This page provides a live-time summary of our incident reporting for the current 2023 calendar year and is updated on a quarterly basis. On an annual basis, we combine all the incidents into an annual report summarizing the materials, industries and equipment involved in explosions around the world.
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How many Combustible Dust Explosions have happened around the world so far in 2023?
Between January 1st, 2023, and July 1st, 2023 the Dust Safety Science team has recorded 159 Fires, 32 Explosions, 71 Injuries and 48 Fatalities related to combustible dust around the world. You can see the tracking on a month-by-month basis in the image below.
We have been recording combustible dust incidents as part of DustSafetyScience.com since 2016. The following table compares the number of incidents, injuries and fatalities entered into the database between 2017 and 2021.
How Many Combustible Dust Explosions Happen in the United States Each Year?
Loss history from dust explosions in the United States over the last eight years is given in the following table. This data has been collected in the incident database and reported in the combustible dust incident reports, from 2016 to 2023.
This data gives an average of 28.4 combustible dust explosions per year, 28 injuries and 3.5 fatalities over the last eight years. Note that dust fires are excluded in this analysis.
Also note that several of the US incidents in 2023 are currently under review including the explosions in West Reading, Pennsylvania and Bedford, Ohio, which resulted in a combined 11 fatalities and 20 injuries. We will update the table above once more information becomes available for these incidents.
2023 Global Loss Overview
In 2023, The largest fatal Combustible Dust Explosion occurred on March 14, 2023, in Sutatausa, Cundinamarca, Colombia, resulting in 21 Fatalities, which accounted for 44% of the fatalities: 21 Miners Killed in Combustible Dust, Coal Explosion (Sutatausa, Cundinamarca, Colombia)
On 1 January, 1, 2023 a Dust Explosion, at Jindal Poly Films, had a Boiler explosion, and had 17 injuries. This incident resulted in 24% of all total, combustible dust injuries: 17 Workers Injured during Combustible Dust Boiler Explosion (Nashik, India)
Some of the more severe incidents include:
- Eleven People Killed in Wooden Door Factory Fire (Wuyi County, China)
- Seven Killed and 10 Injured in Pennsylvania Chocolate Factory Combustible Dust Explosion (West Reading, Pennsylvania)
- Fatal Explosion at Sugar Factory in Tanzania Leaves Two Employees Dead (Morogoro, Morogoro, Tanzania)
- Combustible Dust Explosion Impacts Household Products Manufacturer; One Person Dead (Tsuruga City, Fukui (Japan)
What materials are most commonly involved in Combustible Dust Explosions and Combustible Dust Fires?
In the year 2023, understanding the materials most frequently implicated in dust explosions and dust fires is crucial for workplace safety. Materials like food, metals, and wood can all present significant risks if not handled properly. These materials resulted in 82% of the injuries and 52% of the fatalities.
Coal was the most deadly material, accounting for 44% of this year’s fatalities. In reviewing the global incident data, food and wood products made up 79% of the combustible dust fires and explosions recorded.
A breakdown of the fires, explosions, injuries and fatalities for each material is given as follows:
What industries are most commonly involved in Combustible Dust Explosions and Combustible Dust Fires?
In the year 2023, industries like wood processing, food production, and metal manufacturing continue to be at the forefront of combustible dust explosions and dust fires. Industries such as wood, food, and metal processing are among the most common sectors prone to combustible dust explosions and dust fires.
Understanding the risk factors associated with these industries is crucial for ensuring workplace safety. As shown in the historical data (see the full report), wood processing, wood products, agricultural activity and food production make up a large portion of the overall fire and explosion incidents. Since 2017 wood and wood products have ranged from 19% to 28% of the incidents, while agricultural activity and food production has ranged from 33% to 50%
As shown in the detailed incident breakdown, the “other” category includes pulp & paper, ethanol, high schools, and educational facilities. Industries not broken out in the detailed breakdown include rubber products, lawn products, graphite and carbon products, food packaging, pharmaceutical, residential, plastics and waste treatment.
Combined, the overall “other” category of industries makes up 19.4% of the injuries reported in 2023. Wood and wood products, agriculture and food processing, and automotive and metalworking make up 30.9%, 41.4% and 3.7% of the injuries, respectively. Mining accounted for 44% of fatalities this year. The largest fatal Combustible Dust Explosion occurred on March 14, 2023, in Sutatausa, Cundinamarca, Colombia. Dust Safety Science, provided more details on this fatal Combustible Dust Explosion incident: https://dustsafetyscience.com/coal-mine-explosion-sutatausa-colombia/
Overall, fatalities were recorded in wood and wood products, metal working, agricultural, food processing, power generation, and mining operations. See Table below for the breakdown of Combustible Dust Fires, Explosions, Injuries, and Fatalities in Industries, so far in 2023:
What Equipment is most commonly involved in Combustible Dust Explosions and Combustible Dust Fires?
In 2023, storage silos demonstrated the highest percentage of combustible dust incidents with 64 fires and 10 explosions reported, with 38.7% of the total Combustible Dust incidents with equipment. This is a higher percentage than the 2017 and 2018 reports which found that dust collection systems had the highest percentage of incidents occurring. In 2021, only 13% of the fires and explosions occurred in dust collection systems.
Of the incidents with known equipment, Storage Silos had the largest number of injuries in 2023 with 13 injuries, Other equipment had 18 injuries, and No Details had 28 Injuries.
The breakdown between fires, explosions, injuries and fatalities for different pieces of equipment are summarized the following table for 2023:
Of the incidents where equipment is known, equipment labeled “Other” made up 7% of the incidents, 25% of the injuries and 4% of the fatalities. Incidents where No Details were provided for the equipment made up 16% of the total reported. However, these No Details incidents made up 39% of the reported injuries and 96% of the reported fatalities.
Disclaimer
The contents of the incident reports are generated using publicly available news articles and resources. The data is provided for informational purposes only and is not meant as a replacement for professional guidance. Due to reliance on third-party news agencies, incomplete articles, and limited analysis methods, DustEx Research Ltd. makes no warranties or guarantees to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided.
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