Chemical Safety Board Advisory

[Guest]

This is only the third such advisory put out by the Chemical Safety Board and concerns transportation and storage of unspent chemical aircraft oxygen generators. The advisory can be found at: No. 2007-I-NC-01-SA | June 2007

One of my job duties is dealing with health and safety issues at hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDs). My state is engaged in rulemaking efforts to be better regulate commercial TSDs through engineering controls. Unspent chemical aircraft oxygen generators have been identifed as a contributing factor to the EQ fire in Apex, North Carolina. This advisory is in fact due to findings from that investigation. The storage of these unspent containers also lead to a fatal aircraft wreck (Value Jet) in south florida - the plane ended up in the Everglades.

JR

 

[Sschell]

Are the chemical oxygen generators more dangerous that storing high purity oxygen? I assume there is a great size/weight advantage to the oxygen generators?

The company I work for specializes in deployable oxygen concentration systems and mobile oxygen storage tanks. One of our products uses fiber wound brass lined cylinders to hold high purity oxygen, and is acceptable for transoprtation in Military Aircraft.

 

[Guest]

I don't think it is a matter of one is more inherently dangerous than another. The issue that has come about is the level of care taken to ensure that the generators are spent (oxygen discharged) prior to shipment/disposal.

In the case of the EQ fire, there were unspent generators that still had the activation pins engaged co-located with other incompatible materials. When the fire was initiated those generators provided a ready, rapid release of oxygen to help fuel the fire. While those generators were not the cause of the fire, they certainly increased the activity of the fire and aided in the rapid spread throughout the Apex, NC facility. A similar incident occured with ValueJet - the generators were stored with the activation pins engaged (e.g. unspent) and they came into contact with an ignition source.

So the real issue becomes awareness of the problem - proper identification of the status of these generators and proper storage (segregation) during transport, storage, and final disposal. The State of North Carolina is rapidly enacting legislation to provide greater oversight and protection standards for facilties like EQ in Apex. My state (Florida) has had a law in place for commercial facilities since 1996 - we have been developing engineering criteria for some time. If you are interested in this sort of thing, my Department is holding rulemaking workshops posted at Rule Under Development

JR