How big is the combustible dust problem around the world?
Although my PhD thesis focused on scientific research into dust and hybrid mixture explosion, this more practical question of lives touched by combustible dust incidents has always loomed in the back of my mind.
In the opening of my thesis, I listed sources reporting over 2000 incidents, 4000 injuries, and 1000 fatalities around the world since the start of the 20th century: 1404 explosions in North America (1900 – 2005), 269 explosions in Japan (1952 – 1995), 357 explosions in Germany (1965 – 1980), 984 fires and explosions in the United Kingdom (1958 – 1988), and 72 explosions in China (1981 – 2011).
Finding these incidents proved quite difficult as the data is scattered across textbooks, government reports, reports by standardized bodies, and articles from scientific journals. Each of these sources, in turn, referenced dozens, if not hundreds, of other sources for their information.
The dispersed nature of information around combustible dust hazards is just one of the challenges facing our community. Other challenges include lack of general awareness of the hazards, limited generation of knowledge from past incidents, effective communication between stakeholders, and a lack of advocacy to influence change across the globe.
Our purpose at DustEx Research Ltd. and DustSafetyScience.com is to tackle these challenges one-by-one. We are looking to provide a platform for the powder safety community to learn, discuss, educate and work towards reducing loss in these industries. The semi-annual incident reporting gives our community a chance to check-in on our progress and to measure the effectiveness of global safety programs. It also provides a tool that we can use to measure and manage our success moving forward.
As always, I appreciate your readership, your support, and your help to spread the word about combustible dust safety. In these exciting times, I look forward to seeing what we can achieve together as we move into the second half of 2018 and beyond.
All the best,
Chris
P.S. Have feedback on the incident reporting? Email me at [email protected]
Download the 2018 Mid-Year Combustible Dust Incident Report