous oxide limit is 50ppm on average.

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Labeling guidelines of Nitrous oxide for shipping

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DOT on transporting toxic substances
In cases of Hazardous material transportation mandatory information as per DOT guidelines are
as follows;
• Information about the shipping material as per 29 CFR 1910.1200 for hazard identification.
• Classification of the substance or mixture and their compositions.
• Pictures about GHS label elements
• Signal words informing about the danger
• Precautionary statements.
• First aid, accidental and fire-fighting measures.
• Physical and chemical properties.
• Chemical reactivity
• Transportation information.
• Precautionary statements.
• First aid, accidental and fire-fighting measures.
• Physical and chemical properties.
• Chemical reactivity
• Transportation information.

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Emergency response
• CSB recommended few safety measures for Airgas on
manufacturing and shipment aspects ("Report: Airgas Could
Have Done More To Prevent Fatal Fla. Explosion", 2016).
• As per the CSB report, Airgas started modifying its equipment
and safety pattern as per the CSB guidelines.
• The factory will remain closed untill the time management
gets a clean chit about the safety and clean environment of the
area

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Impact of nitrous oxide on
environment and human health
• Nitrous oxide has high global warming potential and it is the
third most important greenhouse gas in the UK.
• Absorptions of a high amount of Nitrous oxide in a confined
space can cause vertigo, nausea and unconsciousness and in
the long run mental imbalances

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Opinion on the response to the incident
• Unavailability of proper safety management plan to run the plant.
• As per the guidelines of the International Harmonization Council, Nitrous
oxide transfer pumps must have an interlock to avoid dry running, which
did not work for the pump used in this case.
• There was no self-limiting heat device available with the accident causing
pump (Asiaiga.org, 2016).
• Filling the filtration strainer with steel wool might have contributed to the
blast.
• Airgas did not estimate safer design options that could have eliminated the
need for the pump.
• The company did not perform an investigation before installing the pump
to mitigate risk relating to hazard.

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References:
Asiaiga.org. (2016). Safe practi es for storage and handling nitrous oxide. [online] Available at:
http://www.asiaiga.org/uploaded_docs/AIGA%20081_13%20Safe%20practices%20for%20storage%20and%20handlin
g%20of%20nitrous%20oxide.pdf
.
Boiano, J. M., Steege, A. L., & Sweeney, M. H. (2017). Exposure control practices for administering nitrous oxide: A survey
of dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants. Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene, 14(6), 409-416.
Data Sheet. (2017). Retrieved 6 January 2020, from http://alsafetydatasheets.com/download/se/Dinitrogenoxid-SE_ENG.pdf
Hakeem, K. R., Sabir, M., Ozturk, M., Akhtar, M. S., Ibrahim, F. H., Ashraf, M., & Ahmad, M. S. A. (2016). Nitrate and
nitrogen oxides: sources, health effects and their remediation. In Reviews of environmental contamination and
toxicology (pp. 183-217). Springer, Cham.
Healy, R. (2017). Causes of Airgas plant explosion revealed. Retrieved 6 January 2020, from
https://www.gasworld.com/causes-of-airgas-plant-explosion-revealed/2012670.article
Investigations | CSB. (2016). Retrieved 6 January 2020, from http://www.csb.gov/investigations
Report: Airgas Could Have Done More To Prevent Fatal Fla. Explosion. (2017)Retrieved 6 January 2020, from
https://www.inddist.com/home/news/13773938/report-airgas-could-have-done-more-to-prevent-fatal-fla-explosion
Report: Lacking safety measures led to fatal Airgas blast. (2016). Retrieved 6 January 2020, from
https://www.pnj.com/story/news/2017/04/20/report-poor-safety-measures-led-fatal-cantonment-blast/100658756/
Zaffina, S., Lembo, M., Gilardi, F., Bussu, A., Pattavina, F., Tucci, M. G., ... & Camisa, V. (2019). Nitrous oxide occupational
exposure in conscious sedation procedures in dental ambulatories: a pilot retrospective observational study in an Italian
pediatric hospital. BMC anesthesiology, 19(1), 42.

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