Short Takes – 10-26-23

Cargo Tank Combination Vehicle Roadway Departure Crash and Subsequent Release of Anhydrous Ammonia. NTSB.gov Investigation Details. Pull quote: “The driver of the combination vehicle stated that to prevent a collision between the westbound passenger vehicle and the oncoming eastbound vehicle, he took evasive action by steering to the right. The combination vehicle departed the roadway and traveled into a shallow roadside drainage ditch. The truck-tractor struck the end of a 12-inch-diameter corrugated metal pipe culvert installed beneath a field entrance, and the combination vehicle jackknifed and rolled onto its right side with its cargo tank sliding forward. The exposed front end of the cargo tank struck the tow ring of a utility trailer that had been parked adjacent to the roadway on private property. The tow ring punctured the front of the cargo tank, which led to the release of anhydrous ammonia into the atmosphere as a toxic gas in the form of a white cloud.”

Pharmaceutical Production: Lessons Learned from a serious Flash Fire Incident and its Investigation. StoneHouseSafety.com article. Pull quote: “So, it was convincingly demonstrated that the sieving operation in question does generate substantial static electricity in practice, exactly as predicted by the laboratory testing. We also know that in a scenario in which the bin is not grounded, charge will rapidly build up, and within a minute or so the bin would acquire sufficient charge to generate the 15mJ electrostatic spark required to ignite the dispersed dust. We also know that part way through sieving, the bin could rock towards the grounded sieve body and close a gap in which, given the ad-hoc draped plastic dust sheet, there is likely to be a dense airborne dust cloud.”

Can we Afford the Risk? Measuring the cost of the Expiration of the Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards Program. CISA.gov blog post. Pull quote: “High-risk chemical facilities are not evenly distributed across the country. Nor are they distributed uniformly across a state, or even within a single county. And far from what you might expect, they are not always isolated to the outskirts of well-populated areas. Of the over 3,200 facilities that CISA had determined to be at high risk of chemical terrorism, twenty-eight percent of them are located in the largest urban areas in the country. Over 7,000 schools, colleges, or universities stand within one mile of a high-risk facility. The same is true for over 300 hospitals. A terrorist incident at any one of these facilities could impact our most vulnerable citizens, along with their families, coworkers, and the surrounding community.”

Speaker Johnson’s paradoxical job security. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “The health and lifespan of his Speakership may vary inversely with his own outspokenness on the issues. As we’ve see time and time again, Republican intransigence in dealing with Democrats has bled into their own intramural policy disputes. If and when Johnson comes down forcefully on either side of a current policy battle among Republicans — be it arming Ukraine, raising the debt ceiling or supporting a particular candidate for the GOP presidential nomination — he will engender more and more resentment from colleagues on his side of the aisle.”