Chemistry of hazardous materials - Essay Example

Sierra Chemical Company High Explosives Accident in January 1998 Teacher               Sierra Chemical Company High Explosives Accident in January 1998The Incident and the Materials Involved The Sierra Chemical Company High Explosives Accident occurred in Mustang, Nevada on Jan. 7, 1998 and claimed four workers’ lives while injuring six others. It consisted of two explosions where the first one occurred in a room for making boosters, or small explosive devices for detonating larger explosives in mines.

The second and more powerful explosion caused the destruction of a building for drying explosives. The result was a six-foot-deep crater with dimensions of 60 feet across and 40 feet wide, caused by an explosion of a magnitude of a 2.0 earthquake and felt even as far as 20 miles away from the chemical plant (Sierra Chemical Co. High Explosives Accident, 2004). The chemicals involved in this particular explosive accident include TNT or trinitrotoluene in the first room where the initial explosion took place and where the workers were dealing with boosters, which were in fact made up of TNT.

The other chemical was PETN or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, which was present in the neighboring rooms and was actually the main chemical component of the drying explosives (Sierra Chemical Co. High Explosives Accident, 2004).Chemical Interactions of the Materials Involved The interaction of chemicals involved mainly the solidification of the base material for boosters – namely TNT and other high explosives, and their ensuing explosion that caused the explosion of the PETN in the neighboring room.

Based on the reconstruction of evidence conducted by the U. S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, apparently one worker left in the booster room around 50 to 100 pounds of base material made up of TNT and other high explosives in a pot. As no other worker or operator utilized the base material, it solidified due to the extremely low temperature on the outside. The next day, while assuming that the base material in the pot had been used, he may have turned on the motor to the agitator blades right away without checking whether the pot was empty or not.

This triggered the first explosion. The reason for this is that “the heavy mixer blade had probably become embedded in the hardened explosive” (Sierra Chemical Co. High Explosives Accident, 2004). The ensuing explosion must then have caused heavy debris to rain down on the PETN drying explosives which was 220 feet away from the building, thus causing the secondary explosion (Sierra Chemical Co. High Explosives Accident, 2004). Mitigation Required and Implemented Before the incident, the U. S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA had required that certain safety systems for hazardous chemical operations should be observed but this was violated.

Moreover, workers were not supposed to use metal tools like steel hammers and rods when dealing with explosives, but they were doing this in the plant before the explosion. Lastly, there should have been written procedures (Sierra Chemical Co. High Explosives Accident, 2004). After the accident, the CSB recommended the chemical plant to conduct comprehensive hazard analyses, management of change procedures, specific written operating procedures, periodic audits, as well as safety training and certification both for workers and for managers.

Moreover, as most of the workers of the Sierra Chemical Company were Spanish speakers, then procedures and everything else should be communicated in the language that is understood by the workers (Sierra Chemical Co. High Explosives Accident, 2004). Moreover, Sierra and other manufacturers of explosives should consider quantity-distance requirements in the preparation of explosives, building design, and the implementation of the modification of the building, changes in the explosive ingredients, equipment or procedures into safer versions.

There must also be an awareness and understanding of the various ways from which an explosion would ensue such as through impact by tools and equipment (Investigation Report, 1998).ReferencesInvestigation Report: Explosives Manufacturing Incident. (1998). Retrieved from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board: http://www.csb.gov/assets/document/Final_Sierra.pdfSierra Chemical Co. High Explosives Accident. (2004). Retrieved from the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board: http://www.csb.gov/assets/document/CSB_Sierra.pdf