Reminds me of the inadvertent backflow of Nitrous Oxide into a cylinder of Silane by a user in California that ultimately resulted in a catastrophic and fatal cylinder detonation at an analytical laboratory in NJ some 3-4 decades ago. Hard to believe that the contaminated cylinder was shipped across country for evaluation at the lab without incident.

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 12, 2024, at 2:04 PM, Jonathan Klane <jklane1**At_Symbol_Here**asu.edu> wrote:



Rhetorical or not, here's how it can be done.

I just did a search for "vape shops in Davis, California" - a locale both Debbie and I know.  DuckDuckGo gave me many hits including Yelp which gave me more and both provided addresses and maps to make it easy. 

An administrative person could then compile the list.  The Fire Marshall or AHJ could draft a letter inquiring on the shop's quantity on hand relative to the max allowable quantity (MAQ), their controls, etc.  

The addresses and map will facilitate determining their zoning and building use allowed (e.g., only mercantile and not commercial, same as this tragedy was).  The letter can mention this incident, link to it, and highlight the legal and other problems for the shop owners. ATF involvement should get folks' attention.

If that letter doesn't get a response within x days, then a follow up letter can go out.  If that doesn't get a reply, then an onsite inspection can be done. 

If I were an AHJ (and thankfully I'm not!), and I saw this incident, I'd start a process like the above to figure out how bad it might be in my jurisdiction.

Hope this helps.

All my non-vaping best,

Jon

Jonathan Klane, M.S.Ed., CIH, CSP, CHMM, CIT

Senior Safety Editor, Lab Manager Magazine

PhD candidate, Human + Social Dimensions of Science + Technology

College of Global Futures

School for the Future of Innovation in Society

On Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 10:14 AM Debbie Decker <debbie.m.decker**At_Symbol_Here**gmail.com> wrote:

Holy crap on a cracker!  The article was really informative.

How would a municipality be able to discover this behavior if they don't have the resources to inspect regularly? Or if the business is operating outside of their permit  - which it sounds like they were - and not subject to fire code inspections based on their permit?

This is all rhetorical. Sounds like there's really not much to be done proactively.

Debbie M. Decker (she/her/hers), ACS Fellow
Chemical & Laboratory Safety Manager (ret.)
debbie.m.decker**At_Symbol_Here**gmail.com
(916)616-7548

On Tue, Mar 12, 2024, 8:02 AM Craig Merlic <merlic**At_Symbol_Here**chem.ucla.edu> wrote:

DCHAS,

 

A dramatic example of why you don’t store gas cylinders of oxidizers and fuel together with an ignition source. 

 

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/macomb/2024/03/05/clinton-township-fire-explosion-butane-nitrous/72851330007/ 

 

A surprisingly informative article .

 

Best,

Craig

 

Craig A. Merlic

Professor of Chemistry, UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Executive Director, UC Center for Laboratory Safety

http://cls.ucla.edu

Los Angeles, CA  90095-1569

 

 

 

 

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