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This battery
room incident occurred during a facility "Open House" event. Families,
including children of any age, were invited to attend. A father who worked
at this facility took his whole family to see where he worked. Part of
this family's tour included visiting the battery room. No special safety
precautions were planned for or taken since "Nothing was going on."
The incident
occurred while the family was in the battery room. They had nothing to do
with the cause of the incident. A release of 40% concentration battery
acid from the battery system in this room resulted in 9% of the young
toddler's body being burned. The father had 18% of his body burned. The
burns were primarily on the head and shoulder areas. In addition, the
toddler was placed on life support due to inhalation of the acid mist also
present in the mishap. The father is now "medically retired" and the son,
having already gone through 14 surgical procedures, has another 40 to 50
to go.
Even though we
have had laws and regulations on the books addressing battery safety and
health issues for years, I would like to make the following personal
observations.
There are still many larger battery rooms
where the batteries are stacked more than two high (above your head)
even though I understand OSHA does not permit hazardous liquid storage
at these heights.
Less than 5% of the battery installations have any form of spill
management system. Without a spill management system in place, I am at a
loss as to how there could ever be a reasonable and prudent hazardous
materials emergency management plan. I do not see how these
installations can conform to the law.
There are many substantial size battery systems (well above any
exemption amount) installed over the three (3) story limit set by the
fire code for hazardous materials. These requirements have been the law
for over two decades.
Emergency battery disconnects are nonexistent or placed in the same
cabinet as the batteries. The placement of the disconnect in the battery
cabinet poses grave concern since, during abnormal operation, the
hydrogen gas being generated by the batteries can be ignited by the
electric arc generated in the activated disconnection device.
OSHA required showers and eyewash stations, in many actual
installations, tend to be hard to find due to their location (if they
are installed) in an emergency.
There is lack of proper warning signs and/or adequate hazard warning
information in well over 90% of the installations.
Most "sealed maintenance free" battery system installations have
inadequate provisions to protect against thermal runaway and their
serious consequences.
NOTE
FROM THE WEBMASTER: This article was published by the Fire
Department Safety Officers Association (FDSOA) in their October 1998 issue
of "Health & Safety for Fire and Emergency Service Personnel" and is
posted here with their permission. For additional information on FDSOA,
please visit their home page at:
http://www.fdsoa.org/ |
