Photo: Chemical Safety Board
Washington — Chemical facility operators should evaluate and control hazards related to storing hazardous chemicals “even in the absence of regulatory requirements for risk assessments,” the Chemical Safety Board advises in a new report.
The final report details a September 2024 incident involving a series of nonfatal fires at the KIK Consumer Products Bio-Lab plant in Conyers, GA.
Agency investigators found that plant workers stored more than twice the amount of reactive chemicals as first intended. Oxidizers reacted with fuel and heat to ignite a fire that also triggered a “massive plume of toxic smoke,” the board says.
CSB reports that chemicals were stored in “super sacks” – large bulk bags holding about 2,750 pounds – arranged in multiple piles within racks. The oxidizers were kept near other dry chemicals and not segregated. Various chemicals were stored outside the facility firewall.
In total, the facility had nearly 14 million pounds of chemicals in storage at the time of the incident.
To prevent similar incidents, CSB is renewing its call on OSHA to amend its standard on process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals (1910.119) to achieve more comprehensive control of reactive hazards that could have catastrophic consequences.
Further, CSB reiterates a recommendation to the Environmental Protection Agency to revise accidental release prevention requirements to explicitly cover catastrophic reactive hazards that have the potential to seriously impact the public, including those resulting from self-reactive chemicals and process-specific conditions.
Other lessons:
- Facilities that handle and store pool-treatment chemicals should be aware of their corrosive properties to ensure structures are properly designed and an appropriate sprinkler system is installed.
- Operations that involve chemicals with the potential to create a corrosive environment should implement proper safeguards – such as adequate ventilation – to reduce possible impact.
- Facilities must ensure storage layouts are unobstructed and implement continuous automated systems to detect potential safety hazards. This will help allow for effective monitoring of hazardous materials.
- Be mindful that National Fire Protection Association standards call on users to properly identify each applicable hazard classification associated with the chemicals being used and stored.
“CSB has been calling for greater regulatory coverage of reactive chemicals since 2002,” board member Sylvia Johnson said in a press release. “We urge OSHA and the EPA to expand coverage of these hazardous chemicals so that severe incidents, like the one at Bio-Lab Conyers, do not keep happening. These incidents negatively impact workers and the surrounding communities.”
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Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication