From: dave**At_Symbol_Here**ENDEAVOUREHS.COM
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] One killed, two injured in Wednesday morning tank explosion at Schenectady business
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2020 12:11:03 -0700
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Message-ID: 017001d66c25$54ddcc60$fe996520$**At_Symbol_Here**endeavourehs.com
In-Reply-To


I've moved my comments to the thread on this subject (thank, Jeff for the avocado video - by the way - just plain cool).

 

West, Texas was a chemical company, which knew what they were doing, in a county which can't have a fire code (per Texas law), who were deliberately non-compliant with a regulation every agricultural retailer knows well, where sabotage (arson) led to needless deaths.

 

My comments on Beirut are in the Beirut thread-

 

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU> On Behalf Of NEAL LANGERMAN
Sent: Thursday, August 6, 2020 11:21 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] One killed, two injured in Wednesday morning tank explosion at Schenectady business

 

If you consider Beirut, Tianjin, and West you have 3 companies that do not think of themselves as chemical companies. Thus, resources such as NFPA 400 or the CSB are not on their radar. 

Better management of AN requires strong leadership and oversight at the State, National, and regional levels. 

I am not optimistic. 

Sent from Neal Langerman's NEXUS 6.
Standard client confidentiality terms apply.

 

On Thu, Aug 6, 2020, 11:08 TILAK CHANDRA <0000058f112ac338-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**lists.princeton.edu> wrote:

I totally agree with Neal. I believe we can reduce the occurrence of these catastrophic incidents by implementing the following steps:

 

  1. Accountability.
  2. Resources/budget for safety/ equipment etc.
  3. Enforcement and good legal and judiciary system
  4. Good process safety management.
  5. Good organizational Safety culture (Training, inspections, corrections, improvements, etc..

 

The following links will provide you information about the process safety and about the lessons learned.

 

Lessons from Bhopal:https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/cen-v064n046..p039

 

Ten years later Bhopal: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/cen-v072n051..p008

 

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.chas.8b18517

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.chas.8b20117

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/cen-09218-govpol1

 

My two cents. Good luck.

Best,

 

Tilak

 


From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU> on behalf of neal**At_Symbol_Here**CHEMICAL-SAFETY.COM <neal**At_Symbol_Here**CHEMICAL-SAFETY.COM>
Sent: Thursday, August 6, 2020 11:59 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] One killed, two injured in Wednesday morning tank explosion at Schenectady business

 

It will occur again. 

Sent from Neal Langerman's NEXUS 6.
Standard client confidentiality terms apply.

 

On Thu, Aug 6, 2020, 09:25 Hmuns Jasha <hmunsjasha**At_Symbol_Here**gmail.com> wrote:

Hello all, 

 

Will Beirut's explosion in Lebanon bring more accountability for the Governments around the world on how explosive Chemicals storage, safety and locations?  

 

Should this similar incidents be avoided or will it occur again? 

 

Regards, 

Hmunshel Jasha 

India 

 

On Thu, Aug 6, 2020, 7:47 PM DCHAS Membership Chair <membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org> wrote:

https://dailygazette.com/article/2020/08/05/three-injured-in-wednesday-morning-tank-explosion-at-schenectady-business

SCHENECTADY - One person was killed and two injured following an explosion at a test laboratory in Schenectady on Wednesday morning.

Hudson Valley Community College identified the victim as Joseph Kapp, a longtime member of its Board of Trustees.

Kapp, of North Greenbush, was killed after a tank used to treat avocados exploded at Innovative Test Solutions on Kings Road shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Roger Ramsammy, president of Hudson Valley Community College, called Kapp a "true friend, a remarkable leader and the longest serving trustee on our board."

"Once a student at Hudson Valley, Joe gave back to the college immensely and served admirably as a trustee for two decades," Ramsammy said. "With heavy hearts, we share our deepest sympathies with Joe's wife, Yolanta, and the entire Kapp family."

Kapp previously served as mayor of Rensselaer in the 1990s, according to Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, who cited his long career in research and invention.

"Joe Kapp leaves behind a legacy of service and accomplishment that greatly benefited Rensselaer County and the Capital Region," McLaughlin said in a statement.

Kapp was transferred to Ellis Medicine before succumbing to his injuries.

Two other workers were also hurt with injuries described by city fire officials as non life-threatening.

R. Scott Briody, vice president and owner of Innovative Test Solutions, attributed the death to the "catastrophic failure" of a high pressure food processor during trial operational testing.

Arriving firefighters found no chemicals or hazardous materials, but Assistant Fire Department Chief Don Mareno said the device exploded.

"They were operating it and something went wrong," Mareno said.

Nothing was in the machine at the time, he said.

"We are deeply saddened by this loss of life," Briody said in a statement. "We grieve for him, his family, and the family of the other victims who were involved."

Briody declined further comment, citing respect for impacted families and employees, but said the company will cooperate with all investigations.

"The well-being of the families and our employees is our primary concern," Briody said.

The tank exploded just after 7 a.m. at the business located at 551 Kings Road in the city's Woodlawn neighborhood.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration launched an inspection of Innovative Test Systems on Wednesday, as well as the Wyantsville-based Elmhurst Systems, LLC, an agency spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday.

The federal agency has up to six months to complete an inspection, which seeks to determine whether or not there were any violations of workplace safety standards.

It is too early to estimate a completion date for these inspections, the spokesperson said.

Investigators remained on site Wednesday afternoon.

Innovative Test Solutions has been at the Kings Road site since 2011. It was founded in Scotia in 2004 and its website describes it as a "full-service mechanical engineering and testing laboratory specializing in the mechanical behavior of structures and structural material."

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