Reactive Chemical Incidents, What Does Existing Data Tell Us?

Abstract

On April 18, 1998, a runaway reaction initiated a sequence of events that led to an explosion and fire at the Morton International Plant in Patterson, New Jersey. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's (CSB) investigation of the Morton incident, one in a series of recent reactive chemical incidents, increased concerns regarding reactive chemical hazards. To better understand the nature and causes of such incidents, many stakeholders requested that the Board pursue a more generic and systemic analysis of the safety problems presented by reactive chemicals. As a result, CSB decided to conduct a hazard investigation that will review and evaluate historical trends involving reactive chemical incidents and examine industry preventative practices. To accomplish the first of these two objectives, CSB is currently developing a database of reactive chemical incidents. This paper presents the lessons learned during development of the database, as well as the findings from analysis of incident data. The paper discusses the following areas: • Current practices for incident reporting and tracking as related to reactive chemical incidents and near misses. • Data accuracy. • Data source access limitations. • Impact of reactive chemical incidents. • Observable trends within the past 10 to 20 years with regard to reactive chemical incidents. • Common chemicals involved or classes of chemicals (e.g., polymerizing, decomposing, organic peroxides). • Common industries or processes (e.g., phenol formaldehyde resins, ABS resins, polyolefins, urethanes, acrylic resins, hazardous chemical recycling, nitration, sulfonations). • Common equipment (e.g., batch reaction systems, fixed storage vessels, drums, transfer piping, ventilation systems, heat exchangers). • Common causes (both immediate and underlying, where known). • Regulatory coverage. • NFPA reactivity ratings for chemicals. • Overall comparison/contrast of the reactive chemical problem as evidenced by domestic and international incidents. • Future needs for reactive chemical process safety.