Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Process Safety Management, Inherently Safer Design Included in CSB Recommendations for DuPont La Porte Incident

CSB
In response to the 2014 fatal incident involving the toxic chemical release at the DuPont La Porte, TX, facility, CSB released an interim recommendations report. The chemical release occurred on Nov. 15, 2014, when nearly 24,000 lb of methyl mercaptan was released inside the Lannate manufacturing building at the DuPont facility. Four employees died from asphyxia and acute exposure to toxic chemicals.

The recommendations include numerous suggestions DuPont should take into consideration to ensure the safe environment of the manufacturing operations. Some of these recommendations include performing a robust process hazard analyses to identify and control the hazards; conducting an inherently safer design review, detail the analysis, finding and corrective actions and make the report available to employees, representatives and CSB; and ensuring the manufacturing building is safe for workers by conducting a “robust” evaluation of the building and dilution air ventilation systems.

To view the complete CSB report, visit CSB’s website.