CASE STUDY #2 INSTRUCTIONS: Students should read the scenario below and respond in the form of an essay, which

should consist of several paragraphs and appropriate priority or task lists. Responses should be supported fully and completely. A well-thought-out response can be accomplished in 300-500 words (one or two pages, double spaced). Any published material used to support a response should be cited per the APA style guidelines. SCENARIO: You are back at your plant the Monday after the Dangerous When Wet leaking tanker incident happened, and you are telling your fellow HazMat Team Coordinator how you handled the situation. Before he has a chance to offer his opinion, a call comes in over your radio that a forklift has punctured a 55 gallon drum at the door between the oxidizer storage area and the production department. There is a spill, and no one is injured; however, the production employee does not know what was spilled. You make an immediate page to all emergency response team members in the area, and then you head out the door to the scene with your fellow HazMat Team Coordinator (the production department chief engineer). While en route to the scene, you call the plant manager and apprise her of what you know and that you will report back as soon as you have more information. The incident command center can either be the production office or the conference room near the plant manager's office. In this case, your first choice is the production office. The storage area building has multiple storage bays for oxidizers, flammables, acids, and bases. When you arrive near the scene, you find the punctured drum on its side against a pallet of three other drums and a very small fuming cloud of vapor developing from the area, but you cannot tell its exact point of origin. It turns out that the drums are just inside the storage area building. You can see that the drums on the pallet have flammable labels. The fourth flammable drum has been knocked off the pallet and is also lying on its side next to the punctured drum. The punctured drum has not been identified at this point it is a strong oxidizer, strong acid, or strong base raw material. How do you proceed? To proceed I would obtain the necessary document that contained the total amount of chemical in the site which would include their type of hazard, flammable , acid or base, exact location and number of drums of each chemical.

Stanley Njoku Case Study II March 12, 2012

What information are you after, how do you gather it, this information would collected from the storage of shift supervisor nor manager's office and what instructions do you provide for your team? I will develop plans to handle anticipated emergencies prior to the commencement of emergency response operations make it available for inspection and present a copy to the manager and supervisor. I will evacuate all the employees from the workplace and will not permit any of the employees to assist in handling the emergency except my Hazmat team in accordance with CFR 1910.38(a). I would develop an emergency response plan for emergencies which will address as a minimum requirement in an emergency situation as follows; i. Pre-emergency planning and coordination with outside parties. ii. Personnel roles, lines of authority, training, and communication. iii. Emergency recognition and prevention. iv. Safe distances and places of refuge. v. Site security and control. vi. Evacuation routes and procedures. vii. Decontamination. viii. Emergency medical treatment and first aid.

ix. Emergency alerting and response procedures.

x. Critique of response and follow-up xi. PPE and emergency equipment. I will communicate, coordinate, and control in cohesion with the manager or supervisor in charge of shift to assist in providing information about the chemical in the site. I will use all hazardous substances or conditions present and shall address as appropriate site analysis making use of engineering controls, maximum exposure limits, hazardous substance handling procedures, and use of any new technologies based on hazardous substances and /or conditions present. I will assure that the personal protective equipment worn is appropriate for the hazards to be encountered and make sure that PPE is met, at a minimum, the criteria contained in 29 CFR 1910.156(e) when worn while performing fire fighting operations beyond the incipient stage for any incident or site. I will make sure that the Employees engaged in emergency response and exposed to hazardous substances presenting an inhalation hazard or potential inhalation hazard shall wear positive pressure self-contained breathing apparatus while engaged in emergency response, until such time that the individual in charge of the ICS determines through the use of air monitoring that a decreased level of respiratory protection will not result in hazardous exposures to employees. What hazardous situations are you and your team facing? My team and I would be facing multiple storage bays for oxidizers, flammables, acids, and bases which can pose serious danger. To define the primary hazard associated with flammable liquids is their ability to readily ignite and burn. It can ignite and start a fire. Store oxidizers away from flammables, organic compounds and combustible materials. Strong oxidizing agents like chronic acid to avoid reaction vessels containing oxidizing material to prevent heated and possibly ignite flames.

Flash point - The lowest temperature at which a liquid gives off vapor to form an air-vapor mixture that will ignite, but will not sustain ignition. Many commonly used flammable liquids have flashpoints significantly lower than room temperature What advice would you give to any other individuals coming upon the scene? I will advise other individuals not to come upon the scene due to chemical exposure. Do you call for an evacuation of any, or all, of the plant itself? There are approximately 180 employees currently on site during this first shift located in different areas around the plant (i.e., administrative offices, shipping and receiving, raw material bulk chemical storage, finished product bulk chemical storage, production operations, packaging operations, labs, and production/engineering offices). The situation can be considered as an extremely dangerous due to type of chemical substance that were involved. It was completely overwhelmed the type safety hazards. You need to answer the question whether you will call for an evacuation or not and what kind of evacuation? REFERENCE Meyer, E. (2010). Chemistry of hazardous materials (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc. Timberlake Karen , C. (2003). General, oragnic and biological chemistry. (Platinum ed., p. 631). Pearson Education Inc. U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts182.html
OSHA. (n.d.). (1910). Retrieved from website: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_id=9756&p_table=STANDARDS http://www.chemicalspill.org/ChemicalsWorkPlace/response.html http://www.utexas.edu/safety/ehs/lab/manual/5_procedures.html