The Nautical Institute has shared some lessons learned from an incident that involved a corroded fire extinguisher, which had been condemned and subsequently its malfunction proved fatal.
A handheld cartridge-type dry chemical powder fire extinguisher was condemned during an annual third-party inspection due to corrosion. It was subsequently discharged, essentially for demonstration purposes. When the internal carbon dioxide cartridge was activated to pressurise the fire extinguisher, the unit ruptured at the base. The person activating the extinguisher was struck in the head by pieces of flying metal which proved to be fatal. Continue reading “Condemned fire extinguisher must be discarded”
Aluminium phosphide, the precursor compound from which phosphine gas is generated, is available in different forms and can be supplied in aluminium bottles as tablets of about 3g each or as pellets of about 1g. Alternatively it can be supplied in fabric ‘socks’ or strips of cojoined paper sachets which enable the fumigant residues to be easily removed in the situation where it is undesirable to have fumigation residue remaining in the cargo. Generally, and as a rule of thumb, Degesch state that one 3g tablet of aluminium phosphide formulation will generate about 1g of phosphine gas.
As part of this project, the two partners, The European Community Shipowners’ Association (
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (
New Zealand port safety has taken an important step forward when employers, unions, the Port Industry Association and government regulators, working together as the Port Health and Safety Leadership Group, published detailed new guidelines for setting up a fatigue risk management system.
The risks posed by poor conditions of storage of this common compound, which is used extensively in the Fertilisers and Explosives industries, have been well documented but awareness of the dangers of fire during transportation by sea is less well known. The objective of this guide, entitled ‘Ammonium Nitrate Fire Risk on Board Ships’ is to outline best practice with respect to the management of risk on vessels chartered to ship the compound through ports around the world.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (
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