About Author :- Mr. Rakesh Chaturvedi Presently working as Deputy General Manager Fire Services in Essar steel India limited, Hazira, Surat, Gujarat and having 19 years of working experience in various industries, like Reliance Refinery Division, Jamnagar, Oil and Natural Gas corporation limited, Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited & Hindustan Zinc limited, Udaipur . He is a Science Graduate, Grad- I (IFE India ), ADIS, Diploma in Industrial Safety, Station Fire officer Course, Gold Medalist in Chemical Disaster Management course from National Civil Defence College , Nagpur & incident command System (Netherland facility flack risk ). His many technical Paper and article published in international &National Level Magazine, Fire engineer (IFE India New Delhi) & industrial Safety review Magazine. He has been awarded by union cabinet environment minister Mr. Ganpat Vasava for his valiant role in establishing incident command system and commendable firefighting operation major fire incident on 5 JAN 2013 at IOCL Hazira terminal
The chemical Safety Management is very vast, critical & important subject not only to producing, handling, storage industries and transportation of these hazardous chemical is a big hazard to workers and community & Emergency Response Services like Fire, Medical, Police in the event of incidentally released, road accident of chemical bulk carrier or terrorist attacks.
Precious lives are lost each day, week, month and year due to industrial Chemical incident, disaster, fire & explosion. The month of December is a grim reminder of worst industrial chemical disaster, which occurred on 03.12.1984 early morning known as “BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY”. Which tolled estimate 8,000 Number of lives within two weeks, total 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely & permanently disabling injuries due to exposure of deadly toxic Methyl Isocyanides (MIC) gas and other chemicals.
On 12 Aug 2015 two massive explosions took place at port of Tianjin, Northern China which killed more than a hundred people including fire fighters & left hundreds more injured and devastated large areas of the city. Before the explosions, several firefighters were already at the scene trying to control a blaze. There have been possibilities that water sprayed on some of the chemicals could have led to the blasts.
The various hazardous and flammable chemicals, including calcium carbide, sodium cyanide, potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate and sodium nitrate were stored in warehouses of the port. The Calcium carbide, known to be at the site, reacts with water to create the highly explosive acetylene gas, chemical experts suggest an acetylene blast could then have detonated the other chemicals for a much larger blast.
Analysis of industrial chemical disasters has shown clearly that these are not simply a consequence of direct technical failure or operator tasks which were carried out incorrectly. The other contributory factors which are liable to cause such chemical disasters are lack of hazards communication programme, no awareness & training to associates, employees, community and of course poor operational & administrative controls. Rehearsal of Emergency action plans get little attention/priority.
However, Essar Steel India limited, Hazira which is world largest integrated steel plant at single location is equipped with safe technology and robust layer of protection. The hazard communication programme, training and frequent mock drill rehearsals very sound Fire Safe system but chances of chemical incidents cannot be rule out.
We are handling various chemicals like Calcium Carbides, Magnesium, Acids, Alkalies, Ethyl alcohol, Acetone, Toxic & Explosive gases like Anhydrous Ammonia/Acetylene/Carbon Monoxide/Hydrogen Sulphide/Hydrogen/Corex gas etc. These chemical & gases have high potential to cause injury due to their incidental release or malfunctioning of equipment.
As a proactive approach and to avoid any chemical incidents, explosion & fire at Essar Steel India ltd, Hazira. The Fire Services of EStIL has observed the month of December as Chemical Safety Awareness Campaign Month by knowledge at your door step concept at shops floor. The event was very successful due to support of top management, leaders & associates & employees positive participation, total 500 numbers of associates and employees participated in various shops like Hot briquette Iron, CSP & Pipe Mills, Captive Power plant, Steel Melting shops, Hot rolling and Cold rolling Mills & Utilities.
The contents of Chemical Safety Awareness campaign :-
- Display of chemicals, neutralizing agents, portable gas monitors, brass maintenance tools, spark arrestor and importance of earthing & bonding for the fire safety of flammable gas maintenance activity.
- Learning from various case studies like Bhopal gas tragedy, China port explosion, Dilute Acetylene gas cylinder loading and unloading safety, recent chemical incidents in confined space entry at Bharuch industrial belt.
- Awareness for chemicals behaviours and importance of safe storage and handling of chemicals and toxic& explosives gases.
- Safe storage, transportation, handling of various chemicals & layer of protection in respective plants of EStIL, Hazira.
- Confine Space entry safety.
- Chemical Hazards communication as per NFPA – 704
- Knowledge on Material Safety Data Sheet
- Practical demonstration of reactive chemicals with chemical reactions
- Coding and decoding of HAZCHEM code for transportation of hazardous chemicals and safe mitigation of emergency.
- Leak detection, monitoring devices like portable & fixed gas detectors.
- Personnel Protective Equipment like chemical handling suits A,B & C types, respiratory protection like self-contained breathing apparatus and respirators
- Emergency Action Plan for safe mitigation
- Safe disposal of hazardous chemicals
- Download android mobile application “WISER” Wireless information services for Emergency responder in employees' mobiles to get immediate hazard &emergency action plan.
WISER is a system designed to assist emergency responders in hazardous material incidents. WISER provides a wide range of information on hazardous substances, including substance identification support, physical characteristics, and human health information, and containment and suppression advice.