OSHA Inspection: SIGMA CHEMICAL CO.

Issued

Jan 29, 2003

Abate by

Feb 6, 2003

Penalty

Initial $4,500

General-duty citation text

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970:  The
employer did not
furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from
recognized hazards
that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to
employees in that
employees were exposed to:
a/ Employees were exposed to the potential of a flash fire when batch
operations were run
where there was a potential for flammable materials to be present at or
above the lower
explosive limit.
One feasible and acceptable means to correct this condition would be to
seal openings
to the environment including man-way ports, pull samples as needed from a
sampling
port instead of opening the reactor, and to cover the reaction with a
nitrogen blanket.
Another feasible and acceptable means to correct this condition would be
to
follow the
NFPA guidelines for batch reactor risk assessment and controlling batch
reactions as
found in the Fire Protection Handbook, latest addition.
DISCLAIMER:
a)  The employer is not limited to the abatement method(s) suggested by
OSHA.
b)  The employer is responsible for selecting and implementing an
effective abatement
method.
THIS ITEM REQUIRES A WRITTEN CERTIFICATION OF ABATEMENT.ION